Archive for April, 2009

Situ8, the Chicago-based experiential agency, has hired Erik McKinney as vice president

- Finish the sentence: “Without advertising…” (LOL at “I’d have a savings account.”)

Challenge: To source just the right fleece jacket for workshop attendees.

While there is no standard rulebook for the care and feeding of user groups, there is common knowledge of their win-win nature: members win by gaining access to unique educational, networking and career opportunities; companies win by nurturing customer champions and letting actual customer desires drive product direction and development.

Online Business Applications (OBA), a provider of advanced software solutions for the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, taps the power of the user group for its flagship product, the Information Request Management System (IRMS). IRMS is the leading medical information software package in use today. The IRMS User Group, enhancing the desirability and value of its namesake, gives customers a forum through which they may access OBA-led education and exchange practical implementation and usage experiences with other IRMS customers.

Each spring and fall, the OBA team hosts the IRMS Workshop, a two-day event during which customers mix and mingle while learning about product enhancements, attending break-out sessions and customer presentations, and discovering new ways to use IRMS to its fullest potential. During past workshops, the team has provided promotional products as a gesture of goodwill and to thank customers for attending, items like water bottles, clocks and branded bags.

This year, armed with a larger budget, the team purposefully veered in a new direction—fleece jackets. Considering the notoriously cold workshop and session spaces, fleece made perfect sense: while customers in the know typically come prepared with sweaters or jackets; first timers often shiver with regret, wishing they’d brought jackets as well. Branded gift jackets would not only insulate customers from the cold; they’d also increase brand awareness and communicate a more meaningful, grander “thank you.”

Solution: Generously cut 100-percent non-pilling full zip fleece jacket.

While identifying the right product type might be easy, it is just the first step in a longer production process. The next step—sifting through a haystack of seemingly similar products to hone in on the one that best meets requirements—calls for expert advice, which is precisely why the OBA team turned to ePromos Promotions Specialist Caitlin Powers.

Caitlin listened, researched fleece options, recommended several products for the team’s consideration and sent a sample as requested. The team loved the sample and, soon after, asked Caitlin to place their order for the Full Zip Fleece Jacket. This 365-gram, 100 percent non-pilling fleece is generously cut and ideal for layering. It also features two zip front pockets, a full zip front and custom embroidery on the front.

Result: Overwhelmingly favorable response leads team to order more jackets and add giveaway venues.

The team reports that workshop attendees and OBA staff alike loved their new OBA-branded fleece jackets, happily donning them during the chilly breakout and networking sessions. Recipient response was so overwhelmingly favorable that the team ordered more jackets and added tradeshows and client meetings as giveaway venues, thus creating even greater brand awareness and a fleet of walking billboards for OBA. Most recently, the team also gave the jackets to staff as a company gift, to boost morale, as well.

Check out other products that are perfect for promoting your Software Company.
Browse through our collection of Promotional Fleeces.
Find other products to use as giveaways for your next Trade Show or Event Promotion.

Online Business Applications Custom Fleece Tradeshow Promotion (PDF Version)

With the official launch of its brand on the Twitter microblogging service, Church’s Chicken has announced the addition of a community-benefit element to its newly beefed-up interactive marketing efforts

A new children’s book authored by the winner of a Cheerios contest is being packaged with 1.5 million boxes of Cheerios