Edible Packaging, Heads-Up Movement and Haptic Technology—just a few items from the annual list of 100 Things to Watch for the year ahead from JWT.

It’s a wide-ranging compilation that reflects developments surfacing across sectors including technology, television, food and spirits, retail, health care and the arts. The list also includes new types of goods or businesses, new behaviors and ideas with the potential to ladder up to bigger trends.

When it comes to Business to Business marketing one of the key necessities is to stand out and get past the gate keepers. Reaching qualified prospects with impact is crucial. Creating a positive emotion when presenting your marketing is also very important when you want your clients and customers to remember you.  Using direct marketing and now known as dimensional mail, is now offering new and creative ways to break through the media clutter.

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s Response Rate Report – You can compare any direct response medium flat direct mail with dimensional, 3D tactile mailings and see that measured responses can pull 200-300% better than flat, envelope pieces.  In fact in the Direct Marketing Association’s Response Rate Report states last year, dimensional mail averaged the highest overall response rate, at 5.49 percent, of any direct response medium, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s Response Rate Report, with campaigns for some businesses yielding astronomical response rates of close to 16 percent. (The average response rate for other direct mail ast year was just 2.73 percent.)

The key to understanding dimensional mail is for one thing is that it’s not flat, and it typically arrives in a 3D Cube box or a cylindrical tube.  Consumer marketers selling packaged goods, for instance, have traditionally used boxed mailings to send product samples to hundreds of thousands of consumer prospects at one time. Unfortunately, only extremely deep-pocketed companies can employ this form of sampling to reach wide consumer audiences. The good news is, when used to target business-to-business prospects; dimensional mail campaigns can be dramatically effective in producing results from small, well-qualified, prospects.

Now B2B marketers can create custom small run dimensional mailings. Not all dimensional programs are the same, and they certainly do not offer the same results.  Depending on creative, and whether or not the campaing is long term or short lived.  But most importantly, one objective is clear. Engage your prospect with information that is delivered in a fun and playful medium.

Here are some ideas for creating a 3D dimensional marketing campaign:

1. Pre-qualify your list. Because mail that arrives in a box can be hard to resist, dimensional mailings are rarely discarded or opened by screeners, making them a great way to get your sales materials seen–and noticed–by your prospects. And although dimensional mail has a higher per-unit cost than simple flat mail, the cost for your overall campaign can be kept within modest bounds by mailing hand-delivering your boxes. It’s therefore critical to get your mailings in the right hands. Create a 3D item that creates multiple impressions, engages the audience and tells a story.

Begin by reviewing your company’s database and selecting your top B2B prospects. Do everything you can to clean and pre-qualify your prospects list, including making multiple phone calls to each business on the list until you’re satisfied you’ve found exactly the right decision-makers.

2. Create a memorable campaign. In order to open doors or move prospects further along in the sales cycle, your dimensional mail pieces have to be clever and demonstrate how you’ll meet your prospects’ needs. So tie your campaign in with your company’s overall marketing and advertising campaign.

What should you put in your box? It all depends on the message you want to convey. Just be sure the object is something your prospects will want to keep, and even display, for a while. Avoid overdone advertising specialty items, such as imprinted mugs, and go for something unique. For example, a Washington-area speechwriter once sent a “relaxation kit” to targeted decision-makers at major PR firms. His box included an aromatherapy candle and a neck pillow with his logo on it, along with clever, illustrated instructions on how to use the kit for maximum relief–and the message imparted was that hiring him would relieve the stress of too much work. So take some time to think about just what objects would work with your primary message–and what objects your clients would find unique or useful.

3. Make follow-up a top priority. In most cases, the primary purpose of dimensional mail is to capture the attention of prospects and open the lines of communication. That makes immediate follow-up within one to three business days essential. If your dimensional mail is successful, it’ll warm up your prospects and make them more receptive to your phone call. Of course, with the high response rate of dimensional mail, if your campaign is truly effective, prospects will soon be contacting you.

Touch. Teach. Connect with Three Dimensional Marketing with Magic Cubes. Desktop marketing that creates a positive emotion with your brand to your prospects.  And that Creates Endless Impressions® all year long.  Contact http://MagiCubes.com for free samples.

(LOS ANGELES) – February 7, 2011 – MagiCubes.com® has taken its 3D promotional products to the next level of customer engagement. Magic Cubes are utilized as Promotional Products that are given away as gifts at Trade Shows and business meetings. Now, Quick Response (QR) code placement on all Magic Cubes products allows B2B and B2C marketers to link their 3D physical desktop promotional product to the online world.

MagiCubes® are a 3D promotional item that can be manipulated from nine to twenty separate images/messages that are printed with stunning graphics. The advertising puzzles can be changed into a variety of shapes including a business card or soda can. The QR codes drive prospects from the 3D MagiCube® instantly to mobile websites, videos, eCoupons, surveys, online quizzes, blogs, and more with a simple click / scan from a mobile phone using QR reader software. Most new phones have the QR reader installed, or it can be easily downloaded from Apple App Store, Android Market, and BlackBerry App World.

“When it comes to picking out promotional giveaways, it’s important to keep the perceived value in mind,” comments Ron Friedman, founder of http://MagiCubes.com. “Can simple branded items reinforce your MarCom objectives with tangible ROI? MagiCubes already engage and have lasting impressions, now they also drive customers directly to your digital content and can push a new offer again and again as frequent as you like, via a QR code, and that’s desktop branding with integrated real-time lead generation.”
A marketing plan that includes a fun and interactive promotional product can be important to the bottom line, but you need to be able to track the ROI to justify spend. Friedman explains, “QR codes are of particular interest to marketers because it gives them the ability to measure response rates with a high degree of precision for demographic and geographic analytics. This allows for easier ROI calculation, thus helping justify spending on marketing budgets. ”

For additional information, visit www.magicubes.com.

