Justin Reynolds - Red Tomato | Promotional Products Agency

5 Ways to Activate Your Sponsorship with Promotional Products

by Justin Reynolds | Feb 5, 2018 | Business Resources, Events, Marketing Tips, Promo Products

Choosing to sponsor another company’s event might be the best investment you ever make. Sure, it can be risky if you are on a budget. Nonetheless, teaming up with another business with parallel values can open limitless doors. By sponsoring another company, you will also gain a long-term business partner and source of support. You’ll have the opportunity to meet their demographic in person, allowing you to grow your own brand awareness. It’s a win-win, as long as you activate your sponsorship wisely.

As an Event Manager or a Marketing Coordinator, it’s crucial to understand the purpose of your sponsorship. In this article, we will cover key factors to consider and how promotional products will help you activate your sponsorship.

1. Data Collection

Sponsoring an event and giving away promotional products means gaining access to the other company’s loyal customers. Whether being introduced via paper or in person, this means a much longer email list for you. It also clues you into demographic specifics, helping you assess what markets to target in the future.

2. Drive Potential Clients to Your Website/Social Media

When designing promotional products for the event you will sponsor, include your website and/or social media handle information. Nowadays, most marketing is done online; you want to make sure that people know where to find you after the event has finished. Plus, it’s always a good idea to grow your amount of online followers.

3. Crowd Engagement

One of the best ways to activate your sponsorship is to encourage crowd engagement. Perhaps attendees recognise your logo, but there’s still nothing like making an impact in person. Get to know people, make friends, and leave them with a face behind your company. Another great idea is to organise a contest at the event with a (logoed) grand prize. This is sure to pique attendees’ interest in the sponsor.

As Estelle Delannes stated, “Whether it’s by giving exclusive products or offering cooking classes, engaging with the audience is always key to develop brand awareness… An event sponsorship’s success resides in [its] activation.”

4. Brand Awareness

Brand awareness involves so much more than collecting data, driving potential clients to your website, and giving them a face to associate with your business. All of these factors are crucial, but there is still more that will draw people in. Use your promotional merchandise to convey not only who you are, but also what you believe in.

For example, if you are a sustainable lifestyle company, give away branded reusable bags. Or if you promoting Australian tourism, give away merchandise like this that will automatically remind people of who you are and what you stand for. Many times, this is ultimately what turns a consumer into a loyal client- when your mission aligns with their values.

5. Event Branding to Activate Your Sponsorship

While the above four factors are crucial, using promotional merchandise to achieve your goals just wouldn’t work if the products didn’t speak for themselves. To activate your sponsorship successfully, take time to assess what would appeal to both your established demographic and that of the company you’re sponsoring.

Consider making VIP products that are specifically for the event, and encourage people to share photos of themselves with your merchandise on social media (don’t forget the hashtag!). This will not only remind future clients of the event every time your product is being used, it will also further your social media reach. We suggest giving out wearables such as sweatshirts and beanies, or products that will be used on a daily basis, such as BPA-free water bottles or laptop backpacks.

At Red Tomato, we are here for you every step of the way during your sponsorship. Please let us know if you have any questions whatsoever- from whom to sponsor to how to approach crowd engagement. Send us a message, and let us suggest the right promotional products to help you activate your sponsorship in the most effective way possible.

Red Tomato announced a PPAI Silver Pyramid Award Winner!

by Justin Reynolds | Jan 31, 2018 | Events, Industry Trends, Promo Products

January 31, 2018- Red Tomato is proud to be recently awarded the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) Silver Pyramid Award in Las Vegas. They were named the Silver Pyramid Award for their work with Country Racing Victoria (CRV) Kids Program.

CRV hosts race meets across Victoria to engage race goers in rural locations. The Kids Activity Pack encouraged early registration and helped engage children during and after the event to show winning isn’t everything.

“CRV in conjunction with Red Tomato has created a incredibly strong property with the Kids Summer of Country Racing Backpack. The campaign had an increase of 5% in attendance and 9% in gate revenue. The success of this campaign has established an excellent foundation for the campaign to leverage into the new racing season. On the back of this success, next year’s campaign will be bigger and better with a new and improved kids backpack to be used as a means to incentivise patrons to come to the country races.” Darren Galley – CRV Marketing and Business Development Manager

“Red Tomato is proud to have forged such a strong partnership with Country Racing Victoria. The team here put a lot of time and thought into the selection of products that will help achieve CRV’s outcomes.” Justin Reynolds – Managing Director

The PPAI Awards and Recognition Program celebrates creative excellence throughout the promotional products industry. The awards recognize everything from Distinguished Service and Hall of Fame careers to great websites, outstanding customer service and everything in between.

http://pubs.ppai.org/ppb-newslink/ppai-pyramid-award-celebrates-60-years-of-excellence/

Want help with constructing an award-winning program? CLICK HERE

The team at Red Tomato are here to HELP you too.

