Justin Reynolds - Red Tomato | Promotional Products Agency

6 Tips to Boost Your Pre-Trade Show Marketing Strategy

by Justin Reynolds | Mar 19, 2019 | Events, Marketing, Marketing Tips, Tradeshow

In the realm of B2B and many B2C marketing and branding, in-person events continue to rank among the most effective tactics. Pre-trade show marketing, however, stands as a crucial aspect of this approach.

By focusing on effective branding through merchandise, you can amplify the return on investment and strengthen your brand’s presence throughout the event lifecycle.

Without a clear and concise marketing strategy that takes into consideration pre, during and post-show activities, you’re bound to come home wondering whether your time and money were worth it. Here are 6 tips to boost your pre-trade show marketing strategy.

1. Plan well in Advance

Most times, companies select the trade shows they’ll be attending far in advance, especially when there are registration deadlines. However, too many times they’ll register and then just forget about it until last minute. Others might just do both things last minute, even worse.

Either way, to do trade shows right, it’s imperative to plan as far in advance as possible. Make it part of your overall marketing strategy to carefully select the trade shows that best fit your goals (discussed next) and then plan a marketing campaign that is specific to each trade show.

This will require setting budgets, timeframes, staff, communication channels, and other resources that’ll ensure you get the most out of the experience.

2. Determine Your Goals now

Generating buzz? Raising awareness? Launching a new product or service? Reaching a sales target? Generating leads? Capture contacts? What are you looking to accomplish at the tradeshow?

Whatever your goals are, you have to make sure they contribute to your overall marketing and sales strategies/goals. Why? Because everything you do related to the show should connect back to accomplishing your objectives, both for the event itself and for your brand in general.

Don’t forget to make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

3. Spread the Word

Start generating buzz as soon as possible. Some of the ways to do this include:

Host a webinar as a countdown to the show
Post on social media
Email your contacts
Publish blog posts

These tactics can cover subjects related to the trade show like:

Speakers not to miss
Sessions to attend
Breakout sessions that employees are leading
What you’re featuring at the show
Other important event info

You can also personally invite prospects and customers to meet you at the event. Give them a good reason to come to your booth and entice them with a pre-show promo product that gives them access to some sort of promotion, free consultation, etc.

4. Develop an Engagement Plan

While good engagement should be part of the event itself by having staff that actively participate, start your engagement before the actual show.

Contests, promotions, giveaways and other creative methods are bound to attract people to the show. But make sure these tactics are more than just marketing gimmicks. Give them careful thought and consideration so they reach the right people with the right item so you can generate legitimate conversations and leads.

5. Set Up Appointments in Advance

Make room for everyone who is important to your company. Don’t just schedule appointments with new leads or prospects. Also, invest some time into keeping in touch with current customers and other people who are influential to your business.

There’s bound to be some downtime during the show. Make the most of it and spend it wisely by scheduling meetings, talks, and other activities during low-traffic hours.

6. Establish a Clear Call to Action

While calls to action during the show are important, design a solid call-to-action strategy for your marketing efforts before the trade show. CTAs will help you track your success, create more buzz, and attract better leads to the actual trade show.

A couple of CTA tactics are:

Set up a landing page to promote your booth and encourage people to visit and download information.
Run a contest and encourage your audience to enter to win.
Create a hashtag for use on social media and encourage people to use it.

Ready to Get to the Show?

Trade shows are one of the best tools to promote your brand and grow your business. You know that. But to get a healthy ROI, you need a well-built strategy. Our experts are eager to help you get the most out of this process, so click here to visit our all-things Trade-show page where you can all the tools, concepts and ideas you’ll need to excel at your next event.

