The usual late May Bank holiday is being moved to Monday 4^th June and an extra “Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday” has been announced for Tuesday 5 June. So, the extended Bank Holiday will last from 2^nd June to 5^th June.

During this extend break there will be a special pageant on the River Thames on Sunday 3 June when Queen Elizabeth II will lead a flotilla of a 1,000 boats; on the 4^th June 2,012 beacons will be lit by communities across the UK and over the Bank Holiday thousands of Diamond Jubilee Street Parties are already being planned up and down the country to celebrate the Queens 60^th reign.

But, at least one village is planning its own unique twist on the celebrations and has decided to combine a street party with a the publication of a book crammed with photographs illustrating the changes the village and it’s residents have undergone during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In the run up to the Holiday Week the residents (under the leadership of a well organized committee) have commissioned professional photographers to take photos of the current residents, their families, their houses and local church, school and lots of everyday activities that take place in the village. These contemporary photographs will be catalogued with historic photographs to show how things have changed in the village of the last 60 years.

The finished book will be revealed during the Jubilee Bank Holiday and copies sold to raise funds for the village and the restoration of the local church.

Diamond Jubilee Design

Illustrative of how things have changed during Elizabeth’s reign extracts from the book will be made available on the Village Web Site (every village seems to have one these days) and electronic copies of the book will be sold pre-loaded onto USB memory sticks that have been printed with the details of the village and the official Diamond Jubilee Emblem (designed by 10 year old Katherine Dewar).

Printed USB memory sticks have recently been used for all manner of promotional activities and are commonly used to distribute music, book and photographs on but it’s interesting to see they have also infiltrated the psyche of the local village church and WI’s. Only a few years go USB sticks (USB Flash drives as some people prefer to call them) have, like of technologies, crossed over from being a techie product that is only used by geeks to become part of our everyday life. It’ll be interesting to see in another 60 years time if anyone remembers let alone has a USB memory stick.

If you’re fund raising as part of a group then it can be a lot easier than raising funds on your own because you’ll have the benefit of pooling your ideas together and setting up a little committee to work out how you execute your plans. Fund raising on your own is a little more challenging simply because you need to be much more focused, determined and self-sacrificing. The range of activities you can don on your own will also be more limited than those you could do as a group.

Firm favourites for fund raising include:

• Sponsored walks, runs, cycle rides, silences, bungee jumping, abseiling etc. These are all “doable” as an individual or as a group but they all demand a degree of physical fitness and nerve so they’re not for everyone.
• Car boot sales, jumble sales, table top sales and garage sales.
• Quiz nights including pop quiz nights, sports quiz nights or just a general quiz night – these can be great fun but you need to put lots of energy into the promotion of the quiz night to ensure enough people turn up, typically people will want food so this needs to be factored into the planning and budgeting and you’ll need some great questions and a willing compare for the evening.
• Car cleaning and sponsored bag packing at the local supermarket – again, great ideas but lots of people want to do this and supermarkets only allow it occasionally becuae they don’t want their customers “hassled”.

For something a little bit different you could sell (for a profit) printed USB memory sticks or printed USB wristbands. USB Memory sticks (also known as flash drives, pen drives, thumb drives and pen drives) are incredibly popular at the moment. They have become the de facto way to save and carry around data files and lots of school students use them every day to save their homework onto.

Fundraising with USB Memory Sticks

You could buy USB flash drives printed with your school, church or group logo on, or you could get them printed with details of charity. One option that would make them a little bit special is to get them personalised with peoples name on – for this you’d have to take “orders” in advance and then get your supplier to print each stick with a different name on (as well as your logo).

Don’t forget you can also pre-load onto the memory sticks documents about your charity; school etc. to give people an idea about what the money you’re raising will go towards. You could also include web links to your blog, your on-line charity donation page(s) and any Facebook or Twitter pages you’ve set up to support your fund raising.

To make it worth your while you need to order at least 25 USB sticks – this way you’ll get a decent price (including the printing) and should be able to sell them on for a reasonable profit.

There are lots of suppliers around that can offer printed USB memory sticks including USB2U who have been around since 2002 and are now one of the leading suppliers in the UK.

But, if you are looking to buy promotional or branded products in the near future (including branded USB memory sticks) then you need to understand that these are typically manufactured to order in China and flown into the UK within a matter of days. Despite the distances involved the usual lead-time from order to delivery is usually as little as 7-10 days but this assume the factories are working – during Chinese New Year not only do the factories close but pretty much everything closes!

Chinese New Year is the most important of all of the festivals in China and it typically lasts for around 15 days but, in 2012 the Chinese will celebrate the Year of the Dragon which is arguably the most important of 12 animals that mark the coming of each new year.

