Exhibiting at a trade show is typically a pretty large investment in terms of money, time and manpower and as such it’s critical that this commitment is fully optimised. Whilst lots of energy tends to get put into the location of the stand in the exhibition hall, the stand design, the lighting of the stand and who’s going to staff the stand sometimes the little, but nevertheless important, things like giveaways and collateral for the show tend to get overlooked.

Whilst an exciting and innovative promotional tool or giveaway designed to draw people to the stand won’t make or break a show it will certainly help to maximise your investment. When you’re competing for the attention of potential customers against hundreds of other exhibitors its key that you equip you sales team with all the tools they need and a giveaway that pulls people into the stand works.

Your challenge is to decide what’s the best product for you and for your target audience. What really is going to deliver the greatest footfall onto your stand and what’s going to get your product and company to stand out from all the others that will be visited during the show?  After all we all know that at the end of most shows the attendees leave with tired legs, heavy hearts and laden down with carrier bags full of brochures and leaflets.  What you have to do during the show is “wow” them, ideally secure an order but failing that get them interested enough so that when they are back at home or work they recall your company and follow up with an enquiry.

There are lots of inexpensive giveaways that work on one level like printed bags which double as a “walking advert” for your brand or printed usb pens, which cost pennies. There are even sweets that can be printed with your brand and help get people to approach your stand. The problem with these is that they are either eaten at the event or thrown away after the event! With all of these simple ideas there is very little carry through post the event, there is no incentive to use them on an on-going basis and they don’t deliver much information about you’re company or products.

One product that is growing in popularity for use at tradeshows is the promotional USB flash drive. Whilst flash drives might initially seem too expensive to use a “giveaway” bear in mind that if you pre-load all of your sales material onto the promotional flash drive you can reduce significantly your brochure print costs and your storage and transportation costs. Because you can load data onto the flash drives right up to the start of the show (and even during the show if you wish) you can be much more flexible in terms of what brochures and data you take with you to the show. More fundamentally people like to be given memory sticks and they will keep them and use them after the show.

The on-going use of a printed usb flash drive means after the show means your brand will continue to get exposed and your sales material will be there every time the flash drive is inserted into a PC.  So, in terms of drawing prospects to your stand and delivering sales leads to your company branded flash drives deliver.

As marketing and advertising budgets in a “post economic meltdown world” were slashed the demand for branded memory sticks and printed USB flash drives continued unabated. The early predictions of “doom and gloom” in the sector failed to materialise and although there have been periods of price volatility throughout the year this has not dissuaded customers from pushing ahead with their projects.

Towards the end of 2009 several key trends emerged which are likely to continue into 2010:

	Custom Memory Sticks also referred to as bespoke USB flash drives will become more popular because the historic minimum order quantities and relatively high initial tooling and mould set-up costs have been all but removed. As a result it is now possible to get a fully customised USB memory stick in a shape/design that is unique to your company, brand or product for pretty much the same price that you would pay for a simple printed memory stick
	Twister USB Sticks will continue to dominate the branded range of memory sticks. During 2009 the cap less “twister” style of memory stick accounted for over 60% of all orders where a standard factory design/mould was used. In 2010 their on-going dominance looks assured not least because its now possible to pantone match the body colour of the twister memory stick to any primary colour from a design/logo.
	Photo Quality Printing is now possible on many branded memory sticks and for very little additional cost. Historically it was only possible to “spot print” onto a memory stick and you paid for each colour printed. This was not only expensive but ruled out many complex logos or designs. Today many factories offer full photographic reproduction and with costs tumbling its likely this will become the de facto standard in future.
	Smaller Print Runs of 50 pieces or less are now much more affordable bringing printed USB memory sticks into the reach of many smaller companies. The willingness of factories to support smaller batches of printed sticks is also likely to see them used for smaller conferences and seminars.
	Continued Price Volatility will make it difficult to forward predict prices or get firm quotes that last more than a few days. Because the factories price in $ (USD) companies buying from outside of the US need to factor in exchange rate fluctuations plus supply/demand price related increases on the core flash memory components. Good advice is to try and avoid the Chinese New Year period and the run up to Christmas when the volatility is at its worst.

The one thing that does seem clear it that branded and promotional USB drives are going to be with us for sometime to come and that their popularity continues to grow. As far as memory sticks are concerned it seems that you can’t get too much of a good thing!

One of the key things to consider when ordering Branded USB Memory sticks is how these are going to be handed to / used by clients as this will have a bearing on the type of packaging.

The following is a list of options that will help you to decide.

No packaging. If you already packaging to insert the Branded Memory Stick into them they can be despatched with no packaging. Ensure they are either placed into individual bubble bags or in tray to avoid them scratching.

Small Cardboard Box. This entry level box protects the customised memory sticks and is very cost effective. Most suppliers will provide these free of charge. Click here.

Boxes with windows. These are ideal to show the Branded Memory Sticks off in its full glory as they can be positioned to appear in the window.
Click here.

Tin Boxes. These gives the Promotional Memory Drive greater gravitas and is an ideal executive gift box. Click here.

Blister Pack. If the Branded Memory Sticks are for retail use then blister packaging may be the solution. It allows the memory sticks to be displayed and a printed card inserted. Click here.

Other things of note:

• All boxes can be printed with a logo or marketing message
• Make sure the size of the packaging will allow for any accessories e.g. Branded lanyard
• Ensure that you order your packaging with the memory sticks, otherwise if these are shipped in separately you would be charged duty on the shippment.
• Suppliers are now offering packaging in recycled material – worth asking.
• Remember the bigger and heavier the packaging the more it will cost to ship the Branded Memory sticks in.