Easy Corporate Uniform Policy and Awesome Uniform Design Guide

by Justin Reynolds | Feb 26, 2019 | Corporate uniforms, Human Resources, Welcome kits

First impressions count. Clients form their opinion about your brand based on their first interaction. A corporate uniform or dress code plays a vital role in these impressions, as it can motivate your team members to connect with your brand’s mission and vision. Designing a company uniform requires strategic planning, considering the brand’s purpose and objectives. Additionally, the uniform should reflect the changing market, inspire confidence, and convey a contemporary feel.

Like any element of brand and marketing, uniform design and implementation need to be well thought out and planned.

Read on to find out everything you need to know in order to create a corporate uniform policy and learn how to design the right corporate uniform for your brand.

Tips to Create a Corporate Uniform Policy

While corporate uniforms might be necessary for your brand’s consistency, for your brand’s consistency, it is crucial to also create a corporate uniform policy that includes everyone at your organisation and ensures compliance and effectivity. To achieve this, consider the following tips to ensure your uniform policy is fair both towards your brand’s identity and mission, and your employees’ need to feel appreciated and comfortable.

First, Why Do You Need a Uniform Policy?

Explain Expectations

To avoid misunderstandings, make it crystal clear what you mean by terms like “formal”, “casual”, etc. Provide clear guidelines about what is acceptable and what isn’t. These expectations should be applied to everyone from employees and senior management to interns and even temps, creating a sense of harmony and belonging for all.

Make it Easy for New Starters and Ensure Safety

Part of your employee onboarding checklist should include a clear uniform policy that helps starters fit in and feel part of the team from day one. Take this worry out of their minds and ensure they’ll keep your brand’s image intact from the get-go. Considere including the policy in welcome packs for new employees. Some jobs require employees to wear certain types of uniforms due to health and safety regulations. Taking this into consideration further ensures safety and makes it easier to control these risk factors.

Ensure Consistency and Get Fewer Complaints

Consistency is key to any brand that wants to transmit an identity consistently to its audience. Corporate uniforms further this message at every level of contact. By having a clear uniform policy, complaints about “inappropriate” dress practices will drop dramatically, and there will be more harmony among all employees. Legal actions from disgruntled employees will also diminish when your uniform policy is clear.

So, How Do You Create a Corporate Uniform Policy?

1. Include All Your Employees

When developing your corporate uniform policy, be as inclusive as possible. Think about each different division or department within your company and consider all their different needs and expectations. To do this, include representation and gather opinions from your entire organisation. This process will help you to not overlook different needs you didn’t think of. It will also make everyone feel part of the process, making them more likely to comply with the policy with pride. Be sure to represent all job types when developing uniforms. Keep in mind that workers who perform a more physical type of job, such as those who operate machinery, for example, will have different needs from those working a desk job or customer service.

2. Communicate Clearly

Make double sure to clearly explain all your decisions and policies to your employees in a way they’ll understand and feel included and appreciated. Regularly ask for their input and allow suggestions to make them feel included and connected to the brand. This also foments constant improvement.

It’s important to also include a discipline system in your policy. This system should be applied fairly and consistently across the entire organisation.

Include a clear outline of what disciplinary options will be applied. These can range from administrative warnings to requiring the employee to go home and change, to more severe actions like termination. All depending on the severity and repetitiveness of the violations.

3. Address Dress-Code Violation Issues Delicately

If you consider an employee has violated the uniform policy, take the time to make sure a violation has actually taken place and gather proof before taking action. Once it has been established that a dress-code violation has taken place, have a manager speak to the employee in a discreet way, maintaining a level of confidentiality and ensuring the employee understands what the violation was.

When applying a warning or disciplinary action, stick to the facts and avoid getting into personal details or judgment calls. It’s important to find out why the employee incurred in the dress-code violation.

As a general rule, when creating a uniform policy, be fair, communicate clearly and often, and include your employees in your decisions. These best practices will create a policy that benefits both your brand and your employees.

Awesome Uniform Design Guide [workbook]

Develop the look and feel of your corporate uniforms at the same time you develop your corporate uniform policy to ensure both processes feed off of each other. Keep your brand’s identity and employee appreciation and input working together to get a final product that will satisfy everyone’s needs. Download this Corporate Uniforms Design Guide to help you go through the process smoothly and create a set of uniform items that’ll make your employees look brand-tastic.

