Geiger Team

Saying ‘thank you’ in a professional environment: Episode four – ‘Thank you’ for attending event

October 5, 2017 by Geiger Team

Corporate Gifts at Events

The UK events industry is a humungous sector by any measures, over 1.3 million business events are held in the UK every year! Through exhibitions and trade fairs alone, the UK attracts over 13 million visitors, generating £11 billion spend. The amazing part is the events industry hasn’t even reached its peak yet with 83% of agencies predicting a growing headcount for next year. But how can these events continue to grow, what brings people back year upon year to these trade shows and exhibitions?

The world of events is incredibly versatile to say the least, as the years go by the visitors change, and as they change, their needs and requirements change, for example 20 years ago, do you think there was a requirement for widespread Wi-Fi? Now free Wi-Fi is almost a pre-requisite feature when selecting an event venue. It is this constantly changing adaptability combined with great exhibition and trade show content that seems to be the reason why trade shows and exhibitions continue to thrive today. One aspect that has remained the same is the corporate gifts and giveaways or as they are known across the pond ‘Swag Bags!’

Today more than ever the success or failure of your event can pivot upon the gifts you distribute, I saw an example of this earlier in the year when a blogger was judging the success of a large tech conference before the event, solely judged on the contents of the goodie bag. Ultimately it is important to thank the attendees at your events because without them your event is sure to be a failure, but how you thank them is purely up to you.

There are so many instances that provide you with the opportunity to thank people for attending your event:

Thanking people for registering for event as described in previous blog, this can be done before or during the event
Exhibiting at a show and thanking people for visiting your stand by distributing trade show giveaways
Thanking people on entry to your event with a bag containing information and show guide, this gives the person a bag to collect items from previous scenario
Thanking people for coming as they leave your event with a bag containing a selection of gifts
Thanking people for coming to your conference providing them with the tools they need during the event

Each one of these scenarios require a different strategy, for example the exhibition giveaways would need to be a product that you can buy enough of to distribute to everyone who visits your stand. This product needs to be affordable whilst remaining interesting enough that people would want to keep it and use for brand re-call purposes. On the other hand you have scenarios where you will need to give corporate gifts to VIP attendees, these gifts should pertain a high perceived value to reflect the importance of that person visiting your event.

Whatever your event is the message seems to be clear, it is important to thank people for attending, as they may become a loyal customer, and if you’d like to learn more about loyal customers check out yesterday’s blog!

Saying ‘thank you’ in a professional environment: Episode three – ‘Thank you’ for your loyalty

October 4, 2017 by Geiger Team

We have touched upon customer loyalty once or twice already this week as it does find its way into the other ‘thank you’ subjects, but as it is such a big and important topic, it unquestionably needs to have an article of its own. It is important today more than ever because we live in a world where your customer has access to all your competition at the simple click of a button, not to mention the barrage of e-mails they receive telling them that they can receive better products elsewhere. With GDPR coming into play allowing free movement of data, it is becoming easier and easier for the customer to give their loyalty to someone else.

Did you know on average your loyal customers are worth up to 10 times more than their original purchase? To be fair we really don’t need to tell you how much your loyal customers are worth, as it should pretty much be evident in your sales figures, in some cases 75% of business’ turnover can be attributed to loyal customers or their referrals. So considering customer loyalty is so important, do you have a customer retention strategy?

We have definitely noticed in our industry, price isn’t the driving factor, according to a recent survey by the British Promotional Merchandise Association the most decisive reason for using a regular promotional merchandise supplier is good service. Many people are internet savvy enough these days to realise that they could spend all day shopping around searching for the best price, but in modern day’s society, time is money and if they receive great service from a company who saves them the time of dealing with their painpoints they are likely to stick with them.

We are seeing a great resurgence in loyalty programs, especially in the B2B environment, business owners a realising that a supportive reliable service combined with non-financial incentives is looking like a great recipe for success. Mirroring the B2C market, B2B companies are looking into what makes their customers tick, giving them more than just discounts on their products, identifying their buying habits and reacting to them.

From a marketing perspective, what can you give a customer that would not only inspires them to buy, but provides great recall value, keeping your brand in front of the customer when they are making buying decisions? This is where the world of promotional products comes in to play! Promotional merchandise is so much more than giveaways at exhibitions or conferences; bigger than mugs, caps, pens and t-shirts. Promotional products can be anything, from cuddly toys, to large electronic goods. A tactic we are seeing work particularly well is a company will have set up a loyalty website for their B2B customers that has a great range of company branded products on it, whenever a customer makes a purchase or fulfils a service they get points to spend on the promotional products from that website.

