Specialty Advertising

Free stuff?! Who doesn't love free stuff? Free stuff is exactly what specialty advertising is.  Advertising specialty is defined by the Promotional Product Association International as a promotional product, usually imprinted with an advertiser's name, message, or logo, that is distributed free as part of a marketing communications program.  This includes everything from ballpoint pens, to t-shirts (the most common specialty advertising product), to coffee mugs.  In fact there are over 15,000 different specialty items.  Really anything can be a specialty item as long as an advertiser identifies themselves with it and, of course, it is given away free.  At college the community fair is a great place to receive specialty items.  For example, this year I received a free cup from Gearhead Outfitters, pictured below, along with a few ballpoint pins, a bag, and a fan.

Pros and Cons

For most people receiving them, specialty items are their favorite form of advertising.  Companies like using specialty items because:

• They are effective at changing peoples perception of a business.
• They are likely to stay around giving them some permanence.  Much better than a one time ad in a newspaper that is quickly thrown away.
• They work! 90% of recipients can recall the name of a business that gave them a specialty item in the last 24 months.

Specialty advertising seems great, but no advertising medium is perfect.  The drawbacks of specialty advertising include:

• It is expensive.  Even ballpoint pens, while cheap individually, add up.  A specialty item such as a ballpoint pen is likely to only be seen by the recipient and very few others. T-shirts, however, may be seen by more people but also cost more to make.  
• It is time-consuming.  Someone must hand out every single specialty item.  They cannot just leave a box sitting somewhere and hope people pick up the item and have a positive response.  
• These items are normally given out at trade shows and similar events.  One must make their product standout.  If a person receives 20 ballpoint pens, chances are they will not think differently about any of the advertisers that gave them out.

Interesting Facts

• While wearables and writing utensils, as expected, are the most common specialty items, other contenders for most common items are calenders and desk accessories.
• Research has shown that the price of the specialty item does not have much an impact on if the recipient will buy from a business or not.  Most see free stuff as free stuff, regardless of its value.