The Complete Events Checklist for Activating Your Brand

by Justin Reynolds | Nov 14, 2017 | Events, Marketing, Marketing Tips

As with any brand activation, preparing your brand for an event requires a lot of little pieces coming together. Making sure brand ambassadors are prepared, creating beautiful displays, purchasing event merchandise are just a few. Here is a complete event checklist for activating your brand and making sure those pieces fit together seamlessly.

Understand your buyer persona

Your buyer persona needs to be at the center of any marketing efforts your company is investing in. However, your buyer personas are especially important in brand activations. That is why it is the number one point on our events checklist.

Why is it so important? In order to prepare your brand for an event, you need to know who exactly you’re targeting. What are their pain points? Challenges? Why are they at the event? How is your brand going to solve their problem? Knowing your target audience before going to an event will help you tremendously in resonating with potential customers at an event.

Don’t know how to define your buyer persona? Check out our helpful guide to buyer personas here.

Keep your brand consistent throughout all mediums

Second on our events checklist is brand consistency. This doesn’t just mean making sure your colors are the same in the images you post on Facebook and on Twitter. Brand consistency means having consistent messages, tone, solutions, look, feel, and yes, colors and logos, throughout all mediums – on and offline.

Checking off brand consistency on your events checklist is essential for your brand activation. It makes sure your potential customer won’t get confused. All elements of your brand, including tone, messaging, look and feel, should be the same on your website as they are at an event. You want a lead from an event to turn into a customer post-event. How will that happen if they go to your website and the messaging is different than what your employees expressed to them in person at an event?

Don’t forget to refer to your brand style guide!

Sharing your company’s brand style guide with your events team will ensure that company ambassadors portray your brand consistently throughout all mediums.

When your entire team has a copy of the branding guidelines, it’s more likely that your company will be communicated in a consistent manner across all channels. People who received your company business card at an event will see the same branding on the website they visit when they’re back in the office.

Make sure your signage displays a clear message

Who is your target audience at this event and what issue are you trying to solve for them? Those are the two most important items that should be communicated by your event space. Your company’s signage should be easy to read, consistent with your brand, resonate with your buyer persona, and answer those two questions.

Have consistent uniforms that tell your brand story

Your brand ambassadors uniforms will contribute to brand consistency and will aid in telling your brand’s story to potential customers. This takes us back to the buyer personas (we told you they’d be at the center our events checklist!).

What type of uniform will connect best with your buyer persona? A more professional uniform? A playful, laid back uniform? Does your target client work in a startup and prefer a more Zuckerburg-grey-tee-and-blue-jean look?

Hand out giveaways that keep your brand top-of-mind long after the event ends

Customers that receive a branded gift from a company are more than 85% percent likely to do business with that same company. Handing out a promotional product at an event brings your brand home. A giveaway that is relevant, useful, and timely is more likely to turn a lead into a customer.

Not sure how to pick out the right promotional product to giveaway at your next brand activation? Check out this blog post on using promotional merchandise at events to attract clients to get started!

Utilising Promotional Products on a Limited Marketing Budget

by Justin Reynolds | Oct 9, 2017 | Business Resources, Marketing Tips, Promo Products

Whether you’re a marketing manager for a fresh start-up company or a mid-sized business, you may always come across one obstacle: money. You want to attract new clients, engage loyal customers, and ultimately grow your brand. However, you have a limited marketing budget. This is one of the most common problems companies face. Nonetheless, by employing a smart, effective marketing strategy, you can still impact consumers in a big way. In this article, we will show you how to use promotional products on a limited marketing budget.

Determining Your Budget

Entrepreneur Magazine has suggested that relatively new companies invest up to 20 percent of their revenue on marketing. Established businesses can afford to invest considerably less. While this may seem disheartening, it is just more incentive to maximise every penny you spend. The first step to a successful campaign is establishing a budget. Look at your previous marketing endeavors and assess what exactly made them successful. Determine how much money you spent, and what your ROI was for a specific number of people. Capitalise on these strategies and measure your current budget accordingly.

Identifying Your Target Audience and Campaign Objectives

Now that you have your budget set, don’t waste your precious dollars on the wrong demographic. If you’re selling drones, skip marketing to older generations and people uninterested in technology. Use Google Analytics or your Facebook company page to see who is visiting your site. Pay attention to details like gender, age, location, and interests to lock in the perfect target audience.

