Promotional Merchandise has been proven to be extremely cost effective when compared to many other sorts of advertising including TV, Posters, Classified and Radio. It covers a vast array of products and is used in every single market in one form or another. As well as covering work related situations promotional gifts extend into the home, travel and leisure industry. This article discusses many types of promotional products available and why they are so successful.

Paper promotional products cover a diverse range of items from sticky notes or A4 jotter pads to memo block and note books. The fact that these are extremely useful at home or in the office works very much in their favour.

Plastic also plays a big part with entire ranges of outdoor play items such as Frisbees or Boomerangs. Promotional Pens are also made of plastics as are budget keyrings. These two products are estimated to be the biggest sellers in the promotional merchandise market and account for almost 25% of all sales

Metal is used in the manufacture of keyrings and pens as well as many other promotional gifts. The look, feel and weight of these promotional items have a higher perceived value and are used in the more up market promotions. A combination of metal and plastic is used for many IT products such as promotional USBs or clocks etc.

Textiles offer a massive range of promotional gifts also with one of the most popular items being the ubiquitous printed T-shirt. This is followed closely by promotional polo shirts, jackets and other types of clothing. The Promotional Fleece has grown to be extremely popular and is very well accepted. Headwear such as promotional baseball caps and Beanie hats are used as promotional gifts in many thousands of events throughout the year.

Other popular types of materials include leather which is used in the manufacture of promotional folders, promotional bags and some the more upmarket types of clothing. Leather substitutes such as PVC, leatherette and E.leather are evn more popular. Manufacturers of these products have worked very hard in trying to make them as close to the real thing as possible.

As with most forms of advertising there are numerous ways to measure the return on your investment. If for example you were advertising on TV you could check the RAJAR figures which tell you how many people were watching TV whilst your advertisement was showing. However posters placed at the side of the road can be measured in terms of how many people pass them by. If it is positioned at a sports ground, how many people attend the events or watch them on TV.

With Promotional Merchandise the number of views per click are almost impossible to estimate. The reason is that many promotional gifts such as ceramic mugs or mousemats remain on view for years and not just a week or two. So when you compare the different sorts of advertising available whilst promotional products may not be massively visible immediately they do remain with consumers much longer. The fact that are also useful or fun adds greatly to the overall client experience and increases the recall and fondness for the brand.