Having a great customer is like having a great member of staff, you want to keep them happy, and ensure they are loyal to your company (rewarding staff loyalty is an upcoming topic also, so keep an eye out for that one!).

Saying ‘thank you’ in a professional environment: Episode two – ‘Thank you’ for registering

October 3, 2017 by Geiger Team

If you’ve read our blogs or whitepapers before, you will already have a good understanding in what GDPR is, why it is important, and ways to be compliant. But to give you a short definition “GDPR is a regulation brought in by the European Union to strengthen data protection laws, giving people more control over their personal data and how it is used.”

One important aspect from a business point of view, from the GDPR directive, is the double opt-in process. This practice means that in order to contact a person via e-mail for marketing purposes, they must have double opted-in. Double opting-in is a two-step process where a person must register for your communications and then verify their subscription through clicking a verification link on an e-mail they receive upon sign-up.

You have to agree, getting people do this upon their own free-will sounds like a challenge! Yes it initially will be tough, as marketers, we are just so used to sending out communications to everyone in our database, but on the other hand it will definitely be beneficial as you will notice a significant increase in your open and click through rates. This is because we know that everyone we are communicating with wants to receive our marketing material. But how do we get people to double-opt in to receive our communications in the first place?

This is where the ‘Thank You’ comes into place… a fantastic tactic we have seen so far as a method for getting people to double opt-in is by providing an incentive, for example, ‘if you double opt-in to our communications you will receive a gift.’ The gift can be anything from a digital content, to box of chocolates and yes a piece of promotional merchandise!

At this point it really is up to you what incentive you choose to give away, if you do have incredibly current and valuable content that people would want to see and analyse, we recommend using it as it. By giving the user this it gives them an insight into the type of communications they will receive in the future (definitely would only recommend this for really valuable content, otherwise the incentive has no use). From a marketing point of view giving a promotional product works because not only will they be thankful for receiving the gift, but they will have a constant reminder of your company, and services, for them to recall upon when needed. In a recent survey by the British Promotional Merchandise Association, when asked how people felt when receiving a promotional gift, 79 percent of participants replied that they feel appreciated. That is almost 8 out of 10 people that value receiving a promotional gift, which definitely proves that distributing promotional products to thank people for registration would work.

Our last point to make is to reinforce the importance of valuable communications, because let’s face it; what you’re aiming to do is hold a database of current and potential customers. With the new GDPR directive, people have the right to be forgotten. This means that a person could easily sign up, receive their free gift, after receiving a couple of e-mails, can ask the company to delete all trace of them. These actions completely nullify the initial incentive, so it is incredibly important that once you’ve got your foot through the door, to keep their attention with good useful content, and even reward their loyalty down the line with further promotional incentives.

Saying ‘thank you’ in a professional environment: Episode one – ‘Thank you’ for your business

October 2, 2017 by Geiger Team

Promotional Products Week, Thank You for your Business

Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for regular customers, most businesses would definitely struggle to make ends meet and so based on this fact how often do you thank your customers for their regular business? If the answer is you can’t remember or you haven’t ever, it’s fine, we’re all guilty of being creatures of habit. Customers buy, we sell, repeat process again and again and again, until service and/or product is no longer needed and/or wanted for any particular reason.

But why should we thank our customers for their business? One simple and easy reason is based upon a moral we learn from a young age, we are taught to treat others how you would want to be treated yourself, do you like to be thanked when you’re not expecting it? Of course you do, it gives you this warm fuzzy feeling, no matter how big or small, it makes you feel like you’re actually a valued person, not just another piece in the buying process puzzle.

There have been many scientific studies in the past that illustrate the personal benefits of showing and receiving gratitude. Benefits such as improvements in physical and mental health, stress reduction and even assistance in sleeping better. From a business point of view the benefits are just as positive, here is a great statistic: 60% of ‘businesses have lost a customer because they feel the business is indifferent to them’. You’ve heard the term ‘hindsight is a beautiful thing’ many times, if those businesses knew they could have retained those customers just simply by thanking them, I pretty much guarantee that the majority would have definitely shown gratitude one way or another. Customer loyalty is priceless and a topic we will explore further later on in the week.