About MagiCubes®
MagiCubes® are a patented 3D promotional item that can be manipulated into nine separate images/messages. For 20 years, PTI Corp. has been developing and manufacturing these 3D advertising puzzles that can be easily changed into a variety of shapes such as the iconic cube, a 20 sided diamond cube, and even a soda or beer can. The MagiCubes were designed as a promotional item that people will hold on to – literally. As such, the product has the “Best Fidget Factor” and now it also has digital connectivity. For more information, visit www.magicubes.com.

For images or videos, contact: Chantel Fiedler, 818-301-5313, Chantel.Fiedler AT magicubes.com
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As advertising pressure rises, people’s attention and willingness to accept companies’ attempts at communication declines.

Recent advertising and marketing studies confirm that tactile marketing materials are an efficient way of getting the attention and sympathy of your target group. Promotional giveaways not only enjoy the highest acceptance of all media, they also excel in their recall-performance: 72% in unaided awareness, vs. 24% for print- and 49% for TV-advertising.  (Promotional Product Study 2009)

Integrated into your marketing and advertising concepts, an effective promotional product giveaway can markedly improve the effect and durability of a marketing campaign, an event or a trade show.

Magic Cubes® combine the communicative strengths of a giveaway with the design flexibility and information depth of print media. Amazement, the play instinct and the joy of discovery guarantee 100% attention and intensive engagement with your message.

For more than 18 years, PTI Corp’s (Owner of Magic Cubes® since 1993) customers have confirmed the practical effectiveness of the Magic Cubes® as 3D Objects for advertising.

Marketing consultants report of long lasting placement of Magic Cubes® on the desks of their clients. Direct-marketing experts are amazed about response-ratios and salespeople are delighted by the increased awareness of customers with Magic Cubes® as a tactile sales-aid.  3D Objects for advertising that enriches with positive emotion creates the magic that creative directors seek in creating memorable advertising. With the Magic Cubes® this is available as a 100% customized hand held promotional product gift.

If you would like to learn more about the communicative effect of Magic Cubes for Object Promotions and promotional products in general, please contact your promotional products professional and tell them you want the Fidget Factor®!

Using Promotional Gifts

So after spending some time promoting your brand on Social Media, you want to take the next step and really engage your fans and followers with your brand. You have a product or service to sell and you feel it will be of interest to many of your key prospects, customers and clients. What do you do next? Here are a few key points you should consider when choosing your promotional gifts and advertising specialty products.

• Send your priority clients and customers, those you tweet back and forth with regularly an inexpensive but useful gifts such as a promotional mouse mat, printed mug or promotional pen. Print these with your logo and a message and reinforce your brand. Try to choose and item that really engages your audience offline as much as your tweets and posts accomplish online.  For example, the Magic Cubes offer over 30 styles that Engage and Entertain while delivering your branding messages. Magic Cubes actually deliver a marketing story in a 3D interactive promotional gift that is entertaining for each recipient.
• Hold a competition. You might like to post a question about something within your industry and offer the Magic Cubes as a gift to the first 50 followers that answer the question correctly. This is a great way of having a little fun while keeping your posts and tweets interesting while promoting your brand, and educating your customers.
• Reward people for following you. If you are offering free printed mugs or promotional pens to people who follow you, word will get around. Everyone loves free stuff. It is important to remember that not all of these followers will be quality followers. Some will be SEOs that represent a business or worse a robot. Looking for and rewarding interested ‘humans’ with promotional gifts is an excellent way of building your brand. Look for useful yet inexpensive gifts such plastic pens, mouse mats and keyrings, or the ever popular Magic Cube.

In recent years, the number of businesses that offer promotional items and printed promotional goods has expanded rapidly. Promotional items that can be used to advertise brands range from inexpensive items including pens, markers, balloons, bottle openers, whistles, badges, key rings, footballs, compasses to items including Jackets, T-shirts and even USB flash drives. Most promotional merchandise distributors now aim to provide a range of ECO friendly promotional items which are made from biodegradable or recycled materials and some that can be recycled as well. There are different recycled materials which are being used in the manufacturing of promotional goods including leather, tyres, metal, wood, car parts, plastic cups, textiles, paper etc. Through the use of eco friendly promotional items, promotional merchandise distributors want to being seen as taking the environmental message seriously. All these efforts are made to ensure that reminder of a particular company on a specific promotional item should remain in front of a potential customer for a long period of time.

The choice of promotional merchandise is available all the year meaning that marketing campaigns are developed and promotional products can be tailored to support any event throughout the year. Manufacturers of promotional marketing items try to come up with new and innovative ideas for promotional products. These promotional items would be made available to sales teams to give to customers, as hand outs at conferences and exhibitions and as a giveaway items to customers and prospects. The type of the promotional products selected to advertise your brand name also depends a lot on the type of business you run. As for an IT industry, it is better to use mouse pads, stress items and even USB flash drive as your promotional items while a pharmaceutical company might find memo pads, pens, pill boxes and sticky notes more appropriate as their promotional items.

The promotional products industry has progressed a lot in last two decades and there are many reasons for this growth. First and most important is that businesses have come up with so much innovative ideas regarding promotional items. One example is using environment friendly promotional items. It is remarkable to use the waste materials that we would normally throw away to make useful promotional items that would represent the brand name of your company and at the same time, it will divert the waste to recycling. Secondly, branding of promotional items which intend to deliver a specific message to the potential customers is simple, easy and inexpensive. It is a great idea to leave your audience a reminder of your company on some promotional items, I am sure that you can think of a branded pen that you have recently seen or handled? In-fact it is though that a quality promotional pen passes through 10 pairs of hands in its lifetime!