In the quest to gain new customers through creative direct mail it is possible to over-egg the pudding by trying to be too clever. There are certain attributes that are very desirable in a mail shot but it is easy to go too far in trying to achieve certain goals. For example, customer interaction is a terrific commodity in B2B direct marketing but if it is not immediately obvious how the interaction works then spontaneity goes out of the window and the opportunity can be lost. Marketing professionals are well advised to keep things simple but nonetheless entertaining.

In order to turn an information sheet into a simple, interactive information tool with an obvious interaction, designers need to look no further than towards a simple stationery eyelet as a tool to provide many answers. This point is best illustrated if we take a look at circular information charts.

Circular Information Discs are Popular Promotional Tools

The main problem with this type of product is that no-one knows what they are called - wheel charts, information discs, calculators, roundels and spinners are just a few of the more common names. Whatever you may call them doesn’t alter the basic fact that they are very popular information tools that are used to promote a myriad of products. They are usually made up of either two or three discs custom printed in full colour and fastened at the centre with a metal eyelet. The eyelet allows the discs to turn around the central point in order to locate certain items of information. The top disc usually has a window or aperture through which it is easy to read information. This info can be the answer to a question, technical data or a list of products for example. Whatever it is, the reader has to interact with the disc in order to read it and so the disc becomes a good product for B2B direct marketing.

Another product that has promotional uses and that is similar to the information discs described above is a product that is familiar in the UK and many parts of Europe and that is a parking disc. In the UK in particular, such products are often used as promotion items produced on behalf of the auto industry and targeted at the motorist.

The simple metal eyelet is also at the heart of other promotional items. Take, for example, a set of information cards.

Fan-like Display Created by Eyelet Fastener

Swatch cards, also known as fan cards and information cards, are printed, die-cut, collated and fastened in one corner using a metal eyelet so that they open like a hand-held ladies fan. Such cards come in a variety of shapes and in sizes, usually from credit card size to A5 and are generally printed in full colour on 300gsm art board or a similar substrate.

There are other ways to use metal eyelets in the creation of movement and one example is to use two eyelets to present a motion similar to that produced by a fly wheel or a camshaft. The product is usually presented as a sleeve with the mechanics on the inside. A wheel at the side of the sleeve is fastened at the centre and is turned in an even, circular motion by the user. Within the sleeve, a die-cut piece is connected to the wheel by a long shaft which is eyeletted to the wheel in an off-centre position. When the wheel is turned, the shaft moves up and down with it but as the die-cut piece is held within a slot, the movement is somewhat irregular - like a “bobbing” motion. With the use of creative graphics, the die-cut piece can be made to look like a duck or a boat bobbing along in water.

As hand finishers, Whitney Woods has been supplying print finishing, hand finishing and eyeletting services to the print industry since 1992 making it one of the longest established specialist hand finishers in the UK. We have a reputation for being very thorough and for producing high quality hand finishing services. We have the capacity to handle high volume eyeletting jobs though we are equally happy to handle small quantities. Our speciality in the eyeletting arena is handling eyeletted discs, information discs, wheel charts and parking discs though we also handle tags and swatches and unusual eyeletting jobs such as using eyeletting as a binding tool.

 There are many print finishing jobs which still have to be done by hand and we handle most of them. Hand finishing jobs such as hand folding, hand collating, hand gluing and hand inserting are all covered at some length on our hand finishing website. We pride ourselves in the variety and quality of print finishing services that we offer. We are not frightened to ask questions or to raise doubts over the specification of any job. If we can foresee any problems we will discuss them with you rather than to carry on regardless. Whilst some printers have found this to be a pain, they are very grateful when they see that a reprint has been averted!

 When you ask for a quote for a hand finishing or eyeletting job we send you a very precise description of what will happen. The same applies should you need a price for our mailing house or marketing services. The comprehensive detail on the quote cuts out any misunderstandings and does not allow for assumptions. Our quote is typical of the standard of hand finishing work that you can expect from us – very thorough with attention to detail. The same can be said of quotes for eyeletting where we discuss hole sizes, the act of clearing waste from holes and the job of stripping out die-cut pieces from a sheet. The quote will be delivered by email or by fax and will be done within a couple of hours of placing the request.