There is a great amount of talk in the world of business at the moment about giving the customer a personalised experience, concepts such as personalised marketing, sales process, and an aspect we see quite regularly in the promotional products industry, personalised promotional products. This is definitely an increasing trend in the promotional world, we are seeing interest in this from both the supplier’s and customer’s side. Suppliers are investing in machinery to be able to brand products individually, making it easier to print and engrave individual names on merchandise. Customers are requesting such products because they want to make the recipient feel special, it works particularly well with luxury pens. Pens such as Cross, Schaeffer, Parker, Mont Blanc etc. have a high perceived value and are regularly timelessly engraved with names, giving them an extra special touch. We know this works well as it is already a popular concept in the consumer world and has been for many years!

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Episode 3 – Marketing and Policies

September 19, 2017 by Geiger Team

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Episode 3 – Marketing and Policies

Your marketing strategy should be at the heart of everything you do; almost all aspects of a thriving business rely on a successful marketing strategy. Like every aspect of business, marketing has changed incredibly over the last 20 years. All marketers want to know what’s the next big thing, how do you keep up to date with such a fast paced infrastructure? In the same manner of keeping up to date with marketing it is just as critical to keep up to date with security protocols. As I stated previously cyber security threats are continuously changing, and evolving what you thought protected you yesterday, may not protect you tomorrow.

The first matter you should address is re-evaluating your policies to combating cyber security risks. Now I’m not saying all of your policies, but any that could help in the prevention against malicious attacks. If you haven’t got one in place already I would thoroughly suggest the implementation a cyber security policy. The main purpose of this document is to have a resource that informs all employees, contractors or anyone that has been provided access to company technology, what the obligatory procedures are regarding all cyber security issues. The document should eradicate all grey area regarding how users are meant to protect their machines, and digital assets, outlining their privileges and responsibilities.

One of the methods of spreading a virus, I mentioned earlier, is through plugging in an infected device to your corporate network, one way to avoid this is by having a ‘bring your own device policy. This would dictate how and what devices people can use at the office, and whether or not they can plug in their own devices into their work computers. This may seem a little unfair to ban all use of BYOD, but in critical situations where this has been the gateway to cyber-attacks on more than one occasion within the company, it may well be worth doing so. Other policies such as your privacy policy and IT usage policy should also be reviewed and updated regularly.

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Episode 2 – Phishing, Whaling and Mobile Threats

September 4, 2017 by Geiger Team

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Episode 2 – Phishing, Whaling and Mobile Threats

To read ‘Episode 1 – Understanding Ransomware’ click here

Further to the threat of ‘Ransomware,’ another massive area for concern when it comes to company cyber security is phishing and whaling. Phishing is a term you may have heard about before, it is simply described as when hackers send out fraudulent e-mails from accounts disguised as e-mail adresses the user would generally trust, e.g. a customer, colleague, or authoritative account like the government etc.

The malicious e-mail’s goal is to incite the user into clicking a link within the e-mail. If the recipient clicks the link, it will activate the malware stealing all accessible data from that user, and in some cases can spam your e-mail contacts also.

It goes without saying that the hackers are definitely to blame when it comes to phishing, they are the the creators and distributers of malicious e-mails, but we the users aren’t completely blameless, part of the reason why phishing is on the rise is down to ‘overconfident users.’ In a study by Dr. Zinaida Benenson, 78% of participants filled out a questionnaire in her study stating they were aware that clicking on links from unknown sources could be detrimental. This number, on the surface, was reflected in the first study where 20% of people reported clicking a link from an unknown search, when in reality actually 45% of people clicked a potentially malicious link. This is down to overconfidence on what people perceive to be a malicious link, and what they in reality can be delivered as.

Whaling takes phishing one step further, generally phishing targets the general public attempting to gain their personal details, whereas whaling targets high level individuals in organisations, such as bankers, government officials and other powerful executives. From these high level users it attempts to steal a wider range of sensitive data, like personal and bank details for all the employees, or other sensitive company information.

Everyone knows computers are vulnerable, we see it all the time in the news and media, but what most people don’t realise is that their smartphones and smart devices are vulnerable to malicious hacking also. In fact any device with a microphone or a camera, you need to be wary that these devices can be hacked, baby monitors, games consoles etc. Hackers find vulnerability in the system, whether it’s through a non-secure wireless transmission or a root through the internet, and once in can not only access your private files, but live access to devices like cameras, speakers and microphones.

This is not a new phenomenon, but through the introduction of devices that talk to each other, hackers can use that communication channel to find their way into your network. This is definitely an evident threat for home users, but this threat can spread the moment an infected own device logs onto a corporate network. When an infected device lawfully accesses the corporate network, as innocent as this connection is, it can be extremely detrimental to a company, as not only will it find its way onto the network, but will spread to every computer on the network.

