Blog

If you have visted our website a few times in recent weeks you will have noticed some quite major changes. We have gone from a very static non mobile friendly site that looked like this:

To a much more searchable, useable and more importantly, mobile friendly website that looks something like this:

The development hasn't stopped there. When we originally launched the site we had a price range that we quoted on all of the products with the exception of some POA items such as USB sticks where the price fluctuates considerably sometimes even on a day to day basis. The problem we found with quoting a price range was that customers, quite rightly in our opinion, thought that the lower price would be for a lot of items branded in a single colour and the higher price would be for fewer items branded in full colour. A reasonable assumption but far from the truth. The idea behind the range was to give an impression of whether the particular item was to be regarded as a 'budget', 'mid range' or 'premium' product. That wasn't very clear and what was even more difficult was to try and explain to a customer that wanted a product in the £0.40 - £0.79 range that in fact they would cost £3.00 each by the time they were personalised, delivered and had VAT added.

It is of course almost impossible to give any sort of accurate guide because the variations that can be specified are so great. Given this we have decided that to just quote a 'From' price will give a much more representative figure when you look at any product. This change happened last Thursday and is a major step forward we think. There are still inaccuracies on the database relating to some of the minimim order quantities etc, but rest assured we are constantly working to improve every area.

We hope you enjoy our new website, happy browsing.

I'm sure we've all had those moments when you come across something and can't believe you didn't think of it first. Well today I'm going to talk about two such items. One is a bit frivalous but good none the less the other could actually save lives.

Firstly then from Renault, Nail Varnish that matches the colour of your car!

Renault, no doubt aware of the growing number of women making and influencing car purchases must have thought that the discerning woman would enjoy having nails that reflected her choice of car colour, or indeed the other way round. Not only is there a significant aesthetic benefit but a real practical one too, the Nail Varnish can also be used to touch up any small scratches on the car. Only the four colours available at the moment but I can see the range increasing very soon.

On a much more serious note though, small children left in cars when the mercury is really climbing are at a very real risk of serious injury or even death. A new device that acts as a second seat belt linking the child seat to the drivers prevents the driver exiting the car without unbuckling the child.

This device has been developed by Nestle and promoted in the Dominican Republic with a campaign run by its Nido powdered milk brand. An initial 10,000 units soon turned into 300,000. 

What a great idea.

2017 Champagne Supernova 2

I have only just committed to this years ride as my wife has been suffering from an acute prolapsed disc. I really thought that she would need an operation but thanks to a revolutionary new treatment called IDD (contact Anthony Padgett at Back in Shape Shirley) she is making a miraculous recovery. So now I can turn my attention to helping my charity of choice. Ordinary 2 Extraordinary is dedicated to encouraging ordinary people to do extraordinary things to raise money for children that probably won't ever have the chance to do so themselves. As always with O2E any event is totally self funded so that every penny raised goes to the children that need it most. As I expect that it will be the usual suspects that make donations I would just like to thank you all so much for the support. I know that every cause is a good cause and you just can't support them all which makes every donation even more appreciated. 

One of the most comfortable pens you can use now is what is known as a 'Soft-feel rubberised' pen. 

In the past although this was a lovely pen to write with and hold they had the disadvantage of only being printed on in a single colour due to the very material that makes them so nice to use. Due to the ever increasing demand for these pens considerable investment has been made to conquer the difficulties presented in branding them.

We are delighted to announce that we can now supply these highly desirable pens branded in full colour if you so desire. Just think how pleased your customers or potential customers would be to receive one of these gorgeous pens.

Portable lithium batteries or 'power banks' have become the must have promotional tech gadget over the past couple of years. The global market for these devices is forecast to grow to £14 billion by 2020. They typically offer an increasingly good branding opportunity / cost per item ratio. With the added bonus that they will definitely be kept and used.

The potential problem though is that due to their ever growing popularity some suppliers are sacrificing quality to maintain margins in an increasingly competetive market. They are subject to the same compliance requirements as other electrical items and need CE, Reach and RoHS certification. They also need battery reports to allow them on cargo aircraft and the handling rules for dangerous goods need to be followed. Even with all this though some lower quality models have found their way onto the market and some highly respected brands such as Samsung have suffered as a result. 