Many businesses are now using usb sticks to store and pass their information and data between their staff members so you can imagine that a promotional usb stick would be of benefit to a great number of firms. Many of the promotional products that are sent to firms look great but have no real purpose which means they are probably stored away in a desk or unseen cupboard. This is frustrating as it would defeat the purpose of sending out the promotional product in the first place but using a product that is in demand can see the benefits rise greatly. A firm who receives a promotional usb stick with a company’s logo or contact details branded upon it may think that the firm is in touch with their needs.

They will likely look upon them in a more favourable manner which could make all the difference when decisions are made regarding future sales and contracts. Considering the current economic climate, it is hugely important for all firms to do the very best they can to increase sales and revenue and the promotional usb stick is a very useful way of increasing brand awareness amongst potential customers. Another benefit of using a promotional usb stick can come when working with a firm who undertake a great deal of work with the supplying company. It may well be that a pre-branded usb stick would be the obvious choice of storage system to record the work and data that is relevant to the relationship between the two firms.

Being able to have all this information in the one place and conveniently stored somewhere with that firms logo on it should make it easier to be retrieved when it is needed. This should bring benefits to both parties and help to ensure that the working relationship goes very well without any hitches. With so many different promotional tools and activities available it can be very hard to find the one that is right for you and for the parties you are trying to impress but there is no doubt that the benefits that arise from using a promotional usb stick are very apparent and should see any firm being placed in a better light. At a time when gaining any competitive advantage is of the upmost importance, this may be the factor that places you ahead of any rival firms.

A few extra steps may be required to ensure files that are pre-loaded remain secure and, if extra space for storing files is provided, that the flash drive remains useful to the widest possible audience.

Let’s say, for instance, that your company wants to distribute a product catalogue or an annual report to a select group of retailers that your firm normally does business with. To reduce the cost of printing hard copies and distributing them by mail, you decide to generate a bulk order of promotional USB memory sticks for easy reference within your sales network.

How do you ensure that this competitive information doesn’t end up in the wrong hands? The first step is to distribute these memory sticks only to authorized representatives that will have likely filed non-disclosure agreements with your company in advance. This ensures a measure of control over who has the information and how it is utilized.

The second step to protecting proprietary information is to encrypt or restrict the use of the files themselves. A distributor can pre-load data files with read-only access or include password protection that requires a user to enter a password to open the file. Strong encryption technology can delete files completely after a finite number of unsuccessful attempts to open a file.

In this way, marketing agreements between retailers and manufacturers, policies and procedures, and confidential data are protected and the risk of unauthorized access by competitors is minimized. If files are accidentally deleted or a flash drive malfunctions, a control group could retrieve the memory stick before replacing it.

These measures apply most in institutions where information is most specific and ultimately valuable, like government, non-profit, and civic organizations, universities, large corporations, and private interest groups.

promotional USB memory sticks distributed to employees or managers of these entities are not just handy tools for sharing information, but are company-owned assets that are subject to accountability and proper use, especially among principals with some measure of authority and cultural or professional influence.

Another factor in relation to data integrity and promotional USB memory is the issue of compatibility. In some cases, older computers will have problems running pre-loaded movies or applications that are native to newer operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7.

In addition, security firewalls designed by IT groups to protect corporate networks may prevent auto run capabilities for audio and video files or certain file types that could be used to spread computer viruses.

A corporation or an LLC, then, has important challenges with regard to IT security and data integrity. When designing and ordering promotional USB memory sticks, these firms must develop acceptable use policies, limit access to computers with USB drives, and keep antivirus software programs up-to-date to protect their company’s interests and ensure successful transactions when sharing information.

Just a few years ago, few people had even heard of a “jump drive,” the small USB “memory sticks” that easily plug into personal computers and USB slots on newer electronic devices. With the growth of technology that has introduced or improved digital cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, stereo receivers, the ubiquitous iPod, and other audio and video equipment, jump drives are now a vital necessity for sharing information electronically.

In addition, new standards for USB 2.0 standards, combined with constant changes in operating systems, corporate networks, and computer software make portable USB memory more important than ever to quickly bridge the gap between devices that would not normally be able to “talk to each other.”

The situation presents opportunities for savvy businesses owners to capitalize on the need for portable data storage by providing promotional USB memory to customers, associates, and influential sponsors. In effect, companies of any size can capitalize on free advertising by giving the people you deal with every day something to remember you buy – their very own jump drive, one that bears your company name, slogan, logo, photo, or phone number.

To them, it’s like having a business card that they can use on a computer, which can store homework or presentations, family photos or music files, or favorite recipes. With the increasing demand for high-speed Internet access and data hungry electronic devices, finding ways to utilize a handy USB jump drive would not be hard for a family with children or fellow business owners.

You could go one step further and include important files or programs on your promotional USB memory, such as advertising videos, directions to your locations, area maps, order forms, brochures, newsletters, or product information that makes it easier for clients to come back to you again and again for the reliable goods and services you provide.

The demand for larger flash drives is also likely to continue to push the limits of storage space per device. According to one source, a memory stick is capable of holding up to 2 TB of data, a figure well beyond the current capacity limit of 32 GB offered by manufacturers. In the future, we could easily see high-speed USB memory devices capable of substituting for internal hard drives, at a fraction of the cost.

Promotional USB memory is just one of many low-cost items companies use to promote their business. When compared to t-shirts, pens, water bottles, and other promotional gifts, jump drives may require time, effort, and money that some are not willing to spend. However, if you distribute memory sticks that eventually lead to publicity and awareness about your product or service; you may not have to wait long to a satisfying rate of return on your investment.