2011 year has been the Year of the Rabbit – an animal (and year) that is typified by calm and reflection. By comparison the Year of the Dragon is will be marked by excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity.

Chinese New Year 2012

During the Chinese New Year holiday many factory workers travel hundreds and in some cases thousands of miles to be reunited with their families in the provinces. The resulting “factory shutdown” will last for around 3 weeks in 2012 and is usually preceded by panic buying, which in turn forces the factories to stop taking orders early so they can be fulfilled before the holidays start. The expected closure dates in 2012 are from 6^th January to 4^th February!!

So, if you need or think you might need promotional or printed USB memory sticks early in 2012 then ideally you need to place your order in December. Leave it until January and you’ll find the prices start to rocket up and lead times stretch from days to weeks.

Some of the more established suppliers will hold stock locally so that they can continue to supply during the factory closures but don’t expect the same wide choice of models of memory sizes. You’ll also have to brace yourself for higher prices simply because labour and print costs in the UK are higher than in China coupled with the fact that you’ll be fighting over the limited supply of sticks that are available.

The best advice is to plan ahead now and get your order(s) in early. Understandably this is not always possible but at least armed with an understanding of the issues/challenges you can hopefully find a way to work with the situation.

Printed UBS memory sticks might not be the obvious choice but they’re actually a brilliant way to raise funds because you can get them printed up with your fundraising details and sell them for a profit – if you buy a reasonable number (say 100+) you should easily be able to make at least £1 – £2 per USB stick you sell without too much effort.

Twister USB Flash Drives

It’s a good idea to pre-load any charity or fund raising USB drives with details of where the money raised will be going and how it will be used. Think about pre-loading video clips, press articles, You Tube videos or links to blogs/websites about the charity or activity. Don’t forget to include details of how to order more USB sticks and most importantly include a link to an on-line donation page at one of the many sites like www.justgiving.com

If the prospect of copying all of this information onto every USB stick you buy puts you off then don’t worry because most suppliers of printed USB flash drives will copy data onto the sticks for you before they send them to you. In most cases (up to a certain limit) they’ll even load the data for free so getting them to load the data for you won’t eat into any of the money you raise.

USB Wristband Flash Drives

For schools and school trip fundraising (like World Challenge) the USB flash drives that are most popular are USB wristbands – these come in a range of vibrant colours and understandably appeal to students. If wristbands aren’t you’re thing then don’t worry there are hundreds of different styles and designs to choose from so there’s bound to be something that works for you and more importantly will appeal to whoever you’re planning to sell them to!

There’s a misconception that to buy printed USB sticks that you need to pre-order them weeks or months in advance and that you have to buy thousands of them. The reality is that most are delivered within 10 days of being ordered and the minimum order quantity is only 25 pieces. Ideally you need to be ordering at least 50-100 pcs simply because this brings the unit cost down to a level where you’ll get more profit from your sales. If you only order 25 then several fixed costs (freight, print, and set-up) have a detrimental impact on the unit price.

So, if you don’t fancy marathon car washing sessions, a sponsored run or car boot sales then give branded USB sticks a go.

Now the holiday is over and the factories are back at work production is once again running at full capacity as they try

512MB Flash Drives for £1.99

to deal with the backlogs the holiday inevitably creates.

Post Chinese New year prices tend to ease a little and drift slowly downwards throughout the summer months before ramping up again as demand for Christmas kicks in. This year, the slow drift downwards, is being helped by the weakening of the USD ($) which today stands at around $1.62 against the GBP (£).

The consequence of these events means that we are now able to offer 512MB printed USB flash drives for only £1.99* each. This includes a two-colour print, free data loading (up to 100MB) and a free standard gift box (or the drives can be bulk supplied in “poly bags” if preferred).

The £1.99 applies to our “Classic” range of USB memory sticks including the ever-popular Twister USB flash drive. There are no hidden set-up charges or print charges. The only additional cost is delivery, which is a standard £10 for next day delivery by UPS.

Our lead time is 10 days from confirmation of order but we do hold lots of stock that we can print and deliver within 48hrs if you’re in a hurry – just ask one of the team for details of the available stock because it changes daily.

If you’re an existing customer, a school, a university or a public authority then you can also take advantage of 30-day payment terms on your orders.

With pricing at this level printed USB flash drives have never been cheaper and never been within the reach of companies and schools. Interested – Give us a call on FreeFone 0800 008 7079 or request a quote via our web site.

On their path to dominance USB sticks have evolved from fairly boring, rectangular “lumps” of plastic into a product that is now available in hundreds of different styles, designs, colours and into a product that is now manufactured from a wide range of materials (plastic, metal, leather etc.) and memory sizes.