Get started with your staff and employees, and get in touch with us to develop a set of uniform items that fit perfectly within your policy, budget, objectives, promotional marketing scope, and employee expectations.

9 Promotional Marketing Campaigns You’ll Absolutely Love

by Justin Reynolds | Feb 8, 2019 | Events, Marketing, Marketing Tips, Promo Products

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”

Tom Fishburne, Author.

Sometimes marketing agencies trying to select the best out of their catalogue of campaigns can be a bit biased due to emotions, memories, and other nuances that the audience might never be aware of. That’s why we decided to allow our clients and our audiences to decide which ones were our best promotional marketing campaigns of 2018.

We opened up a contest online so our clients could nominate their campaigns. This way our audience and theirs would be able to vote and select a winner. Here are 9 contestants and the winner for the best promotional marketing campaign of 2018. You’ll love them!

1. Welcome Packs

Our friends at Prospa needed to revamp their outdated welcome package for new brokers of the Prospa family. They wanted to communicate Prospa’s modern brand image while reducing the cost and incorporating existing items.

We worked alongside Prospa and came up with an elegantly customized solution. We combined a certificate in a sleek gloss black frame, a premium metal pen, and a professional notebook wrapped in Prospa branded tissue paper and placed into a premium custom made box. New Prospa brokers felt warmly welcomed and enjoyed a more friendly onboarding process.

2. Family Day 2018

Promotional merchandise plays a very important role in nurturing employee loyalty and appreciation. Kennards Hire knows this. That’s why for their annual Family Day 2018 they needed a product that was family-friendly in order to show their employees and their families their appreciation.

Our team developed a few alternatives, and we decided to go with a Picnic Rug & Duffle bag that could be used on the day and afterwards for days out with the family. We included a magnetic photo frame with the brand’s 70th Anniversary artwork for families to use for photos taken on that day.

3. APA Indigenous Brand Awareness

The brand needed merchandise options that incorporated indigenous artwork suitable for students and education fairs. The designs needed to be high-quality and highlight the APA logo while recognising the artist.

We developed a fantastic digital print on a bottle and backpack that successfully communicated the indigenous design and highlighted both the APA logo and the artist without compromising quality and functionality.

4. Racing Victoria Picnic Baskets

The PR department of the governing body of horse racing in Victoria approached our team to develop the perfect invitation to launch the Festival of Racing period and marketing campaign to the media and the general public.

We developed a line of wicker picnic baskets themed with the Festival’s image and arranged for them to have an additional touch of subtle RV branding through custom luggage. “The kits were so well received that we encountered a number of requests for more baskets, a feat that is very rare from the media!”, said Verity Clough, Racing Victoria Public Relations & Communications Manager.

5. AIG Compression Socks

AIG’s thought leadership conference needed a product for their travel team session on awareness about travel risks that would make the experience memorable for their target audience.

They had an idea for compression socks, so we developed a variety of AIG branded options and samples sourced from local suppliers. They picked one and each person who got a pair was pleasantly surprised.

6. Hologic Welcome Packs

Planning a successful move is never easy and might be stressful. That’s why Hologic wanted to have a special welcome gift for their employees as they moved to a new office.

We chose some of our favourites and personalised them to better suit Hologic’s staff. The move was successful and everybody loved their gifts. It was a great way to start in a new environment.

7. PGA Holden Scramble Finals Gifts

For the past 25 years, Holden and the PGA have produced Australia’s #1 participated amateur golf event with over 50,000 participants across Australia. Creating a gift for the Championship finals that would be suitable for the occasion and for all golfers, was a great challenge for Red Tomato.

We sourced a series of fun and engaging products that were well received and both the client and sponsors achieved great brand awareness at the event and beyond due to the practicality of the reusable glasses.

