Where will you be on April 22nd? Helping your neighbors? Beautifying the community? Making a difference?

More than 10,000 Jewish teens around the world will be!

J-Serve, the International Day of Jewish Youth Service is scheduled for April 22nd this year.* Taken from the J-Serve website- "J-Serve provides teens with the opportunity to fulfill the Jewish values of gemilut chasidim, acts of loving kindness, tzedakah, just and charitable giving, and tikkum olam, the responsibility to repair the world. Across the globe, teens will join each other to make their community and the world a better place."

For several years now, Sonic Promos has been proud to be involved with this great event. Starting in 2008, Sonic took on the job of designing an event T-shirt and organizing a national order to unite community projects around the country. 

Each year, all shirts share the same front design...

... and information about national sponsors on the back.

Communities have the option to customize the shirt's upper and lower back with their city name(s) and local sponsors.











There are several advantages to group purchase programs-

1. High total quantity and a great price for all: As is true with all promotional products, the higher the quantity of items, the lower the piece price. Some parties might need a large order of 400 pieces while others require just 50. By grouping everyone together, they all benefit from a lower price. 

2. Branding consistency: Printing all materials in one location ensures that there will be no inconsistencies in artwork. Avoid color variations, size discrepancies, proportion distortions and other errors by centralizing production.

3. Centralized invoicing and customer service: This feature of group purchasing is especially advantageous when a central finance department foots the bill for purchases made by multiple branch offices. Would you rather receive invoices from 12 different suppliers in 12 different cities or a single invoice from a single vendor? Easy decision.

If your organization could benefit from group purchasing, contact us at info@sonicpromos.com to organize a program.

*Several communities conduct their community service activities on alternate dates.

Working in marketing, you might think that one becomes numb to the obvious attempts by corporations to sway personal opinions. 

I believe the opposite is true- I love my work specifically because I enjoy getting swept away by a campaign whose creativity, pragmatic smarts or campy appeal overwhelms my skepticism and earns my respect.

Last week I hit the coffee aisle at my local Giant. I generally spend as little restocking the Keurig as I can- ordering in bulk, applying a 20% off coupon at the Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was ready to pay full price for some caffeinated refreshment. Then I saw this.

Perfect. Deep down inside I had no delusions that this coffee would actually lift the fog, per se, but the name so accurately described what I wanted from my roasted beans that I made the purchase feeling hopeful and guilt free. 

The same mentality applies when I walk into work and brew one of these puppies.

Oh yeah- that's some Jet Fuel in our office machine, ready to launch my day!

Now, the case may be that "a rose by any other name" would smell pretty sweet, or, in this scenario, coffee-licious. But sometimes telling people straight out that you know what they want and that you can deliver what it is, might be just enough to garner an initial buy in. 

Your product or service still has to prove itself, and the burden-of-proof bar is definitely higher when the claim is super blatant. But, if the consumer (or client) finds that your word is good, then the next time they see an over-the-top claim from you (offering a new product, proposing a unique solution, or exploring a different direction), they will be open to the idea that engagement with you begins with an assumption of trust and credibility.

If you pop over to LinkedIn today, you will probably see an article floating around titled "5 Reasons You Need to Meet in Person" by René Shimada Siegel.

Since I've been working for Sonic remotely from Austin, TX for several months now, this article immediately caught my eye. I spend at least two months out of the year in the Washington Metropolitan area meeting with clients, and René's points remind me why these visits are so critical.

Source: freedigitalphotos.net

Reposted from Inc.com:5 Reasons You Need to Meet in Person

My clients are just like yours: They want to Skype, email and text. But here's why you still need face time.

I love new technologies that allow me communicate with others more freely and quickly. But as a business owner, I try to remember customers want to work with someone they can relate to, not just buy from

Numbers 2, 3 and 5 resonate particularly loudly for me. My favorite part about meeting in person is the ease with which you can talk about non work-related topics. When conversation deviates from the task at hand, I don't view it as a negative. Rather, I see it as an opportunity to truly connect with the person sitting across from me. I like learning about your pets, your children, your taste in books. It only makes me more eager to work with you again and again.

