Bandannas
Placement is the Key: Imprinting Tips
Beach Towels
Player Tribute
Folding Flyers
Punch List
Howie Gold of HA-LO Industries, Inc
Gameops.com: What are the major factors in selecting the right item for a promotion?
Howie Gold: We try to fit the item to the team’s concept. Obviously for a commemorative event we try to work with collectibles and we use fan interactive items for most other promotions. For sports teams, the biggest concern is that the item isn’t something you can throw. The items that work best are soft goods like t-shirts, hats and towels.
Some items that would seem perfect can prove disastrous. For example there is the story about the team who bought shaker-style noisemakers with streamer tassels coming out the ends. The item had both a visual element and a sound element. The problem was that fans could throw them onto the court. What was worse, when they hit the court, a few broke open and covered the court with little pieces of the shaker.
Another key factor is that you want fans to keep the item and use them again. Often, it helps to give away items that fans can also buy at the concession stands (like a T-shirt) since it has established value.
Gameops.com: What are the current trends in the industry?
Howie Gold: There are a few trends. First, teams often follow other teams. For example, I worked with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first three rounds of the NHL playoffs, primarily producing towels. Now using towels is hot again. I think I heard that the Dallas Stars are using towels for this round. Items will get hot and everyone will want to use them.
Another trend is toward items that are higher in price and higher in quality. With the growing price of tickets and fans’ demand for value, many teams are finding that they need to give away items that are of higher quality than in the past. Perhaps give away fewer items, but quality is now priority one.
This is also coupled with co-branding. Giving away a T-shirt now may include a co-branding effort between the team, a shirt producer like Hanes, and another sponsor. This allows you to increase the quality and value of the items, which will make the item something the fans will not discard. Quality is absolutely a trend, and teams are moving away from cheap giveaways.
Gameops.com: You mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs and their use of towels in the playoffs. How long does it take you to turn around a promotion like that in the condensed time frames that the playoffs permit?
Howie Gold: Obviously it varies somewhat. In the case of towels I was able to turn around their order in 2 days. We did 18,000 towels in 2 days, and I think we produced over 150,000 towels in the course of one month.
Gameops.com: Who is doing the most interesting promotions and giveaways?
Howie Gold: That’s easy. Minor league sports. Rules and licensee problems stifle many of the major leagues, however minor league teams can get away with nearly anything. I think that the idea of just using a premium item to promote fun has been lost somewhat with the major leagues.
Gameops.com: Talk about some specific products that are hot right now.
Howie Gold: There is a new hat that is popular. It’s called the Flex-Fit hat, it has an elastic band inside so it looks like a fitted cap. It also has "Perma-Curve" which pre-curves the hat so you don’t look like such a dork when you get the hat. The hat also allows you to embroider all around the hat. Of course Bean Bag toys are very hot, we are using teams’ local licenses to produce a replica of their mascot. Collector pins and noisemakers of any kind also remain popular.
Gameops.com: You have held out long enough….what is the "hottest new product" out there?
Howie Gold: This new product is a collectable card with sound capabilities. An example is a card of Michael Jordan that has a small chip in it. The chip holds between 12-180 seconds of audio. You can relive Michael's last shot in game 6 of the 1998 NBA finals. When you insert the card into a pocket-sized playback unit (sold separately or included), you can hear play-by-play of sportscaster Bob Costas calling this classic moment. These cards can be customized to any player and any audio, and HA-LO has the license to provide this service to teams and companies. This is going to be a really hot promotional item.
Special thanks to Peter Blythe, David Brenner, and Scott Sproat for their assistance with this month’s interview.
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Placement is the Key: Imprinting Tips
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