8. Kids Summer of Country Racing

The concept of giving kids a free backpack with goodies to engage them in the event had been done in previous years with success. However, for the 2017/18 campaign, we decided to incorporate the “We love animals” concept into the theme in order to further engage kids and families.

All items included in the backpack were branded with the slogan, and the success among kids was tremendous. Mick Sharke from RSN was there with his daughters and no one could have put it better than him:

“The Country Racing Victoria campaign focuses on a simple idea – We Love Animals. Because at the heart of the sport, when the carnivals, prize money announcements, interstate feuds, and mega races are all stripped away, racing exists because its participants and fans love and appreciate the thoroughbred horse. And what better way to explain racing to a child than with this message.”

And The Winner Is… 🥁

Contiki Record Award

2018 was Contiki’s 20th anniversary for ROCK, which is their biggest trade incentive. To celebrate, they made ROCK 2018 BIGGER & BETTER: more seats, iconic location, iconic festival, smoking hot merch, and new branding.

Our mission was to create an award incentive for their top-selling travel agents that would tie the “record-breaking” and “smashing the sales target” theme. We developed a custom framed record that included the Contiki logo and the tagline.

This memorable and eye-catching award was something agents could brag about and proudly display, and it also caught the attention of voters for our contest and this rockin’ award took first place.

* * *

For us at Red Tomato, all our clients are winners and all of them deserve a winning campaign. With that mantra in mind, be sure our team will work hard to give you promotional products that are true winners for you and your brand. Get in touch to start working on your next winning campaign!

Red Tomato Awarded at This Year’s PPAI Expo in Fabulous Las Vegas

by Justin Reynolds | Jan 24, 2019 | Business Resources, Celebrations, Industry Trends, Red Tomato Culture

In January, we dived into the PPAI Expo Experience in Las Vegas. We attended proudly as an award-winning agency.

Last year, we won the Pyramid Award for our Country Racing Victoria Campaign. However, our achievements at the PPAI Expo Experience this year were even more remarkable. Thanks to the love and effort put forward by our team and the trust of our clients, this year our Agency was awarded a Silver Pyramid Award for our Ugly Sweater Campaign and a Gold Award for our blog the Tomato Scoop.

The PPAI Expo Experience in Vegas was not just about awards. We discovered the latest industry trends and connected with renowned leaders and experts.

Our journey at the PPAI Expo Experience inspires us to stay our course. Especially when industry leaders are promoting methods similar to ours at Red Tomato. We prioritise our clients, addressing quote requests as an ad agency would.

Promotional Product Trends

One trend set to rise this year is the return to retro items. Both CES and PPAI Expo showed a growing tendency towards items with modern day technology that have a timeless look. These “new retro” products include items like Bluetooth speakers that look like old record players and gramophones.

Moreover, family games like Jenga and Monopoly are gaining traction. This positions your brand right in family game nights.

Further innovations can be seen in the use of recycled and recyclable by big brands such as Adidas and HTT Apparel. Meanwhile, one of the most prevalent trends is the upgrade of work clothing and apparel into more relaxed options such as the ones shown by Hanesbrands Inc., and Blue Generation.

Going Forward from our PPAI Expo Experience

We complemented our PPAI Expo Experience with trips to Zappos.com, CES, and SKUcon. We learned about employee relationships and met like-minded suppliers and distributors.

Going forward, the team at Red Tomato will continue to lead the Australian promotional product industry with creative, strategic, and solid service to provide our clients with a maximized ROI both in results, brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand presence.

Our Aspirations

We aim to be pioneers, consistently evolving in our strategies, methods, and offerings. With the insights we’ve gleaned, we are already brainstorming the next campaign that we believe will not only benefit our clients but also set a new industry standard.

For a deeper dive into the PPAI Expo Experience, download the press release here.

