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Archive for the ‘promotional usb flash drives’ Category

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Promotional USB Flash Drives – Normal Service Resumes

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Phew! We all know it’s coming but irrespective of how much forward planning goes into managing the extended closure of the flash drive factories in China every year the Chinese New Year holiday throws up its own challenges and leaves many customers frustrated and disappointed.

Chinese New Year is a national holiday and technically whilst it only lasts around 10 days lots of people take an extended break to give them time to travel home to see their families – bearing in mind “home” can be several thousands of miles away the extended break is perhaps no surprise.

During the Chinese New Year holiday pretty much everything comes to a standstill; the factories that produce flash memory modules, the factories that produce the flash controller chips, the factories that assemble the finished flash drives and lots of the freight haulage companies close. It’s a bit like letting a steam train that’s been clattering along at 80mph come to a stop and then extinguishing the boiler fires.

Restarting the train takes time, you need to re-light the fires, build up the steam pressure again and then gradually start to gain momentum.

USB Steam TrainA week after the return from the Chinese New Year holidays we’re now full steam ahead again and we’re turning around customer orders for promotional USB flash drives within 10-days of order – sometimes quicker!

We always carry lots of stock in the UK that we can print and deliver within 48hrs if you’re in a hurry but you will inevitably be limited in terms of design, colour and memory size and you’ll also pay a premium for the UK print charges. If you have the time you’re always better off letting us manufacture and print your USB flash drives at one of our factories in China, this way you get exactly what you want and it’ll be cheaper!

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USB Credit Cards Being Flashed Around This Christmas

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Over recent years credit cards have become the way for millions to fund their Christmas expenditure with Consumer Intelligence suggesting that over 55% of shoppers plan to pay for their gifts with a credit card. Christmas is an expensive time of the year and understandably many consumers turn to credit cards to help them with their purchases and their budgeting.

Over 30 million people in the UK currently hold credit cards and the average time to clear Christmas debts racked up on the cards is 5 months! Despite concerns about the ease of access to debt more and more people are actually paying down their credit cards and for the first time in years the total number of cards in circulation is falling.

USB Credit Cards

USB Credit Cards

The explosive growth in the use of bank cards of all types; debit, credit, ATM has seen the “form factor” (the shape plastic card) become the de facto standard for a range of other products including Gift Voucher Cards, ID Cards, Photo Driving Licenses, Membership Cards and so on. We now take for granted that “plastic cards” designed to be carried around by a person in their wallet; purse, bag or pocket will be the same size the world over. In essence these cards are produced to a global standard to ensure they fit into bags, wallets, card readers, swipe machines, scanners, card carries and so on.

Any card issued that fails to comply with these size standards is unlikely to get used because consumers have grown to expect cards to comply with this design standard and they have organised their personal accessories (bags, wallets, purses etc.) around this standard.

USB Credit Cards

USB Credit Cards

It is perhaps no surprise then that the latest generation of USB flash drives have been produced in the shape of a standard credit card. At just 2mm thick USB credit cards are marginally thicker than a standard card but they still fit comfortably into any standard wallet or purse. When you consider these USB credit cards contain a USB connector, a flash memory controller and a flash memory chip that capable of storing hundreds of thousands of documents it’s a pretty amazing feat.

USB credit cards have also been seized upon by the promotional gift sector where sales are rocketing. Sales have been fuelled by several factors including the ability to print larger, more complex and more vibrant full colour prints on the cards and the immediate acceptance of the product by the consumers who can immediately find a “home” for the card in their wallet or purse.

For years credit card companies have fought over what they call “share of wallet” – that’s getting their card as the preferred card and their brand burned into the psyche of the user. Today USB Credit Cards have the ability to fight for space in the same wallet and if they achieve this position the brand printed on the USB credit card will get continued and positive exposure.

Expect USB Credit cards to continue to get thinner and expect to see more and more of them around. Whilst you can’t buy your Christmas presents using them you can certainly store your Christmas lists, photos, movies and music on them.

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USB Credit Cards Being Flashed Around This Christmas

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USB Pens that Write AND Store Data

Friday, November 12th, 2010

One of the key things when you’re looking for a good promotional product or corporate gift is to make sure the item that you giving away is actually going to be useful and is going to be used.

Of course the item needs to be within your target budget, it needs to work well with your company’s brand and it need to be in tune with your target audience. Assuming all of these parameters are met it still needs to tick the “useful” box. There are lots of cheap and cheerful promotional products on the market and these are find if you just want people to say come to your stand at a trade show but, if you want to create some real interest in your company’s products or you want to say express your appreciation to your customers or perhaps speakers at a conference or seminar then “cheap and cheerful” won’t do.

Wooden USB Writing Pens

Wooden USB Writing Pens

With thousands of promotional items now available from sweets to mugs to caps to USB flash drives making the right selection is not easy. USB flash drives printed up with a company logo are incredibly popular at the moment with literally millions of them being given away each year. Given their intrinsic usefulness, their relatively small size (handy if you have to transport lots of them) and their price its no surprise that they are so popular but their popularity is also their weakness.

