We’ve all been to trade shows whether as a visitor or as an exhibitor, and we’ve all had the same experience.  The second you’ve stepped foot through the door a goody bag is being shoved in your hand and as you make your way round each stand that goody bag just grows and grows.  This is because it is well documented that it is no good running a stand at an exhibition or organizing a corporate event without giving the attendees something to remember you by. The only thing is, as we’ve just pointed out, everyone does it. Not only that, but all of the attendees walk out with plastic carrier bags full of freebies and realistically they don’t care what’s printed on it just as long as it was free!

So what good is that? Promotional giveaways are supposed to promote your company – not just fill someone’s desk drawers! Mouse mats, coasters, pens – when the exhibition attendees get back to base they can’t even give the stuff away as everyone else is already overburdened with the same stuff – all of it free as giveaways from other trade shows.

When it comes to your turn to promoting your stand and your company, you firstly need to master the knack to be able to spot the wheat from the chaff. Once you are able to sort out serious prospects from time-wasters and freebie-collectors that’s the time to invite your visitor to accept your handout. If your own product is a fun thing and your guests have a sense of humour then there is no better handout than a pop up product – particularly one with a big impact, a big surprise and a big laugh.

One product which ticks all of these boxes, offers loads of room for promotional print and is not too hard on the marketing budget is the Whitney Woods Jumpinjax.  The product is very simple – a small cardboard pack that has a sliding tray. Pull out the tray and 4 cardboard cubes jump out – but, boy, they don’t half make you jump!  Hand one of these to your visitor whilst he’s on your stand and watch the fun unfold. A real ice-breaker if ever there was one and a surprise that the visitor is unlikely to forget. So much so that the visitor will want another one for his office to try it out on his colleagues. This is interactive marketing instead of handing out “invisible” freebies.

If your moving premises and need to make sure your customers are updated with all your new contact details, we have plenty of exciting ideas to make sure they note your new address details.

You could send an email or a plain old postcard, but if you’re move is due to expansion or to a more prestigious location surely you want to shout about it and send them something that will really sit up and take notice.

The relocation might be to a bright new building which you are keen to show off. If that is the case, then a bespoke popup card could well be the answer to adding some attention grabbing movement to your “moving office” announcement. The new building could be made as a pop-up piece in the centrefold of a 4-page A5 moving card. Your customer would open the card and the new building or new office would pop up before his very eyes! We have done quite a few cards in this style and it makes a very impressive custom printed, bespoke way of saying “we are moving”.

Another product with movement which could also be called into action as an office relocation announcement is the Whitney Woods Push’n’Pull. The product is a sleeve with a sophisticated mechanism within. Pull a card at one end of the sleeve and another card comes up from the opposite end at the same time. Push the original card back inside the sleeve and the other card disappears at the same time. This is another product which is ideal for passing on a message which says “We have moved from here to here”. Moving offices never used to be this much fun!

The shape of your new premises might also sway the choice of an announcement or notice to tell your customers that you are moving. If your business is moving to new industrial units then these could well be printed on the sides of a pop up cuboid. Alternatively, if your business is a traditional shop or restaurant, for example, then a house-shaped pop up might be more appropriate. Either way, both of these products come with their own printed mailers and are perfect for direct mail!

It is surprising just how many “We are moving” announcements are sent out on postcards and letters which do not result in records being updated by the recipient. This is largely because the type of “we are moving” announcement – a postcard or letter – is too easily thrown away or lost in a pile of “any other business”.

Sometimes the announcement is simply a change of address notification and sometimes it is part of a big piece of PR to announce that the company is moving onwards and upwards. Either way, it is important for customers to be aware of the changes and therefore it is important that the customer takes notice of the announcement.

The use of an interactive mailer will make a difference to the success of the relocation announcement and use of the right interactive mailer can make a lot of difference. If the interactive mailer has a movement which can suggest change then the rest is down to the graphic designer! The simplest product in the Whitney Woods range of interactive mailers with pictures that change is a Dissolver. It is a cardboard sleeve with a window in the front. Pull a tab and the picture in the window changes which makes it a classic “before and after” product which is ideal to show that the relocation is “from here to there”. The dissolvers come in different sizes including A6, A5 and 1/3 A4 which are all ideal for mailing as they fit standard envelope sizes. There are also different styles of dissolver including 4-page options and products with two dissolving picture windows.

Of course, not all product information is produced to provide an immediate boost to sales. In many instances product information sheets are produced to actually pass on information to help a retailer or a counter clerk. it’s in these instances that you need a product which can pass on the relevant information in an easy-to-read format.  A great example of one such product is the information disc. This type of product information tool is often produced for the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Financial institutions are another sector which favour this type of product. Information discs focus the mind on the important product data and the fact that the product has to be turned in order to see each point makes the information disc easy to read but also highly interactive, much more appealing than a plain 2pp A4 leaflet filled with a sea of writing, also making it far less likely to get ‘mislaid’.

Our range of pocket media also offer other more attractive alternatives to flat A4 fact sheets and are great when sending information directly to your customers. The Foldilocks card is an example of a credit-card sized interactive product which will be kept in a purse or a pocket and can hold lots of information. The product is a six-panel concertina card with a four-page locking cover so there is plenty of room for all your promotional print. Swatch Cards are also popular choice as information cards, with a separate fact usually being printed on each card. Swatch Cards are a really flexible option as they can contain any amount of cards and be cut to any shape or size but most often there are about 8 to10 cards per swatch and they are the size of a credit card or size A7.

It is not every promotional mailing that is is sent out making a big announcement of a new product or of a product upgrade announcement. Sometimes it is simply a reminder that the product is still available or perhaps it is to give a boost to flagging sales. If this is the case and there is nothing new about the actual product then it is doubly important that the promotional print catches the eye. Product information is a very loose description for virtually any promotional print and so it is difficult to suggest any particular product which may be most suited to carry the product’s details.

It would be cheap and easy to send out an A4 information sheet with product details but it would be equally easy for the customer to ignore the contents. It is much better if the product name and details could create a stir when it arrives in the post and then to remain on a customer’s desk for ages. An excellent way to achieve this would be to create a desk top calendar or pen pot – or a combination of the two – and Whitney Woods has many examples of direct marketing products which can tick all the boxes.

Desk top calendars and pen holders with a pop up action come in a variety of shapes and sizes. If the product has a shape then it could be that one of our pop up products can match the shape. Pop up desk calendars and pen holders come in cubes, squares, hexagons, trapeziums and house shapes. Each one is custom printed to hold the product information and each one is designed to lie flat in its own printed all-board mailer ready to jump out when the customer opens the envelope. This gives each attention-grabbing mailer the elements of fun, surprise and long-term functionality which is exactly what is required of this type of product information mailer.