Marketing Giveaways- Are They Worth It?

by Justin Reynolds | Nov 22, 2018 | Brand strategy, Business Resources, Marketing, Marketing Tips

Even if you’re not in the marketing world, if you’ve ever accessed the internet, you’re familiar with marketing giveaways. They range anywhere from free branded water bottles to exotic, all-inclusive vacations. If you are in the field of marketing, however, you need to be aware of how to create a successful campaign. In this article, we’ll go over mistakes to avoid and how to make your next marketing giveaway a hit.

Why Giveaways Go Wrong

Before you even begin to plan out your marketing giveaway, be sure to familiarise yourself with how not to use promotional merchandise. Even with the best of intentions, it’s easy to set your company up for failure if you’re incorrectly using products to attract clients. In terms of giveaways, you need to be careful with the following:

Ignoring Your Targeted Audience

This should be engrained in every marketer’s brain by now. Nonetheless, you would be surprised by how frequently companies try to give away products that have nothing to do with their services. You can’t expect a successful campaign if you have a gardening business and are offering the latest electric suitcase as your giveaway. You’re wasting everyone’s time, including your own.

Not Choosing Your Products Wisely

Just to reiterate, your campaign will fail if your products aren’t something that will attract the right kind of clients. If you’re unsure of your demographic, read up on determining your buyer personas before even think of hosting a giveaway. As Steve Kovar, the co-founder of ViralSweep, stated, “The success of your promotion depends largely on the products, so if the giveaway does not align properly with your target audience, your promotion will under-perform.” Also, don’t get carried away and give away something so expensive that the campaign puts your business in jeopardy.

Making the Giveaway Entry Complicated

If you are truly determined to make your marketing campaign fail, make sure that the entry process is long and frustratingly complicated. People are busy, and you don’t want them to remember your company as the one who asked for their aunt’s life story in order to win a pen. Also, remember that not everyone is on social media, so don’t ask for a Facebook login to enter.

The Problem with Facebook Giveaways

Social media is awesome, but not everyone uses it. In addition, you don’t own your followers on any platform. Even if you have 20 thousand Facebook followers, you won’t be able to contact them if something goes wrong with your Facebook account. Not focusing on building your own email list is the ultimate fail. So, if you plan on requiring likes and comments for people to enter, you’re stepping on your own feet.

Marketing Giveaways that Go Right

Now that we’ve discussed what not to do for your giveaway campaign, you should have a better idea of what will lead to success. Right? Ok, maybe it’s not always so simple. Let’s take a step back and examine why you would have a giveaway in the first place. It’s surely not because you like throwing money away.

The point of a marketing giveaway is to raise brand awareness, engage with your targeted audience, as well as gain leads to convert browsers into clients. When the campaign is over, you want the right people to favourably remember your company. In other words, you’re looking for a long-term return on your investment.

To recap, here are a few helpful giveaway tactics:

Offer a giveaway product relevant to your business and desirable to your targeted audience.
Make sure that the giveaway is attractive and worth your demographic’s time. This is called the value proposition.
Don’t overextend yourself when it comes to your budget. It’s not worth risking your company’s fiscal health. (See here for tips on successfully using promotional merchandise on a budget.)
Simplify the entry process.
Steer clear of Facebook-based giveaways.
Be sensitive to your audience’s desires and remain flexible with your giveaway’s size, colour, etc. Diversifying your prize can also be advantageous.

Case Studies: Successful Marketing Giveaway Campaigns

Now that we’ve discussed the dos and don’ts of marketing giveaways, let’s look at how they play out successfully. While we’ve stated that Facebook giveaways aren’t always the wisest choice, social media can still help your marketing giveaways. Whether or not your campaign is digital, if done right, these platforms can still help your promotion gain major traction. See how Red Tomato teamed with O’Brien Real Estate and the Pirtek Fishing Challenge for two different successful marketing campaigns.

If you are thinking of starting a new marketing giveaway, let us help walk you through your next promotion. Your success is important to us and we urge you to contact us with any questions you may have.

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