After honing in on your demographic, it’s time to set your goals. One of the easiest ways to squander your budget is being unclear on your marketing campaign’s objective. Figure out whether you want to gain more exposure, bolster your mailing list, or land more immediate sales. If you’re not sure what your objective is or how to identify your key audience, contact us for a free consultation.

How to Use Promotional Products on a Limited Marketing Budget

Once you have determined your budget, target audience, and objectives, you need a solid marketing strategy. A multitude of approaches is available- even on a limited marketing budget. However, one of the most effective ways to expand your audience is to use promotional products.

Increasing your ROI is relatively simple when keeping your demographic in mind and selecting the right product. Consider the following when choosing which promotional merchandise to use:

• Which products are low-cost, high-quality, and will maximise the number of impressions?
• Is the merchandise reusable, and will someone likely regift it?
• Will your promotional product be unique and memorable, or simply tossed into the rubbish bin?

Given our research and experience at Red Tomato, some of the best products to gift are reusable shopping bags, logoed apparel, and water bottles. These items are inexpensive to produce, useful, and reusable. Consumers will use all of these in public areas, making your potential for exposure limitless.

All in all, while you may have to get creative with a limited marketing budget, following these steps will lead you to a successful campaign. A small investment can have a massive impact. Contact us now and we will help you stretch your dollars, making even the big fish of your industry turn their heads.

Have you experienced a successful marketing campaign using promotional products? What are your tips for growing a business without breaking the bank? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Understanding Buyer Personas to Select Promotional Merchandise

by Justin Reynolds | Sep 4, 2017 | Business Resources, Industry Trends, Marketing, Marketing Tips

Picture this: You’re flying out to Perth this Christmas to meet your girlfriend’s mother for the first time. Obviously, you need to bring her a gift. You could just settle for a generic basket of fruity lotions or a Myers gift card. However, you want to make a lasting impression, so you decide to dig deeper. What are your future mother-in-law’s (fingers crossed!) hobbies? What is she passionate about? In order to win her over, you need to find that perfect gift that she would have picked out herself. If you think about it, your girlfriend’s mother isn’t much different than your clients. In this article, we will show you the importance of understanding buyer personas to select promotional merchandise.

What are buyer personas, anyway?

We’re sure you’re familiar with what a buyer persona is, but just in case, it is described as follows: “Buyer personas (sometimes referred to as marketing personas) are fictional, generalised representations of your ideal customers. Personas help us… internalise the ideal customer we’re trying to attract, and relate to our customers as real humans. Having a deep understanding of your buyer persona(s) is critical to driving content creation, product development, sales follow up, and really anything that relates to customer acquisition and retention.” (Pamela Vaughan, 2015) Establishing buyer personas is crucial in determining what your promotional merchandise should be selected.

How, exactly, should you determine your buyer personas? While demographics such as age, sex, and ethnicity can be helpful, they are not the end-all. You need to dig deeper and discover what really makes your (present and future) clients tick. What are their motivations? What do they value, need, and desire?

How can you determine your unique buyer personas?

In order to reveal your buyer personas, you can send out a survey with questions similar to those above. Analyse your data to see who is visiting your social media channels and your website to glimpse what they are looking for. Another way is to use our straightforward Buyer Persona Template, which can be found in our toolbox.

The ideal client persona will be someone who has a high potential for brand loyalty and are likely not only to become return customers but also to refer your service to others. Once you have established who these personas are, and pinpointed their interests, you will be much better equipped to address their needs. In your marketing campaigns, you will be able to assist their professional goals by providing useful content based on their interests. In addition, by knowing who you are reaching out to, you can improve communication by adapting your tone. For instance, you would write an email to a CEO much differently than a millennial Event Manager. Use this buyer persona knowledge to your advantage.

What does this have to do with promotional merchandise?

Once you know your demographic well and have selected the buyer persona you’d like to target, you have access to the full potential of promotional products. The successful business owner with an affinity for sports would make a perfect candidate for golf balls. The digital nomad in their 20s or 30s would definitely carry around the Stark Tech Computer Backpack. Or the jet-setting businesswoman who’s always looking for unique souvenirs would love to bring some Kangaroo Chocolates home to her British friends.

No matter which promotional products you choose to give away, be sure that it caters directly to your ideal buyer persona. Not only will they feel understood, they will also proudly don that sweatshirt (with your logo on it) for all to see. Mission accomplished!

Have any questions about buyer personas or selecting the perfect promotional merchandise? Let us know!