Each year on the last day of Expo East, one of our annual promotional marketing trade shows, a few brave souls get up (or stay up) at 6 AM from a night of drinking and hit the Atlantic City Boardwalk to run a 5K and raise money for a great cause. The Howard Blum 5K 4 5K raises money for the SAAGNY Foundation's various charities, including: its scholarship fund for industry children, Happiness Is Camping, a camp for children battling cancer, Hilltop School, a school for disabled children, and www.WavesforWater.org, a hurricane relief initiative.

Last year's race raised $7.500; the goal for this year's race was $10,000.

Mallory Scott and I were up bright and early to help the cause and burn off the last few drops of beer and tequila. Mallory did amazing... and I finished.

But what do the swag-makers get in their own swag bags? Funny you should ask- a lot. A whole lot. And it's the good stuff!

Event T-shirt, running hat, and retro sunglasses.

Zipper tote, drawstring backpack, and Foundation T-shirt.

Microfiber cloth, lip balm, sunscreen, mobile phone holder, safety reflector light, and first aid kit.

T-shirt shaped collapsible bottle, blender bottle, and sport bottle.

Great events and lots of great items. If you or your organization has an event coming up, and you are looking to rev up your swag bag, give us a call. We'll show you what's hot.

Every year, Pantone selects a Color of the Year. 2012 was the punchy Tangerine Tango. Their top pick for 2013 comes from the opposite side of the color wheel. Say hello to Emerald green!

(source)

Pantone's choice of color has a lot of influence, inspiring everything from beauty products to fashion trends and home decor. Expect to see a lot of green on the shelves this year.

Why emerald? Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute Leatrice Eiseman explains, "It's a color of growth, renewal, healing, unity and regeneration- words we're all so in need of at this point of history."

"The entire green family has been so strong, upcoming through the '90s as we're paying attention to nature, so the family isn't new, but what we needed to look at and revisit was the psychological background: Emerald is such a balanced color, and balance is something to pick up on and listen to," she adds (source).

Like many industries, we rely on the Pantone Matching System (PMS) Color Chart in promotional products to communicate imprint colors with our clients and vendors, so I always find the color announcement to be pretty exciting.

What are your thoughts on Emerald? I bet Starbucks is pleased!

Thus far in our recaps of the ASI Orlando Trade Show, we've reviewed new items in apparel and technology. This last post will be a bit disorganized. Let's just call it... everything else!



In drinkware, many vendors have expanded their capabilities in full color decoration. I'm a big fan of these Tritan plastic and stainless steel water bottles and thermoses. They're double-walled to keep your beverage hot or cold longer, and fitted sleeves (composed of neoprene or leatherette) keep your hands comfortable and dry. The imprint opportunities here are great too. Catalog pricing on the water bottles shown above includes a spot color imprint on the upper bottle and a four color process wrap design on the sleeve.



On the stainless steel tumblers with leatherette sleeve, pricing includes a spot color imprint on the stainless bottle and a deboss in one location.



Tervis is another supplier doing great things with decoration. Their American-made double-walled tumblers have been popular since 1946, and many people would quickly recognize their clear tumblers decorated with an embroidered patch insert. Check out what they're doing with graphic decals these days. I love that UPS cup in particular.

I thought this 4-in-1 kitchen gadget was pretty handy. Use it as a slotted spoon, spatula, knife or spoon.



Branded spiral bound journals are not a "new" item, but a creative design is always worth sharing. We love how American Airlines used a custom insert page to accentuate the journal's die-cut cover.



Have you seen seeded paper before? We love to use it for invitations, holiday cards, stationary, business cards, direct mail... you name it! Here's something new for 2012- seeded paper confetti. These would make fabulous party favors or table accents.



They call this item a Tee Shaker. When I saw the display and product name from afar, I half expected a T-shirt to be inside. I mean, crazier things have been done! Of course, the name refers to a more sensibly sized golf tee. Before teeing off at a new hole, just flip the canister upside down and pluck off a tee. The extra tees will fall back inside when you turn it right-side up. Get creative with a four color process imprint. How adorable is the little Morton Salt piece?



Another excellent full color product for golf tournaments is this custom umbrella. Few other products can offer you such a big imprint area in a compact and functional piece.



And finally, we have the Drop Stopper, a neat little flexible disc designed to save your table tops from burgundy drips. A truly successful product has outstanding design, is easy to use and actually solves a problem. The Drop Stopper satisfies all three criteria. Think of it for your next gala or wine event. It too, like so many other items in this post, is printed in full color.

Thanks for sticking with us through our recap of Orlando favorites! Please give us a call if you'd like more information on anything we covered.

On Tuesday, Piper Weiss of Yahoo's Shine Staff wrote a blog post drawing attention to the unfortunate grammatical error printed on hundreds of thousands of Old Navy T-shirts.


Source: oldnavy.gap.com

Ouch.

As Weiss points out, the missing apostrophe is particularly damaging given the number and nature of the parties involved. Sure, the mistake reflects poorly on Old Navy, but what about the universities? An institute of higher learning whose students struggle with simple contractions? I'm sure they really appreciate the irony.

If there weren't egos and hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, I'm sure the little error would be hilarious. Kind of like Cake Wrecks.
East Coast readers, I highly recommend skimming Wednesday's post for a good laugh!

The mistake is being investigated, but the reality is that no single person deserves the blame.

The lesson we can all learn from this- check and recheck your proofs. If an apostrophe can escape dozens of sets of eyes on a large-scale retail project, imagine the potential for error on smaller jobs.

Old Navy, if it's any consolation, at least your you're not the only one.


Source: wetseal.com

Sonic Promos has signed on as the exclusive Special Markets Distributor for Operation Hydros. Their sleek-looking Hydros bottle is BPA free, dishwasher safe and American made. The built-in, fast-flow filtering system makes it easy to get great tasting water from the water fountains, kitchen sinks and bathroom taps we walk by daily. And the best part is, every Hydros bottle equals one dollar donated to an environmentally sustainable water infrastructure project. That translates to a year's worth of clean water per bottle for those who need it most. Talk about refreshing!