Printed USB Sticks

Memory sticks have also become incredibly popular as “giveaways” within the promotional market and here’s just a few reasons why:

10 Reasons why companies, school and universities buy branded USB memory sticks:

1. Branded USB Memory sticks are a unique way to get your brand in front of an existing or potential customer.
2. Memory sticks are a great way to deliver content to your customer, potential customers, students, parents or the press. The data can be passive (PDF files for example) which the user would need to click on to view or interactive for a more immersive experience.
3. Branded USB Memory sticks make excellent ‘keep sakes’ and there is a high probability that users will save their own information onto them thus making them a valuable asset with high-perceived value.
4. The cost of flash memory (the heart of any USB stick onto which the data is saved) has fallen dramatically over the past few years. As a consequence USB memory sticks have become a more attractive promotional option for many. They’re still not as cheap as a brand CD or DVD but their added appeal more than outweighs this higher cost.
5. There are now hundreds and hundreds of designs and styles to choose from and if none of the “standard” shapes are suitable its relatively easy to get a fully customised (bespoke) solution, you just need to build in a couple of extra weeks into the lead time and be prepared to pay a little more for them – custom versions will be unique to your and are a cute way to generate “chatter and discussion” about your brand or product(s).

Printed USB Memory Sticks

6. Delivery times are now as little as 48hrs, which includes the printing of a logo so if you are pushed for a branded solution/gift in a hurry they might be suitable.
7. The minimum order quantity for fully printed/customised USB drives is only 50 pieces and with drives costing around £3 each the outlay is minimal.
8. CD / DVDs are now seen as old hat and are a technology that few companies now want to associate their brand with whereas USB memory sticks are seen a new, innovative, and to some degree “sexy” and are the “new kids on the block”
9. The technology that USB memory sticks are built on is well established and is highly reliable – something you want if your brand is printed on it.
10. There are lots of suppliers of branded USB memory sticks in the market today so they are relatively easy to source and the increased competition has kept prices low and quality high.

Xmas Tree with Hanging USB Memory Sticks

The lead-time for USB memory sticks printed with a logo is around 10 days but ideally you need to allow a few days more because at this time of the year the factories that produce them are incredibly busy as are the carriers that ship the printed sticks from China to the UK. Some suppliers, like USB2U do carry UK stock that can be turned around in 48 hrs but typically this locally held stock will be limited in terms of quantity, memory size, colour and style. Bear in mind if you do order your sticks at the last minute and you’re forced to use locally held stock and if your sticks are printed in the UK then you’ll end up paying a premium for them.

Like most promotional products, USB memory sticks are assembled and printed to order and the most cost effective way of doing this is to get the factories in China to manufacture them one an order has been placed.  This way your local supplier can offer you the widest possible choice of styles and memory size and can even give you lots of additional options like pantone matching the body shell, supplying the sticks with lanyards or keyrings and a range of different packaging options.

A realistic deadline for orders that can be fulfilled from China is the 6^th December 2010. This gives enough time for your USB sticks to be manufactured, printed, a sample photo sent to
you for approval, the sticks then manufactured and finally placed in the hands of an international courier like TNT, UPS or DHL to get them to the UK for onward delivery to you. The challenge for your UK supplier is managing and co-ordinating all of the elements involved and ensuring they all run smoothly and ultimately making sure you get your printed USB memory sticks in time for Christmas.

If you miss the deadline of the 6^th December you might still be able to send USB memory sticks out for Christmas but your challenge will be finding a local supplier that holds blank stock that can be printed up for you. Whilst there are lots of companies that “supply” USB flash drives very few of them hold stock and are able to print and data-load the sticks – USB2U is one such company so if you are struggling its worth giving them a call.

As a gift idea USB memory sticks printed with your company logo and pre-loaded with a Christmas message from your team are a brilliant idea – USB sticks are incredibly popular, they’re useful, they get lots of re-use so your brand gets lots of exposure, they have a high perceived value and despite all of this they are not that much more expensive that Christmas cards you buy in the high street!

The relatively low cost means you’re not going to run into any trouble from the naysayers about being profligate with your company’s money at a time when the economy is in trouble. Quite the reverse is true – a branded USB memory sticks is more cost effective than a Christmas card because it is far more likely to lead to repeat business, to reinforce your brand and if you use the memory on the USB stick to pre-load sales and marketing information about your company you can turn a “gift” into a genuine sales tool.

Pantone matching the body shell is a process that allows you to specify the exact colour the shell (the case of the memory stick) is manufactured in. Standard colours typically include red, blue, white, black, yellow and green but on some models the standard colour pallet does offer more choice. Even when there is a wider choice of standard colours if you want the USB sticks to “pick out” one of the key colours from your logo then typically (unless you’re very luck) the only option is to get the shell custom made and pantone matched.