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Understanding Ransomware

August 18, 2017 by Geiger Team

2017 Cyber Security and Marketing: Episode 1 – Understanding Ransomware

2017 definitely has seen its fair share of cyber security news stories, this current day and age we live in is filled with a plethora of cyber security threats, from uncountable sources. It is partly because of these malicious threats that saw the need for an update in the ways company store and process data, hence the introduction next year of GDPR (to learn more about GDPR contact us to recieve our GDPR Whitepaper)

Just to give you a starting point statistic, according to a report from pandalabs, in Q3 of 2016 18,000,000 new malware samples were captured in that quarter alone, averaging out at approximately 200,000 a day. The scary part is this is the statistic only for the malware that was captured by one single company; the totality of malicious malware that bypasses the system is unknown, and continuously growing on a daily basis, which is why it’s harder and harder for companies to combat it.

Have you heard about the concept of ransomware? Ransomware is now the number one security concern for organisations across the world. It is a sophisticated malicious attack which unlawfully gains access to devices and files, it blocks access to them by encrypting them and displays message on the user’s screen to pay X amount to regain access to those encrypted files. It spawned in Russia between 2005 and 2006, and during its early years of conception mainly targeted smaller files like images and word documents,

To give you an example of a wide scale ransomware attack, it happened very recently. A cyber-attack known as ‘WannaCry’ caused an incredible amount of havoc across the NHS in May, which not only led to patients not being seen, but also caused for urgent operations to be cancelled. Within just 3 days ‘WannaCry’ had targeted around 200,000 organisations across the world. The hackers found a flaw in Microsoft software, and used this to spread across networks encrypting all the files.

Another enormous area for concern when it comes to company cyber security is phishing and whaling. We will discuss these areas in next weeks blog episode!

BTC Buzz: Top 5 of the Most British Promotional Products

August 17, 2017 by Geiger Team

Our very first BTC Buzz provides a good-humoured tip of the hat to the promotional products in our industry that just emanate a sense of British-ness. Hopefully you’ll agree that our product selection is far from a damp squib, and definitely would be considered as the bee’s knees!

1) Bone China Mug

Following a survey known as the ‘Britishness Audit’ when asked what should be the British national emblem, the grand majority of people answered with a ‘cup of tea.’ Not many things in this world get can be considered more British than sipping some of the finest Earl Grey from a luxurious bone china tea set. Promotional bone china mugs are a definitely a popular selection for those who are after a bit of quali-tea

2) Multifunction Weather Station

Did you know almost 70 percent of the British population check the weather forecast at least once a day? But what is our obsession with the weather? Is it its pure unpredictability? 1 in 4 people use the weather as a way to start polite conversation with the general public, discussing what we in England like to call the ‘niceties’. Whatever the reason is, a multifunction weather station should definitely be a staple hold on every British desk, providing you with, not just the time or today’s weather, but a plethora of ice breaker subjects such as wind speed, humidity, cloud coverage etc.

3) Promotional Umbrella

Nothing says welcome to the great British summer like the absolute need for an umbrella when you’re leaving your house! It is this chaotic rainy nature that makes the UK world renowned for being land of the drizzle. Don’t get us wrong, we do sometimes have gorgeous summer days but it does seem to rain a tad more than average in jolly Great Britain. But every grey cloud does have a silver lining, giving us a new and innovative ways to promote our businesses! Promotional umbrellas work because the branding area is large enough to see from a distance, and when in use, is always at eye level. All you need to do now is put your branding on a red, white and blue panelled umbrella, and Bob’s your uncle British branding at its finest

4) Red Bus Tin Filled with British Confectionary

When you picture the old British high street, you always imagine the little old sweet shop, where you’d spend all your hard earned pocket money on a handful of sweets you’d take to the park and devour. The United Kingdom is world renowned for having amazing confectionary choices, now if you combine this with the iconic London red bus, how much more British can you get?

5) Christmas Jumper

Its funny how new trends find their way onto the market, and then out of nowhere become a fundamental part of everyday British life. Although it may not be every day, but during the most wonderful time of the year, you cannot escape the Christmas jumper! For many years the Christmas jumper was shunned and considered a terrible present generally given by an older relative, but in recent years the Christmas jumper has become a bold fashion statement, the wackier the better! Now in the promotional industry we are seeing more and more companies wanting Christmas jumpers for their staff as they are a great way to show your festive spirit, and show a human side to your company!

