New to our online catalogue is the latest in premium promotional merchandise, without the premium prices.

This new range consists of natural and locally sourced cosmetics and edible treats. Sets are completely customisable so you can pick and choose exactly what you want to go in to them.

- All products made in the UK

- Aluminium packaging is made from 95% recyclable material

- Sets can be completely bespoke

- Low minimum order quantity- sets available from just 50 units

To see the full range of products available please visit our online catalogue at:

http://www.creativeemporium-inspiration.co.uk/new-products.html

Above: A selection of some on the new merchandise available

With only 33 days to go till Christmas, now is the time to look at what you are going to buy your key clients this year to thank them for their continued business. All too often, companies go down the route of sending alcohol or chocolates, a nice gift that is sure to be appreciated but what if you could give your clients a gift that they would not only appreciate but that would also promote your company and branding?

New to the Creative Emporium range is the personalised desk top calendar. The calendars can be modified to suit your exact needs:

• Choose from a pre-designed cover including your logo and colours or go bespoke with your own custom design
• Include a page that contains information on your company and the products/services you sell
• Highlight key dates to generate action from your clients such as an “order now” or “renew now” message
• Include your logo and branding on every page

This type of personalisation really gives the client the impression that it was created just for them, helping to build a strong and long lasting relationship whilst also promoting your company and its values.

For more information on our personalised calendar range, please call one of our Account Managers on 08707 500057

We recently featured a “Grow your own Christmas tree” on our blog, a new product to the Creative Emporium Christmas range. We always like to test out products before we present them to clients so please find below our tree’s progress so far!

Above: The Creative Emporium Christmas Tree- Week Two

Above: The Creative Emporium Christmas Tree- Week Three

Above: The Creative Emporium Christmas Tree- Week Four

We will continue to post pictures on our blog until Christmas so keep coming back to our blog for an update. Also if you think your tree is looking better, email the pictures to us so we can post them too!

Send any pictures to info@creativeemporium.co.uk and we promise to publish the best ones (even if they look better than ours!)

Its a good idea when looking at Christmas related promotional merchandise, to choose an item that will be really eye catching. Christmas is an ideal time to select a promotional item that is a bit more unusual as it will still be used even if its not practical.

Below are some items new to the Creative Emporium range this year that we think are fantastic- don’t just take our word for it, these items all appeared in a recent article in Marketing Magazine entitled “101 promotional incentives for Christmas”.

Glass Santa Tea Light Holder

This tea light holder is a great way to generate some festive cheer this Christmas! Made from high quality glass, this item is a premium product without the premium price tag. Branding of this item is on a detachable label allowing brand awareness of your company without ruining the desirability of the product.

Also available in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Decorative Christmas Teapot and Cup

For your best customers why not try this premium 2 in 1 porcelain tea pot and cup. The removable teapot reveals a cup to drink your tea from! Comes in a decorative box with branding available on the box and on Santa’s beard on the teapot itself!

Candle Set

This candle set comes with two tealights with a snowflake design and a glass candle holder shaped as a snowflake. The set comes beautifully packaged in a box complete with a silver ribbon. Also available in gold with a Christmas shaped tealight holder.

Christmas Reindeer Blanket

This fleece blanket measures 1m x 1m and can be neatly rolled up with the friendly brown reindeer toy! This is a great promotional item for the festive season with branding achieved through a full colour printed label. Also available as a hugging snowman!

Memo Clips

A pair of bauble shaped memo clips. Branding can be done on the PVC presentation box. These promotional memo clips offer a fantastic opportunity to promote and advertise to clients this Christmas. Available in three colours, this item is also ideal for holding photos and as table settings for Christmas parties.

Christmas CD Card

Try something really different this year and send your customers a Christmas card that comes with a CD containing 12 Christmas songs!

Christmas Chime with Tea Light

This traditional Christmas chime ornament is great for making a real impact with customers this Christmas. Made from high quality aluminium and stainless steel, once the tea light is lit, the heat from the flame rises and spins the snowflakes above to make a lovely effect. Branding is available on a printed label that fits neatly onto the base. Tea light is included.

We also have a wide range of more “conventional” Christmas related merchandise available on our online catalogue www.creativeemporium-inspiration.co.uk so have a look today!

As the nights draw in and the frosty mornings begin it can only mean one thing- Christmas is on its way!

Its at this time of year that we dust of our Santa hats and pull out the decorations in preparation for one of the busiest times in the promotional merchandise industry.

New to the Creative Emporium range of products, the “Grow your own Christmas tree” is a fun and unique gift to send out to customers. The pot contains soil and seeds to grow your own desktop tree and if you repot it, within two years it can take pride of place in your living room as a full size Christmas tree!

For further information and prices call one of our Account Managers today on 08707 500057

The use of corporate colours in advertising and promotions can be an extremely effective way of creating instant brand recognition…a cut our of a giant purple cow on a snowy alpine mountainside could only be promoting one brand!

We can now supply the exclusive Santos Ballpen in coated pantone matched gloss lacquered colours for a minimum quantity of 500 units at the following prices:

500- £3.99

1000- £3.85

2500- £3.65

Not only can your pen be pantone matched, you can also split the pantone colours and have a different colour match on the bottom to the one on the top- ideal if your looking for a really eye catching pen!

The prices above include screen printing in one colour, one position with free origination, air freight delivery from the Far East and a pre-production sample proof. The delivery time is approximately four weeks from approval of a proof sample. Presentation boxes and tubes are charged extra.