Clearly a more stringent certification would be nice and the world renowned American testing facility United Laboratories has developed a specific accreditation for power banks - UL2056. We make sure all of the power banks we supply meet the existing standards and will be looking out for ones that meet this new standard with interest. 

A superb branded gift but not one suitable to be in the 'cheap and cheerful' price bracket.

A device to make it easier to take a good selfie with your cat has won the BPMA Student Design competition. George Hill took first place and suggested a brand like Whiskas could incorporate it in its packaging. You're supposed to shake your phone a little bit to ring the bell and attract the attention of your cat.

Well done George. Second place went to Jonathan Slater who designed a Klipsi to help resolve the problem of phone charger cables breaking and third place went to Areeb Ali who created an innovative seed pot holder that could be flat packed.

Clearly new products that can be branded with your logo are being created all the time. Congratulations to everyone who took part.

On March 28th this year the Royal Mint introduced a new 12 sided pound coin. Lots of you have 'Trolley Coins' produced to promote your business as they are very useful they tend to get kept and used by your customers. The old style coins will be removed from circulation mid October this year giving another few months to convert any mechanism to accept the new pound coins. The industry maintains that the new mechanisms will accept the old style and the new style coin. This means you do not have to throw away any old stock you have. When it comes to replace it though the new styles we can offer will show how up to the minute your company is.

I cannot believe it but there are companies out there that will, for a fee, sabotage the search engine ranking of your competitors website. They achieve this through various methods. This is an email sent totally unsolicited to 100 prospective clients by a company specialising in recovering Google rankings for those affected:

The worrying results were that 61 out of 100 companies replied, an extremely high reply rate for such a spam like email. Of those only 2 rejected the offer outright with some choice words, well deserved, 11 politely declined the offer, 19 wanted some more information and horrifyingly 29 accepted the offer immediately and asked for payment details.

Just goes to show how on the ball you have to be in thsi day and age.

As we alluded to in our very first blog it was the constant inexorable march of technology that took us from general jobbing printers to a company that prides itself on being a total one stop shop for your printing and promotional needs.

The words "digital this" or "digital that" could well be amongst the most overused phrases of our current era but nevertheless they are here to stay. For many years silk screen and embroidery were the choices for branding clothes, then we developed die cut vinyl, heat transfer and dye sublimation. Now there's a new kid on the block in the form of Direct to Garment, a digital process making short run, high quality, full colour decoration an economically viable proposition.

Large format digital printing has been around for some time now in the exhibition graphics world making visually stunning exhibition stands easily achievable and at the right price.

Now the latest area to feel the digital printing presence is the promotional products industry. Pens that normally had to be pad or screen printed can now be digitally printed in full colour on the entire circumference of the pen. To quote one of the major pen manufacturers "as with other sectors of the promotional products industry, the arrival of digital printing has been a game changer in the world of pens."

Things that would have been impossible or incredibly expensive only a couple of years ago might now be perfectly viable. Technology keeps rolling on, the most difficult thing to do is keep up with it!

It's that time of year when a comfy, stylish and warm sweatshirt / fleece is becoming a must. We've had a look on the high street to see what's in at the moment and match those garments to ones you can decorate with your own brand.

New Look as always has a very stylish graffiti embroidered, grey sweater that will fly off the shelves. Over-sized with ribbed cuffs and hems. To match this the Mantis Women's Long Length Sweater has a relaxed fit and an elliptical hem to give a longer back. Good value and suitable for various methods of branding.

Topshop also has a keen eye for the latest look. Their super soft hoodie decorated from Lady Garden is a great example. The DNM Universe from the B&C Collection will appeal greatly to the same market.

As we get further into winter the Superdry Heavy Winter Zip hoodie is a must have if you like snuggling up in your clothes. A super equivalent is the Fur Lined Chunky Zoodie from Just Hoods by AWDis. These have brass zips, double fabric hood with charcoal grey fur fabric, chunky, white, flat drawcords and a kangaroo pouch pocket.

These are just a few examples but the message is if you see some clothing you like in the shops and think your brand would look good on them just ask to see how close we can get.