This is just a small selection of what merry old Great Britain has to offer, we also offer a great amount of Promotional Products manufactuered in the UK, if you have interest in any of these products, please give us a call and let us know!

Mid-Year Tech Trends Review part 2

August 15, 2017 by Geiger Team

Mid-Year Tech Review Part 2

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is another fantastic example of content being the key indicator on how popular it can become. With last year’s introduction of a mainstream mobile game that introduced VR to the general public, the general feeling from tech experts was that augmented reality will play a large role in this year’s technology trend. Although there have been some great developments within the AR industry this year, it still hasn’t completely reached the point where AR is a part of our daily lives, which I do thoroughly believe one day it will! In terms of the promotional market there are some great indicators that AR could work well in our industry, with some promotional product suppliers beginning to integrate AR products into their offering, branding the physical product and the software the drives it.

Wireless Headphones

Out of the 5 trends I predicted would be popular this year, I definitely think that wireless headphones have become the most established in the consumer market. With another large smartphone manufacturer dropping the headphone jack, more and more emphasis is being placed on Bluetooth wireless headphones. All of the top headphone producers have released wireless headphones at all different price points, making them not only increasingly popular, but financially accessible too. Wireless headphones aren’t only popular and affordable in the consumer market; they are incredibly popular in the promotional market also. One of the predications I made in my blog at the beginning of the year was the introduction of ‘airpod’ style products into the promotional market. It didn’t take long for before my prediction to be true, within days of releasing that blog, we had a supplier visit, who showed us they had three products, in that styling due to hit the promotional market later on in the year.

Smarter Technology

In the time since writing my original blog, I have personally purchased several smart home assistants for my own use at home and as presents, simply because they provide that wow factor you want when giving a great gift. Whilst keeping up to date with all the latest technology I noticed a great trend beginning in the world of smart assistants, I have notice more and more products are being released with the incorporation of the smart assistant technology. One area of technology we are seeing this working incredibly well is with Bluetooth speakers. Bluetooth speakers are incredibly popular in the promotional product world, we sell Bluetooth speakers at all different price levels, and the thought of selling a branded Bluetooth speaker with the added unique selling point that it contains digital personal assistant software is amazing. A trend we may not see this year, but is definitely one we could see in the years to come is personalised assistants, with voices, start up sounds and software integration all targeted to specific companies takes the personalised branding experience to the next level.

Mid-Year Tech Trends Review part 1

August 4, 2017 by Geiger Team

Mid-Year Tech Trends Review part 1

At the beginning of the year you may have seen my blog series on the tech trends; at the beginning of each year what I like to do is research and evaluate what I think will trend in the world of technology in the coming year technology, not only in the world of consumers, but in the promotional world also. After completing my research, I then combine my findings with the knowledge and judgement from the viewpoint of a self-proclaimed ‘techie’ (aka myself), and then from this derives my top 5 trends. Now we have reached August, with over half the year over, we can revisit just how influential those technology trends have been so far…

USB Type C

With one of the biggest smartphone companies releasing their flagship device with USB Type C charger in April, it is safe to say USB Type C is definitely here to stay. Other large smartphone manufacturers have either already made the transition or will make the transition with their next release. More and more people are learning about USB Type C and its benefits and could easily reach mainstream adoption by the end of the year. We are also seeing an influx of USB Type C products in the promotional merchandise industry too, from multi charging cables that include USB Type C, to Type C only flash drives and Powerbanks.

360 Video

It was interesting to see after the excitement of VR goggles and 360 video from the early adopters, how popular it may have become. The buzz around virtual reality, although not as prominent, still exists, I would say, although it hasn’t quite reached main stream adoption, it is slowly but surely on the right track. In the same manner as marketing, the important element is content… when it comes to 360 video, this is not a fast process, like all great things, it will take time. One element that has sped up this process is the fact that many large technology companies, famed for their smartphones are also creating and selling 360 degree cameras. Whether they are bought stand alone, or as an accessory with new phones, these 360 cameras are providing people with the technology to speedily create the said content we mentioned earlier. A great example of this gaining traction is the fact that you can now upload and view 360 video on the biggest social network in the world. We have also seen 360 video used in experiential marketing for movies, with one of our staff given, a promotional viewer in association with a new movie release. It is this area of 360 video where the promotional product industry will definitely benefit, VR viewers are not only popular on the promotional market, but they are also becoming more and more affordable.

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