To help you visualize what your pantone pen could look like, our artwork team can create images with your logo and pantone colours free of charge- contact one of our Account Managers today on 08707 500057 for further information.

Well summer has come and gone (did anybody else miss it?!) and has been replaced by a very windy start to autumn. It’s at this time of year that the weather encourages people to purchase practical promotional items in order to give their customers a gift they will be able to use. The more a gift is used, the more your company name or logo will be seen, increasing both brand awareness and recognition.

There are a wide range of promotional items available that offer a  practical use to your customers during times of , shall we say “changeable” weather! Please find below find a selection of some of our best selling items in this category along with a few of my favourites!

Umbrellas

An obvious one but don’t let that put you off! Umbrellas are incredibly popular and that’s because they are a proven promotional item guaranteed to spread your marketing message far and wide. Over 80,000 umbrellas are lost on the London underground every year- think how many people will take an umbrella that’s been left behind and spread your message further or how many people need an umbrella when they so carelessly lose them!

As a promotional item, the umbrella is hard to beat in terms of print space. This allows for more creativity than your average promotional item. They are also great in terms of incorporating corporate colours and branding.

There are a wide range of different types of umbrellas to suit your target audience and budget from compact telescopic umbrellas to corporate golf umbrellas.

Above: Our two best selling umbrellas!

There is only one word of warning on this promotional item- make sure you go for the best quality umbrella your budget will allow. If you opt for the lowest cost umbrella, you may find that in this windy weather, your message ends up in the bin!

Rain Ponchos

Ponchos are great for outdoor events where the weather can take a turn for the worse! A recent study showed (not unsurprisingly) September to be one of the wettest months of the year so if you have anything planned that requires people to be outdoors, you might want to invest in some ponchos! A great quality, low cost promotional item, ponchos are available in one size so they are suitable for everyone.

A recent product that landed on my desk is the below “rain poncho ball” which is a plastic ball shaped keyring that contains a printed poncho. The keyring makes this item extremely practical especially for traveling and can be used again and again increasing your brand exposure. The keyring itself can also be branded.

I currently have 50 of the poncho balls available to give away- if you would like a free sample please contact one of our Account Managers on 08707 500057 and we will post one out to you today!

Hand Warmers

A quirky and eye catching promotional item, the hand warmer is a great way to promote your brand particularly if your target audience have an outdoor lifestyle or work outdoors. Just one click of the metal disk that sits within the gel instantly heats up the pack and takes the chill away from your hands. The hand warmers are available in a variety of different shapes and sizes including bespoke shapes for when you really want to make an impact! A new addition to this range is the keyring hand warmer, ideal as a giveaway at trade shows and exhibitions. The hand warmers can be reused hundreds of times and simply require a “recharge”- add them to a glass of hot water and they will be ready to heat up again! The gel inside the hand warmer is safe and non-toxic and is available in custom colours if required.

My personal favourite is the star shaped hand warmer (a lovely Christmas giveaway!)

There are lots more winter related products on our sister website www.argonpromo.co.uk Visit today and have a look!

This month, we take a step back in time with nostalgic marketing…

Nostalgic marketing is a concept which always becomes incredibly popular during times of financial crisis. Recession makes consumers yearn for memories of happier times when life was simple. This normally means thinking back to childhood when your life was filled with Cabbage Patch Dolls, Care Bears, Transformers and Masters of the Universe!

Marketers have learnt that developing an association with a brand and nostalgia creates a strong emotional connection between the consumer and that brand. This allows you to tap into consumers subconscious and really affect their buying decisions.

There are lots of examples in recent years of brands looking to capitalise on the nostalgia phenomenon:

Hovis- Perhaps one of the most successful brands to adopt the nostalgia strategy was Hovis, who in 2008 released an anniversary advert depicting 122 years of British history since the brand began. The advert reminded consumers that Hovis has survived two world wars, fed people through good and bad times and is still here over a century later. So popular was this campaign that the British public voted it “advert of the decade”.

Wispa- Cadburys highlighted the synergy between nostalgic marketing and new methods of marketing such as social media with the re-launch of the Wispa chocolate bar in 2007. What started out as a Facebook campaign by members of the public to bring the Wispa back, became a social media phenomenon with over 90 groups created on Facebook with the same aim of reviving the popular chocolate bar. Cadburys built on this by creating a Facebook page themselves with updates on the Wispa launch. This highlights a really important aspect of nostalgic marketing- its not just about reliving a particular era and evoking strong memories of the past, but reinterpreting it as relevant and valued in todays world.

Above: Many brands have successfully capitalised on nostalgic marketing including Hovis and Cadburys

If you are looking at employing nostalgic marketing as a strategy, you need to think carefully about who your target market is and the nostalgia you need to capture in order to really engage your audience. Knowing who your customers are is vital to making any marketing campaign successful and this is just as true when you are choosing promotional merchandise.

An excellent giveaway that fits the nostalgic theme is our retro sweet pot! This plastic container holds a great mix of retro sweets, fully personalised with your logo in full colour! Small and compact, this item is ideal as a giveaway at tradeshows and exhibitions and the sweets create a great talking point. Even better, if you contact us before the 30th September 2011, we will send you your very own personalised sample for free!

Above: The retro sweet pot!

Simply call 08707 500057 and quote “Loveheart” to claim your sample.

For more information and prices please contact one of our Account Managers on 08707 500057

Come back next month to see our next blog!