Point 5, "learn where the action is", is especially important given that our goal at Sonic Promos it to learn your brand, your taste and your style, and to make appropriate product recommendations. Being able to meet in person and absorb the environment around me is critical to producing creative ideas.

What are your thoughts on this article? Do you make it a priority to meet with clients and vendors in person?

In a perfect world, every project would be completed exactly as planned, on time and on budget. Alas, we don't live in a perfect world, and mistakes occasionally happen.



Although we are extremely careful about proofing and tracking orders, a typo might sneak past several sets of eyes, a screen print might feather on the press, or a nasty snowstorm might strike a UPS hub. When these situations arise, we do everything in our power to act quickly and provide an appropriate solution.

Shipping errors are definitely the hardest to fix. Once a shipment is in UPS' hands, it is extremely difficult (read- impossible) to intercept and redirect the package. Now, please don't misunderstand me, UPS does a wonderful job. UPS sorts and delivers tens of millions of packages every day, and the fact that only a handful of mistakes skate by is truly a credit to their service. Be it so, it's smart practice to err on the side of caution and allow a few extra days for shipping or even upgrade to expedited service.

Printing errors are a bit easier to remedy. If you have enough time before the items are needed, you can always reprint the order. If the event is, oh, TOMORROW, you have to get a little creative.


One solution that is both quick and inexpensive is a sticker. Similar to the gold star you craftily used to conceal the fat 'F' on a school report brought home to Mom, a custom printed sticker will hide anything you don't want seen. If you go about it correctly, the sticker might even look intentionally placed. In the example above, the collector's edition decal works double duty. It conceals the typo below and increases the perceived value of the piece.

We hate to admit that mistakes occur, but if and when they do, rest assured that we will correct them.

The Computer Age has given the individual easy access to a seemingly infinite database of information. Questions or problems that we would have previously struggled to tackle on our own are now answered with a simple trip to google.com.

Most of the time, I fully support the advantages of our modern system. I like ending stupid arguments about the number of landlocked countries in Europe (there are 15, fyi) before they begin. I like using my smart phone to determine which constellation I'm looking at in the night sky. And thanks to the IMDb app, I really like never having to struggle through a movie wondering, "where have I seen this actress before?"

Sometimes though, with all this information around me, I have to wonder if I might actually be thinking less.

Just because we have access to every issue out there does not mean that we are systematically an expert on every issue out there. Let's all take a big, deep humbling breath and admit that webmd.com is not a substitute for a medical degree. One-click answers are surely satisfying, but they are incomplete more often than not. It's in these instances when it still pays to consult a professional.

Promotional products provide a perfect example.

Let's say I have a corporate event coming up, and I really want to present our guests and panel speakers with one of those cups that I saw at Starbucks yesterday morning. I google "printed tumblers" and get 1,100,000 results. Wait. I can be more specific than that. I want a straw too!

"Printed tumblers with straw"

208,000 results. That's a little better, but I'm still not much closer to making a decision. No, for that, I will certainly need pictures.

Here are three different plastic tumblers with straws:



They all look about the same, right?

One of them holds 24 fluid ounces, while the other two hold 16. One is composed of SAN Plastic, ensuring that varied content temperatures will not cause the tumbler's surface to craze and sweat. One comes with TWO straws, in case you lose or break the first.

Product descriptions could probably give you this information, but will they tell you which tumbler is in stock at 200 pieces? Will they explain to you which tumbler can be produced in 1-, 3- or 7-days time? Will they steer you away from the tumbler that frequently arrives with cracked lids and missing straws?

My point here is that there is often more to your query than a search engine can reveal. Sometimes it's best just to leave it to the experts.