“We might not look like a bunch of party animals, but we see real opportunity in promoting ourselves around this celebration. Granted, we didn’t really think of this in the most timely manner, but there are vendors that can meet our last minute Mardi Gras beads needs, including full-color decal medallions to customize our message.”

When asked how they were intending to capitalize on the use of throw beads, the Groundhog provided us with a short list of creative ways to promote with Mardi Gras beads.

1. Sponsor a Mardi Gras Night event as a way to create brand awareness.
2. Look for opportunities surrounding corporate, stadium, or tradeshow events around Mardi Gras to provide a memorable give-away item.
3. Make fundraising festive! Makes a unique direct mail outreach. Add a QR Code on the decal to direct people to online donation URL’s.

When asked why throw beads were their choice over other items, he replied that they were cool, quick to produce, and people love them.

“They keep Mardi Gras beads around long after the event is over. The residual impression rate helps us out during periods of hibernation . . .  Laissez les bons temps rouler!”  Let the good times roll . . .

Is your company hosting a fundraising activity or awareness event? Add a bit of panache — and a lot of pink — with specially designed promotional products.

 We’ve compiled three simple and memorable ideas to help you raise awareness and increase engagement with potential donars in a short timeframe. Any of these ideas can be adapted to align with your regular advertising specialty needs as well.

 Mardi Gras Beads. Branded (pink!) inline decal beads or hanging medallion beads are always attention-grabbers and are fun to wear. Plus, they are often retained long after an event or worn to subsequent events. This creates more awareness for the featured charity with residual impressions.

 QR Codes. Consider adding a Quick Response code to any promotional product. These codes can direct people to donation landing pages, creating an instant connection between awareness and action.

Peel & Win. The “Peel & Win” decal can add an extra dimension by creating an impromptu raffle. Your audience can purchase a strand or card with a Peel & Win decal sticker and pull to reveal a prize. Proceeds from strand purchase can support fundraising efforts.

 These items have two things in common: first, they can be turned around very quickly and used for last minute events or as substitutes (in some cases, turn can be as fast as 48 hours). The second thing? They are a great way to create much needed awareness and support during the month of October and long beyond.

Everyone knows that college students have two things in common: 1) A fierce sense of pride for their own school, and 2) A profound love of free stuff.

As a member of the advertising specialty field, you can capitalize on both of these factors with specialized back-to-college promotional products.

Just picture students milling around campus with a branded keychain and drawstring jersey backpack. Imagine dorm rooms decked out with branded banners, Mardi Gras beads, and mascot bobbleheads.

At the first home game of the year, your company could be the winning team with sponsored gate give-aways like Spirit Stix or acrylic soccer scarves emblazoned with your logo.

Perhaps you run a business with locations in college towns? The opportunities for incentives are endless: use customized promotional products to entice students to stop by your restaurant or bar, shop at your store, or open an account at your bank. Give-away items like trend-right titanium ionic necklaces and bracelets in school colors are really popular with this demographic.

Consider this course Promotional Products 101. Advanced lessons in The Anatomy of a Sponsorship and The Science of Gate Give-aways coming soon.

 Texas boasts the largest state fair with an estimated annual attendance of 3,000,000. The largest paid state fair is in Minnesota, which drew nearly 1.8 million visitors in 2010.

These attendance numbers add up to one thing for those in the advertising specialty industry: extra eyes on your brand. State fairs represent an extraordinary opportunity for the advertising specialty industry. While Texas and Minnesota win the blue ribbon attendance prizes, state fairs all around the country attract people in droves. Attendees are ripe for a good time — and for free goodies!

Why not consider capitalizing on the throngs of fun-seeking fairgoers with a branded promotional product? Give away highly coveted beads, and you’ll have fairgoers asking each other, “Where did you get that?” Offer branded drawstring backpacks and your logo will be loud, clear and mobile as fairgoers carry your backpack around all day.

Consider these additional “fair-ready” promotional product ideas:

• Spirit stix (perfect for a concert at the fair!)
• Beads with the optional addition of an attached sample cup
• Hats
• Novelty headwear
• Wigs
• Light-up buttons

Hallmarks of the company picnic include:

• Good attendance (50%)
• A penchant for giving away promotional items (41% always give away promotional products to attendees, and 28% sometimes do)

Being good providers of promotional products ourselves, we thought to put a spin on the old fashioned company picnic by introducing themes.

Fat Tuesday Theme

OK. So it is not first quarter, but a Mardi Gras theme is fun any time of the year. The biggest challenge at any corporate event is to get employees to engage. Mardi Gras beads have long been a sought after collectible item. Picnic goers can collect bead strands as they participate in games and other activities. Awards are based on participation and number of strands collected, rather than solely on skill.

Instead of the traditional plastic infant hidden in the cake, try contest driven decal beads. Use peel, scratch, or QR code technology to revel the prize.

Masks,novelty headwear, music, and parades can bring the spirit of Mardi Gras to your next picnic event.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Translation: Let the good times roll!

What can we say – we love pop culture.

In this exclusive interview, IMC CEO, Shane Erickson shares his thoughts on the role of trends in promotional product development and how it all got started.  ___________________________________________________________________________________

What would you say is the number one factor that has kept IMC ahead of the game when it comes to promotional products and advertising specialties?
For us, it’s been our ability to continually come up with fresh ideas. We never get complacent and we’re always looking for the next product and the next trend. We are always on the lookout for things we think are cool. We spend a lot of time just brainstorming around the office about how we could translate things into a usable promotional product.