There is a point where you can just have too many USB flash drives and when this point is reached their usefulness no longer applies. Most people only have a certain amount of data they want to move around or save so whilst one or two USB flash drives are useful beyond this, unless the USB flash drive offers something a little different, they can become “just another flash drive” which is likely to end up unused and discarded in a draw.

USB Pens

USB Pens

If you’ve decided a USB flash drive is fundamentally the right product for your activity or project you might want to consider a USB writing pen rather than a standard USB stick or thumb drive as they are sometimes called. USB writing pens elegantly combine the benefits of giving away a stylish biro or pen that carries your brand with the widely acknowledged benefits of a USB flash drive.

USB pens come is a wide range of styles, colours and finishes and the fountain pen version uses standard ink refills. Typically unscrewing the top of the pen gives access to the USB connector and the on-board memory can be anything from 1GB all the way up to a massive 16GB!

USB Writing Pen

USB Writing Pen

USB writing pens are a little bit different, they’re ideal if you’re going to give them out at a seminar, conference or press event where the delegates are expecting to be given something to take notes with during the event. The extra trick they have up their sleeve is that you can pre-load them tons of information including presentation files, sales brochures, media files etc. In doing this you get a “triple whammy” because you’re giving away a pen, a USB flash drive and you’re supply the recipient with lots of information pre-loaded onto the stick that they can subsequently read or print off at their leisure.

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USB Credit Cards Offer Lots of Presentation Options

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

The USB Credit Card has become one of the most sought after promotional items of recent months. The surge in interest has been driven by improvements in the design of the USB cards that has seen their thickness reduce to just 2mm! So, not only are the USB credit cards the same shape as a standard bank or credit card but they are pretty much the same thickness as well.

USB Credit Card Mailer Packs

USB Credit Card Mailer Packs

When you consider that these USB credit cards contain a USB connector (to allow you to plug it into your PC’s USB port), a flash memory module (onto which the data is stored) and a flash memory controller chip (the brains of the unit) it just demonstrates how far miniaturisation has come over recent years.

USB Credit Card Pack

USB Credit Card Pack

Unlike standard USB flash drives that tend to be rectangular “blocks” the credit card version can be slipped easily and discretely into a wallet or bag. Not only that but the cards open up all sorts of exciting branding and printing options that are simply not achievable on a standard USB flash drive because of the limited amount of space onto which you can print.

Available in a range of different styles (they’re all the same shape and size but there are different ways in which the USB connector is “revealed” from the credit card body) they come in memory sizes starting from 1GB all the way up to 16GB. Cost wise they are a little more than standard USB flash drives but not much more than you might think and if you have a complex logo or you want to include a strap line that’s readable when printed (difficult on a standard USB drive) then USB credit cards are definitely the way to go.

There are also a number of different packaging and presentation options available with the USB credit card including boxes, leather wallets and mailer packs where the USB card is supplied inside a custom pack. The beauty of these custom packs (or to be fair any of the credit card packaging options) is that they are great for mailing campaigns. If you are going to send them out in the post the thinness of the cards means you can still post them using “regular” 1st class or 2nd class postage rates whereas standard “rectangular” flash drives are typically too thick to be treated as “Letter Post” so the cost of distribution goes up significantly. In fact any small incremental cost to buy a credit card USB is more than offset by postage savings.

USB Credit Card Wallet

USB Credit Card Wallet

But, its not just the mailing cost savings and the larger print area that makes the USB cards a winner. The cards are new, exciting and different and they make a real impact when handing out or used in mail shots. Given one of the primary objects of using them, as a promotional tool is to build a strong affinity to your brand this is exactly the reaction you need from any promotional item or “gift”

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Twilight USB Wristbands

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Two recent phenomenon of our time are the best selling series of Twilight books written by Stephanie Meyer and the subsequent spin off Twilight films, which are breaking box office records around the world and friendship bracelets, jelly bracelets and charity wristbands.

Bracelets and wristbands are incredibly popular amongst with a wide spectrum of age groups but in particular with teenage boys and girls so its perhaps no surprise that the News of The World have brought these two elements together and are offering to “Twi-Hards” what they describe as the ultimate Twilight Gift – a USB Twilight Wristband that comes pre-loaded with an interactive preview of the a new book. The book entitled Vampires V Werewolves by Martin Howden pits the real stories of the actors behind the Twilight vampires, the Cullens and the Volturi, against those behind the new monsters, the shape-shifting Quileute wolf pack.

Twilight USB Wristbands

Twilight USB Wristbands

In an extra twist you two versions of the USB wristband have been produced allowing he wearing to declare their allegiance to the Vampires or the Werewolves. A fantastic idea and an excellent example of how USB wristbands can be used creatively as part of an advertising campaign.

USB Wristbands

USB Wristbands

Of course USB wristbands are not new and have been used by schools, universities, concert organisers and blue chip companies to get their messages across and to distribute information in a user-friendly format.