We have an opportunity for you to add our “back to basics” services to your portfolio. We offer traditional hand finishing and eyeletting services. The only machines that we have in our factory are paper drills and hand-operated eyeletting machines. In fact, eyeletting is probably our biggest niche market with eyeletted discs being our forte. We do millions of them each year; we handle high-volume orders and we can do it quickly. We are known by printers throughout the length and breadth of the UK as a highly reliable company that produces both quality hand work and quality eyeletting services.

 However, there is a catch. Unlike many other hand finishers and eyeletting companies we don’t work for nothing and we refuse to become busy fools. Our work is charged out at a fair price, we do it right and we do it on time. We assess each job at the quoting stage and point out any pitfalls before they happen. If we can’t do it, we won’t take the job on. If we can’t get the price that we want, we don’t take it on.

 In times like these, printers and finishers in the industry come and go. Phoenix companies spring up overnight only to fail again with alarming regularity. It may be comforting for you to know that we have been in business since 1992 and over 75% of our workforce has been with us for over 10 years. We believe that we have a good balance of sound business practices and proactive marketing policies that have allowed us to grow and prosper whilst others have fallen by the wayside. If you feel like you could help to build on that solid base then please get in touch. You can see details of our company on our hand finishing website and you will also find contact details there, too.

Here at Whitney Woods we are particularly well known for our exciting range of pop up and interactive promotional items.  In the last couple of months we’ve also launched two brand new ranges ‘Bottle Bows’ and ‘Wobbly Bits’…but there is even more to us than that!

As proud as we are of the fantastic products we produce, we’re also keen to remind people that we offer one of the best print finishing services around with everything we do here being finished by hand.  You may not know this but we originally started out as a mailing house and specialist print finishers giving us over 15 years of experience.  We offer mailing services to B2B clients as a hand-enclosing mailing house, and also providing the print industry with hand finishing and specialist eyeletting services.

We provide eyeletting services which can be applicable to a variety of products including parking discs, wheel charts and comparison charts.  We also eyelet luggage tags and swing tickets and offer drilling and stringing services as is often required for these of items.  We’re also able to eyelet a strip of flat elastic to the cover of diaries, notepads and folders to hold the book/folder closed, and in certain instances eyeletting can also be used in place of side stitching or side stabbing to bind a book down one edge. 

There are so many finishing services available, please don’t hesitate to call our estimating team on 01706 210538 to discuss any enquiries.

We don’t think that enough use is made of the humble eyelet in the design of promotional marketing products. The simple task of eyeletting can add that extra bit of interest to any promotional print product which just might rescue it from being considered ‘average’. 

An eyelet could help create car wheels that turn, steering wheels, turning hands on a clock – all kinds of things - but for some reason we just end up with millions of requests for “Volvelles” or wheel charts! For one such example of a creative use of eyeletting in the manufacture of a promotional marketing product, you could take inspiration from our “Bobbing Duck” which simply consists of two internal eyeleted wheels which cleverly produce an irregular bobbing movement.

A rather more practical use of eyeletting is seen in the production of promotional swatch cards. Whilst they might lack the playful and amusing attributes of the bobbing duck, swatch cards are very popular indeed. The fact that the user has to rotate each card makes the action of moving from one page to the next a more interesting movement than turning the page in a leaflet. Promotional swatch cards are usually pocket-sized which tends to make them quite a tactile product as well as being user-friendly and informative.

Parking Discs are used by local authorities throughout the UK but have yet to be discovered by the advertising industry. Survey results published in Promotions Buyer magazine (May 2008) revealed that nearly two thirds of respondents could name a brand or company / organisation featured on promotional merchandise that is kept in their car. And almost 95% of respondents believe that branded promotional merchandise increases a company’s brand awareness. Almost half have purchased from the branded companies.

Parking discs present a brilliant opportunity for advertisers. There are millions of motorists in the UK who reside in towns where a parking disc scheme is in operation. Each day millions of motorists handle a parking disc at least twice and so each day that parking disc is seen by that motorist at least twice! That’s a lot more than a map, an ice scraper, a pen, a sun shield, a tax disc holder or any other form of in-car advertising!

Think of the opportunities for a whole array of industries allied to the car industry… insurance companies, breakdown services, motoring organization, petrol and diesel suppliers, windscreen replacement, car dealerships, tyre companies… parking discs can offer an inexpensive way of ensuring that you giveaway gets noticed more than any other form of in-car promotional merchandise.