 How have pop culture trends affected your business?
We’ve been involved with trends since the start. When we started it was baseball cards or Beanie Babies or Pokémon, and tomorrow it’ll be something else. We’ve become good at identifying unique trends and turning them into effective tools for the promotional products industry. For example: Someone on the team came in wearing a molded silicone band that their kid was crazy about.  I looked at it and thought to myself “Hey, this could be big if we take it promotional.” My whole team got involved. We wanted to do something more – make a product that our client could really own.  It evolved into the fully custom solution we offer today.

What has been the biggest surprise for IMC over the last 20 years?
I’d say the sports-shaped and customized Mardi Gras beads. We’ve really become known for them. When they first came out we thought the trend would last perhaps one or two years, but they have lasted over 12 years. Today, we’re still known as “The Bead Guys.” We are proud of that. It goes to show how important translating a trend can be in the advertising specialties industry. When you put the time and energy into truly capturing the spirit of a trend, you can end up with a product that stands up to the test of time. I think that is what differentiates IMC from its competitors.

 What’s the hot trend right now?
The newest item is the ionic necklace. The ionic trend has been around for a while, but the necklace is a fresh new twist. You see quite a few people wearing them these days, including professional athletes and college players. Staying true to our mission, we wanted to do more than bring team color to promotional. We offer a completely customized product – from the imprinted decorative knobs to the logo imprinted directly on the strand. It is not enough for us to hop on a trend in a superficial way. We want to create a promotional product that is true to the trend. It brings an authenticity to the process that clients and end users appreciate.

We have been unearthing cool stuff since 1991 and now we’ve hit 20 years – two decades in the business! Time flies, and we’re having fun. We’re celebrating this anniversary by spilling all our secrets to success. In this exclusive interview, IMC CEO Shane Erickson shares how we’ve come this far and what lies ahead. 

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How has IMC established a place in the market?
We don’t try to be everything to everybody. We focus our energy and attention on the areas we know best (sports, beverage, and casino promotions,) and that concerted effort allows us to be exceptional in those areas.

What has been the biggest change in the industry?
Definitely importing. A lot of people in the promotional products and advertising specialties field are now going direct overseas. Some execute better than others. There is a definite learning curve. Experience counts when developing promotional products abroad. There are a lot of nuances in the process. Our sourcing team is well seasoned and has great relationships. We started importing ten years ago and have learned a lot in a decade. We will continue to help our clients by bringing them the best possible value.

What’s the key to staying relevant and competitive in the future?
For us it’s staying true to our markets and understanding our clients better and better. Our clients are who we talk to every day – the people in the sports, beverage, and casino industries. We talk to them about how and why they use the products.  It gives us better insight to develop the right promotional product for them. We want to see positive results for our clients. We are highly interested how the products worked (or didn’t work) so we can source more strategically. We strive to bring them something that they want with a twist that will deliver more. This can mean a lot of customized development – a strong point for us. It’s really about an exchange of ideas and constantly moving forward. We’re always asking our customers, “What’s new for you guys?” or bringing them new ideas we come across to the table.

 When it comes down to it, we stay true to our passion – unearthing cool stuff to create a better promotional product for our clients.

Famous Groundhogs concur that 2011 will see an early spring but a later than usual

Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday falls on March 8th of 2011. In the United States we see Mardi Gras celebrated with lots of colorful beads – thrown from fantastical floats by costumed revellers.

One Groundhog (who asked to remain anonymous,) seen flaunting his throw beads was quoted saying “ Laissez les bons temps rouler!”  Let the good times roll . . .

Why Mardi Gras Beads?

1. They are just down-right fun! Easy to wear and festive. High brand visibility and easily customized to suit.

2. Highly sought after – folks collect ‘em! We see beads we produced years ago show up at various events. People hold on to them and reuse again and again.

3. Inexpensive to produce – lots of options! Beads run the gammit in price. You can go from standard round hanging medallions, to inline medallions, to brand specific designs with custom shape medallions and inline ornaments.

4. Never know who will be wearing them! From left to right: Jerry Rice, Fred Biletnikoff, Joey Chestnut (Man vs. Food Hot Dog Eating Champion,)  Tim Brown, Angela Biletnikoff and Gorilla Rilla.

The Biletnikoff Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting youth, primarily from low to moderate income neighborhoods or backgrounds, who are “at risk” particularly to the realities of drug and alcohol addiction as well as domestic and gender violence. The foundation was established by Fred and his wife Angela to commemorate their daughter Tracey Biletnikoff, who was brutally murdered in 1999 at a very young age.

The Biletnikoff Foundation also proudly supports STAND! Since they began in 1977, STAND! has helped over 15,000 crisis victims and their children annually by offering emergency shelter, counseling and support groups, and transitional housing. Their Battered treatment programs provide offenders with the opportunity to make meaningful changes in their lives and, more importantly, in the lives of their families.

1. Branded blinking pint glass on strand promoting a specific St. Patrick’s day beverage
2. Bead strand with FDA approved branded shot glass stimulating on-premise trial
3. Bead strand with non-removable inline medallion advertising call sign for radio station - implemented like a bumper sticker “sighting” program
4. Custom bead strand tradeshow give-away for event attendees – creating roving billboards, word-of-mouth activitiy, and increased impression rate
5. Used in conjuction with Peel & Win decals as a contest “winning number” delivery method – keeps customers on-premise longer.
6. Used in conjunction with Peel & Win decals to create a medallion with a hidden “fortune” or message - branding with a sense of fun.
7. Used in conjuction with Peel & Win decals to play a social “matching” contest at an event
8. Festive beads for company event promoting new products, safety issues or mission awareness
9. Dual usage – stadium beads promote team spirit and deliver contact information for interactive mobile platforms
10. Branded beads for a messaging tool used to drive traffic to online promotional efforts

Do you have any innovative ways that you have used beads over the past year? Let us know!