USB wristbands are available in a wide range of standard colours or if you’re willing to wait an extra week then any colour is possible even “blood red” just like the Twilight versions!

They come in any memory size from 64MB all the way up to a massive 16GB and they are used just like conventional USB flash drives. Typically companies ordering them will supply data to be pre-loaded onto the wristbands and this might include things like sales brochures, articles, presentations, technical

USB wristband

USB wristbad

data sheets, media files etc.

If you have a product or service that is targeted towards a youth demographic then its certainly worth considering branded USB wristbands as part of any marketing or promotional campaign. If you can tap into the current trend and demand for wristbands and generate “chatter” about them on the web then you’ll create a very effective viral campaign that will almost certainly reap dividends.

Interested? Call our Sales Team to discuss your requirements and to get a free no obligatiion quote and a mock up produced for you with your logo on.

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Twilight USB Wristbands

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Printed USB Pens – The Write Choice

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

One of the most popular promotional products of all times has got to be the ubiquitous writing pen. Whether it’s a cheap and cheerful biro or a top of the range classic fountain pen they have been given away in the tens of millions.

Why? Well, for one thing you can pick them up for pennies so if your budget is tight then a simple, cheap, printed biro will often suffice. At the other end of the scale if you’re out to impress you can spend a small fortune of gilded fountain pens from some of the world’s top brands – ideal if you need a small number for a signing ceremony for example.

USB Pen and Tin

USB Pen and Tin

Pens are always a good choice because everyone uses them, many of us carry them around with us, they don’t need batteries or any other technology to use them and they are simple enough for everyone irrespective of age or demographic profile. Put simply you can’t really go wrong if you’re using a pen as a promotional tool or corporate give-away. The trick is to judge the amount you spend on pens to make sure the quality of the product reflects your target audience. Cheap is great but not every high flying corporate executive is going to be impressed with a “throw-away” biro and might just decide to do exactly that with it!

Coming hard on the heels of the humble pen on the “Promotional Products Most Wanted” list is the branded USB memory stick. This is a relative newcomer in the promotional sector having really only come to prominence in the last few years but boy is it catching up fast.

Branded USB Pens

Branded USB Pens

Branded memory sticks or flash drives as they are often called are now significantly cheaper than they were and minimum order quantities have fallen to as low as 50 pieces. The beauty of these products is that unlike a pen you can pre-load all of your sales material, presentation slides, price lists, media files onto the flash memory and save yourself the cost of printing this collateral. This also makes them incredibly handy for anyone your distribute them to because not only do they not have to carry huge amounts of printed material around with them but they can use the space on the memory stick to store and save their own personal data.

Of course it is possible to combine the best of both worlds and buy branded USB pens. These are writing pens with an integral USB connector and built in flash memory. They work just like any pen and just like any USB flash drive. They’re available in a range of styles, colours and different price bands and they can all optionally be supplied in gift boxes.

So rather than just settling for another plain old pen why not consider a branded USB pen – they’re cheaper than you might think but make a great impression.

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Looking For Inspiration – Consider Promotional USB Flash Drives

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Lets face it; if you’ve been tasked with coming up with a promotional giveaway for a forthcoming event, campaign or conference it’s never easy. After all trying to come up with something a little bit different that is relevant to the audience and more importantly is within budget can be a chore.

If the items in question have also got to be transported to the event then size and weight might also be an issue or at least something you need to consider. This is particularly true if the event is overseas where shipping costs might well exceed the actual cost of the items and then of course there is VAT and Duty to consider at the point of entry into the country – no one said it would be easy!

Promotional USB

If you’ve already exhausted the old favourites like printed pens, T-shirts, key rings, cups and mugs etc. then you’re task will be all the harder. Whilst these great favourites are good options you might consider printed USB flash drives.

Printed USB flash drives (also sometimes referred to as memory sticks or USB Pens) not only look fantastic when printed up with a company logo but they are incredibly popular with the recipients because they really are very useful and handy things to have.

Flash drives are available in a wide range of styles and memory sizes so you’re bound to find something to suit your taste and budget. If you want to go the extra mile you could even commission a fully bespoke flash drive that is manufactured in 3-D shape to reflect your company’s products. Just remember if you do go down the custom route to allow yourself a little longer when placing the order.

Promotional USB

One of the beauties of a printed USB flash drive is their compact size. Typically they will come “bulk supplied” so there is no excessive packaging to worry about. They are also incredibly light so if you do have to take them to an event venue you’re not looking at a huge logistics operation.

To really get the best value from a promotional USB flash drive you can pre-load them with your sales data sheets, price lists, web links and media files. If you’re really organised these files can be loaded for you by the factory during the manufacturing process. The cost of doing this is tiny and in some cases free but it does rely on you having the information and files ready when you place the order.

There are lots of companies now supplying promotional memory sticks so shop around to get the best deal but do buy from a reputable supplier with a proven track record because its all too easy to buy cheap/cheerful versions that are not quite what they seem and will have a high failure rate.

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Looking For Inspiration – Consider Promotional USB Flash Drives

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