Colour Matched USB Sticks

Why do it? Well, colours are often used to portray the essence, the DNA of a brand or brand identity and using a colour that is a close match rather than an exact match dilutes the effort put into the brand. Can you ever see Coca Cola using branded USB memory sticks with a red body colour that was not the “Coca Cola” pantone red or Starbucks buying green USB sticks that were not pantone matched to the specific green of their logo – the short answer is no.

Where there is not enough time to get colour matched USB sticks produced companies tend to go with a neutral colour (black , white or silver) and then print their logo either using the proper pantone references or print the colour in a mono colour, e.g. black one white or white on black.

The reality is that colour or pantone matched USB sticks are the best option if time and budget permits. This way you

Colour Matched USB

get exactly the colour you want, there is no compromise in terms of your brand strategy and more importantly when the USB sticks are distributed they will reinforce your brand and products associated with it.

In terms of cost, pantone matching typically adds around £50 to the overall cost of the order so amortised across a few hundred USB sticks its pennies. Pantone matching will add 1-2 days at most to the production lead-time but the end results are worth the wait.

USB2U offer a pantone matching service on a wide range of USB flash drives and offer some of the most aggressive prices for custom USB drives in the UK. If you’re interested get in touch for a free no obligation quote and free design and mock-up support.

Credit Card USB

With continued innovation and miniaturisation in the flash chip and flash controller industry its now possible to manufacture USB credit cards that are only 2mm thick which makes them comparable for standard credit cards. These ultra slim cards include a USB flash memory module, a USB flash controller chip and a USB interface to allow the card to be connected to a PC or Mac.

Despite the slim nature of these USB cards there is no compromise on quality or performance and they are available in memory sizes ranging from 512MB all the way up to 16GB.

Unlike traditional USB sticks, which tend to be “rectangular” and attached to a lanyard or key ring the USB credit card memory sticks can be popped into a wallet, bag or purse alongside any other card(s) you might be carrying.

For the companies wanted to buy USB memory sticks printed with their logo, brand(s), web address, contact telephone

Credit Card Memory Stick

numbers etc. the USB cards are perfect. Traditional USB sticks are simply too small to carry much more than a simple logo or brand without reducing the design/text down to a size where they become difficult to read. USB credit cards on the other hand offer plenty of space to print complex design and lots of narrative and still they are still readable. In fact full colour prints across the whole surface of both cards are not only “doable” but also they look fantastic.

The combination of a shape that people are familiar with and are used to carrying around coupled with the ability to print complex images on them has catapulted the USB credit card into the “Top 5” most requested branded USB flash drives.

USB Cards

Although USB credit cards are marginally more expensive than standard models if you pre-load the cards with your sales material, brochures, prices lists, presentation files, media files and so on you can offset a significant chunk of the cost by printing less paper documents (as well as saving the haulage and storage costs of these printed documents)

So, if you are looking for a USB Memory Stick that will comfortably carry a complex logo and look great whilst doing it then you need to add the credit card version to your shortlist.

• If, for example you are a school or university and you’re distributing USB memory sticks with the school or university logo on to your students it makes sense to know who has been given which particular USB stick. The benefit is nothing to do with any “big brother” conspiracy but more to enable the school to repatriate the USB stick back to the owner in the event of loss.

• Equally, if you are distributing USB flash sticks with sensitive data on that might for example be “time embargoed” it’s useful to record who was given a particular USB stick to help you trace back any leak – putting a slightly different version of the data on each stick and recording which stick was given to whom is one way of managing this.

• If you need to manage data-loading onto different batches of USB sticks all of which have exactly the same logo on them and therefore look exactly the same its useful to have some way of distinguishing one USB stick from another.

One solution is to engrave or emboss a unique serial number on every USB stick during the manufacturing process.

USB Stick Serial Numbers

This enables the sticks to be “bound” to a particular customer, employee or student. Adding a serial number to a USB stick is not an expensive or time-consuming option. In terms of cost it’s a matter of pennies and in terms of timing it might add a day or two to the production schedule.

Supplying USB flash drives with serial numbers on them that binds the drive to the owner will not address every concern you might have about security of data (particularly confidential data) but it’s a relatively simple solution that does help deal with some specific requirements and concerns.

In addition to identifying whom the stick was given to if you want to secure and protect any data that is stored on the stick then you need to ensure you buy USB sticks with password protection and encryption. Most suppliers of branded USB memory sticks can offer these solutions and the restrictions that were historically imposed by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US on the exportation of data encryption solutions have been relaxed a little meaning good strength security is now commercially available outside the US.