This Saturday, May 18th, the Rotary Club of Bethesda Chevy Chase will host its 8th Annual Strut Your Mutt Dog Parade and Festival in downtown Bethesda, MD. If you live in the area and own a dog (or just love them), be sure to swing by. In addition to the parade, enjoy dozens of vendor booths, kid-friendly games and activities, and a raffle. The event runs from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

Unfortunately, not all of us are able to attend Saturday's event, so we've opted to celebrate with a mini Mutt Strut of the Sonic dogs, here on our blog.

Lexi and Sade- belong to Seth and Julianne

Banjo- belongs to Courtney

Blaze- belongs to Debbie

Griff- belongs to Josh

Jordan- belongs to Brandon

Oscar- belongs to Debbie

Renley- belongs to Lindsay

Simba- belongs to Jamie

Between random samples, showroom samples, client projects and our personal water bottles and tumblers, there is a lot of drinkware floating around 435 East Diamond Avenue. Some pieces find their way onto a showroom shelf or to a corner in the office kitchen, but most of them get tossed into jumbled boxes and storage containers.

Julianne spotted a smart storage solution on a blog yesterday, and we just might have to put it in practice.


We thought our clients and readers- especially those with crowded supply closets- might appreciate this trick as well. Enjoy!

All photos from Spinning Our Webb- thanks for sharing this great tip, Heather!

SXSW 2013 ended nearly three weeks ago, so I'm more than a little late in posting this recap. Better late than never, right?

If you're a longtime reader of our blog, you might remember our post last March highlighting the various materials that Sonic created for .CO's SXSW 2012 event lineup. Well, this year I had the opportunity to visit with .CO at the Tech Cocktail event held at Stage on 6th and got to see all of Jamie's hard work in person.

.CO definitely knows how to create a buzz! I had a great time helping with the photo booth, chatting with attendees and watching guests enjoy the materials.

Here's a look at some of the items created for the event:



These bright orange glasses, SoftStyle T-shirts and bandannas were a huge hit at Tech Cocktail! People snatched them up left and right. Even the bartenders were sporting bandannas.

The bandannas were also a popular choice of prop at the interactive photo booth. Pictures from the booth displayed on rotation at the entrance to Stage on 6th.


These watches were a fully custom piece. Tidy packaging made them easy to unpack, stack and hand out.


Be sure to check out .CO's recap of the Tech Cocktail event and the rest of their experience at SXSW 2013!

I recently had the opportunity to spend a night at the Aloft Hotel in Dallas. Aloft is one of nine brands under Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Aloft positions itself as a modern, fresh and fun destination, and I certainly felt that theme as a guest, in every detail, right down to the mini bath products and other hotel freebies.

The hotel's decor was gorgeous- my room, the lobby and common areas, truly every space- but working in promotional products, it's the little branded details that really catch my attention.

Take the notepad and pencil above, for example. How stinkin' cute are they?

They're not just cute, they're a smart use of promotional products, and they embody a best practice by which I like to abide.

The best practice I'm referring to is asking yourself, with every project- can it be just a little bit better?

With notepads, adhesive or non-adhesive scratch, standard decoration includes a 4-color process sheet imprint with optional full bleed. Many businesses just print their logo at the top, maybe a phone number or website at the bottom of the pad, and call it a day. To me, that seems like a waste. You've already paid for the entire sheet imprint, so why not get playful with design and create something more attention-grabbing?

Aloft upped the ante on a simple notepad (without upping their piece price) with the addition of the "a-list" ghost imprint. It's very subtle, and I'm sure many guests wouldn't pay it a second glance, but to someone like me who appreciates a good pun and clever design, it added a little something to my experience.

Take a lesson from Aloft, and before you sign off on your next promotional piece, take a moment to ask yourself (or to ask your trusted promotional rep)- can it be just a little bit better?

Have any of you been the lucky recipient of a Kleenex Care Pack?

(source)

This cold and flu season, Kleenex is engaging consumers by encouraging them to send care packs to loved ones in need of some extra TLC. Participants are welcomed to share their stories and connect with other buyers on the company's website.

Taken from the Kleenex website-

Every year, during Softness Worth Sharing, people come together to share the Softness of Kleenex Brand tissue. For some, it's become a yearly tradition to surprise someone they care about with America's Softest Tissue.

Today, the tradition continues to grow. The famous little Kleenex Brand Share Pack has expanded- into a Kleenex Brand Care Pack filled with goodies to help care for your loved ones during cold and flu season. It's yours to send when you buy a specially marked Kleenex Bundle Pack.

As a consumer, I love this campaign. I sure wish I'd had a pack on hand the other week when I was feeling under the weather. Speaking of that... try Zicam, people. Do it.

As a promotional marketer, I admire this campaign. It's a perfect example of what we do our best to teach our clients at Sonic- how to use promotional products to connect with your market and increase revenue.

Let's take a closer look at the Care Pack campaign, from a promotional perspective.

(source)

Each Kleenex Care Pack contains lip balm, hand sanitizer, a coupon booklet, a Kleenex Brand Share Pack of tissues, and a music download card redeemable for four songs.

From a sales perspective, what are the most important items in this box?

My answer would be- the coupon booklet and music download card.

In these two items, Kleenex has ensured they'll benefit from this campaign with increased revenue, not just through goodwill and word-of-mouth. The coupons will lead to direct sales, and the music download cards will net them valuable data about their target market.

I can't be 100% sure, as I haven't received and redeemed one of the Kleenex music cards myself, but digital download cards generally require the user to visit a custom landing page and enter some basic contact information. Depending on the complexity of the landing page, there might also be a short survey required, through which Kleenex can wisely conduct marketing research to learn more about how their consumers interact with and feel about their products and brand.

All in all, the Kleenex Care Pack campaign is a very smart initiative; one that benefits both brand and buyer. For companies looking to promote a health and wellness program and engage employees, a similar care pack would be an excellent promotion. Maybe even throw in some antimicrobial phone pads to control germs around the office!