Category: Uncategorized

U-S-Beautiful

Staff Writer

I just finished putting together a technology showcase for the magazine, and it is truly amazing the wide array of products that have entered the marketplace in such a short time. USB drives seem to come in every shape and color, from credit-card size to ones tucked neatly inside a pen. It seems like only a couple of years ago they were priced well outside the promotional market (and most non-techies pocketbooks as well). Companies like Flash By Design are including widgets within the programming of the drives—creating sticky drives that automatically load programs or RSS feeds. Other companies like All-In-One Manufacturing are touting

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Here Comes the Bridal Promotion

Staff Writer

Bridal showers are funny things. The invitees all hem and haw about going, but it’s really just like pulling off a Band-aid. It’s never quite as bad as you anticipate.
Just add a mimosa and you can up the fun quotient on pretty much anything.
So this weekend I headed back home to Long Island for my best friend’s shower. As a member of the wedding party, I was charged with creating the centerpieces and favors for the blessed event. And as an editor at Promo Marketing magazine, I, of course, began thinking of whether or not promotional products could somehow find a niche

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Bill Gates: American Workers Not Smart Enough???

Staff Writer

I recently came across a news article on Bill Gates’ testimony before the House Committee on Science and Technology, held on March 12. As part of the hearing, Gates requested the current 65,000 cap on H-1B visas—which allows that number of foreign workers to be legally employed at U.S. companies within a given year—be removed. He argued “the shortage of trained scientists and engineers had grown so severe [in the U.S.] that it required a dramatic increase in the number of highly skilled immigrants permitted to enter the country,” according to the www.artstechnia.com Web site. Gates contended that “despite the excellence of America’s institutions

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Supplier Candid Camera (or New Product Videos)

Staff Writer

Some people may have seen me strolling around the recent PPAI and ASI shows. I was the one with the video camera convincing unsuspecting marketing managers and sales reps to show off their companies latest products on film. Now that the editing is finished, we’ve begun posting the first of the videos. I hope that everyone will take a few minutes to check them out. You never know, the sights and sounds of the shows may just shake a few of those forgotten memories loose (whether you like them or not).

Check out all the new videos including Ball Pro, Visstun and Canyon

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Can Accessories Make Bank?

Staff Writer

I was checking out the Women’s Wear Daily Web site http://www.wwd.com/monday today and something caught my eye. According to writer Caroline Tell’s assessmentx of the most recent rash of Fashion Weeks around the globe, “the runways from New York to Paris were as much about the handbags and other accessories as they were about the clothes.” Now, I’m not a WWD subscriber, so I can’t read the rest of the article (oh technology, must you mock me so?), but it did get me thinking.
A lot of the promotional wearables news I’ve reported on in the past year has pointed to our industry taking

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The Pleasure Is Mine …

Staff Writer

I actually auditioned for “Oprah’s Big Give” reality show. For those of you who watched the first of eight installments of the show that aired on ABC last Sunday, obviously I did not make the cut … but it was quite an experience!

Last April—that’s when auditions were held in NYC—my sister and I jumped on a Greyhound bus (around 1:00 a.m.) and arrived in The Big Apple at approximately 3:00 a.m. You know how you see those outrageous lines of people on TV winding around buildings, bundled in every sweatshirt and fleece blanket they own? Yup, that was us on that early

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The Politics of Promotions

Staff Writer

Well, it seems that “The New York Times” has finally caught up to me. In today’s paper they extolled the high demand for political campaign gear and the amount of revenue it can bring in for any given candidate. Even if a certain senator from for New York’s campaign won’t release the exact numbers, the article does mention Mr. Obama’s campaign sold $1.5 million in political gear on its Web site in the month of January alone. It’s an issue I first brought to light in the groundbreaking Promo Marketing magazine piece, “Hillarakaromnabee!,” and I for one am happy to see the

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Things That Are Cool

Staff Writer

I’m not an expert on this whole Internet thing, but it seems to me that the archetypical blogging equation is:
funny anecdote + industry tie-in = increased pageviews

But nothing exciting or interesting happened to me this week. I was bored. What to do about this week’s post? Well, one thing I do know a little bit about is magazines. And, when magazines need content, they make lists.
So, here goes nothing.

Five Things That Are Cool:
1) S&S Activewear always sends me images, on discs, ahead of my editorial schedule. Big ups to Terri Scales from The Tercet Group.
2)

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The End of Castro?

Staff Writer

The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.
« MARK TWAIN (1835 – 1910)

Recent headlines have revolved heavily around the “official” stepping down of oft-controversial Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. During his near 50 years of rule, the impoverished people of the Caribbean nation have felt the strain of a closed economy. But, with just a week under their belts, the new regime, led by Castro’s brother Raúl, has already signed into law two international human-rights treaties (both of which were long opposed by the elder Castro).
While most of the United States remains skeptical of any real change

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Ok, the Joke’s on Me!

Staff Writer

On the island of St. Croix, USVI—my native homeland—we have a saying that goes: “Hurry dog eat raw corn.” In phonetically written, local-dialect form, the saying would look (and sound) something like this: Huh-ree dawg eat rawh kahn. It simply means: those who make hasty and poorly-thoughtout decisions will reap the fruitless, sometimes harsh, repercussions thereof.

So, in the spirit of “Hurry dog eat raw corn,” this week, I wanted to highlight a few bloopers I’ve made as an editor for this fine publication over the years. Sometimes, it’s good to laugh at ourselves—actually, it’s often good to do so.

1. Hurry

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