Looking to  s t r e t c h  your promotional advertising budget with some earth-friendly swag ideas?

We just added a brand new section to our ECO-SWAG Collection featuring dozens of earth-friendly swag ideas priced at under $1.00. This is a great place to get ideas for inexpensive giveaway items for your fall tradeshows and marketing events.

Click this link to browse our Eco-Swag collection, then scroll down to the 'Under $1' section:

LINK TO ECO-SWAG COLLECTION

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the variety of earth-friendly items you can find in this price range. Many of them are made with recycled plastic, which is earth-friendly in two ways: the plastic itself is recycled and it also contains additives to enhance biodegradability. A great number of these items are made here in the USA, which is good for our economy and also uses less fuel than shipping from overseas.

This collection is just a small portion of all of our earth-friendly product offerings. If you are looking for a particular item or need more ideas, just let us know. We have special search tools that enable us to find items MUCH more quickly than you can by searching the web.

Thanks for reading and keep coming back for sustainable and eco-friendly swag ideas!

As prices have come down and memory capacity's gone up, USB flash drives have become a popular swag item for companies of every size. They're a wonderful tool for companies with a commitment to sustainability, enabling them to save tons of trees by distributing information electronically that a few short years ago would have been printed out.

It's impossible to tell by looks alone whether a promotional USB drive is eco-friendly. That's because the components that harm the environment are on the INSIDE of the drive, not the outside. Even bamboo-clad drives like the one above that LOOK environmentally friendly may actually contain harmful chemicals and compounds.

What compounds found in many flash drives are harmful to the planet?
-Lead
-Mercury
-Cadium
-Hexavalent chromium
-Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
-Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)

These toxins have been identified as the five most common and harmful toxins in electronic components.  They contaminate water supplies when they decompose and could pose a threat to users who handle the drive in unintended ways.

One of the biggest material offenders to the environment in electronics and especially flash drives is solder.  Solder is the liquid metal that binds all circuit boards in every electronic product, and traditional solder is made with lead.  The use of lead-free solders in eco friendly USB flash drives allows the drives to decompose without contaminating ground water with toxic lead.  It also provides immediate health benefits to USB drive factory workers in both prototype and manufacturing operations. Their contact with solder paste no longer represents the same health hazard it did before.

Swag Connection's eco-friendly USB flash drives follow the guidelines of the EU RoHS Directive, which bans the distribution of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.  The RoHS Directive is not required by the United States, but our preferred USB supplier has taken it upon themselves to enforce this environmentally friendly standard for all of their USB flash drives. This includes not only the drive itself, but also the drive's packaging, neck lanyard, and paper insert.

This is one of the reasons why it's vitally important to source your USB drives from a company you know and trust. In addition to containing the harmful materials above, many 'bargain' promotional flash drives are remanufactured with used parts. While they're less expensive, remanufactured drives have a much higher failure rate - not the sort of thing you want associated with an item bearing YOUR company's logo!

Flash memory chips are traded much like a commodity, with weekly price changes between 2%-10% depending on market conditions. Our eco-friendly USB flash drives are competitively priced and come in over a dozen different styles - here's a link where you can see them all online: http://www.iclickusb.com/

If we can help YOU with custom-imprinted, earth-friendly USB flash drives for YOUR business we'd love to hear from you. We also offer custom design, data uploading and StickyDrive technology to help you make the most of your promotional flash drive investment.

Thanks for reading & keep coming back for new & earth-friendly swag ideas!

Mousepads are one of those classic, evergreen swag ideas that can work for all sorts of different companies and non-profits. They're inexpensive and useful, they have a ton of room for artwork or information, and they're light and flat for easy mailing & distribution.

The classic mousepad just went GREEN with these hard-surface recycled mousepads from the Express Line. They come in 1/8" or 1/4" thickness and are digitally printed from edge-to-edge in full color process for maximum artwork creativity.

With a low minimum order of 96 pads, priced between $2.99-$3.65, these are an eco-swag idea that will fit many marketing needs. They'd be a great internal swag item to communicate your sustainability initiatives company-wide. Tuck them into presentation folders or press kits, hand them out at events, or make them a centerpiece of a direct mail campaign. No matter how you use them, this is a swag idea you can feel good about - they look really sharp AND are made from earth-friendly recycled material.

For the artwork-challenged, we offer many stock background images you can start with and add your logo to, or our art department can work with you to create completely custom graphics for this item.

If you're interested in this item for YOUR business or non-profit, you can order the items featured on our blog from Swag Connection by phone or online:

http://www.swagconnection.com/

Just click 'Collections' to find the items featured on our blog, with pricing & details. If you would like personal service, or more eco-friendly swag ideas, please feel free to give us a call. We love to hear from our blog readers & work with many clients across the country who first find us here.

Thanks for reading & keep coming back for more new, unique and earth-friendly swag ideas!

Funny thing about Swag as an advertising medium... I can't remember one time in the past 6 years that a client (or potential client) has raised the subject of ROI - Return on Investment - when purchasing swag for their company.

There are many reasons for this I'm sure, chief among them being the fact that computing the ROI from swag can be difficult. This is doubly true if your company views swag as little more than a 'trick-or-treat' item for your company's marketing events. The buying decision often gets made on criteria that have nothing at all to do with advertising effectiveness... the price per item, the minimum order quantity, and in most cases the personal opinions and preferences of the person (or committee) making the buying decision.

These days every budget is under scrutiny and ad dollars invested need to show results. Does that spell the end for swag? Hardly. When companies move away from 'swag as a commodity' thinking to a more creative approach that delights their target audience, magic can be made.

Case in point: ValueClick's investment of $784 in cupcakes (edible swag) netted over $250,000 in new business. This is just one of several case studies Leah Messinger discusses on her excellent blog post: The ROI of Quality Swag (http://www.imediaconnection.com/). If you haven't seen this already, take a minute to read it - it's a good post and one of the few written by someone outside my industry.

One last thought today, which is about quality. No matter how creative your approach and compelling your message is, the quality of the swag you give is the ultimate reflection on your company and what it stands for. After the message is forgotten the swag remains, and good quality swag is often kept for years and years. Quality doesn't have to mean high-priced. Working with an industry professional that knows which product lines deliver the best quality for the price doesn't cost any extra & can help you avoid making expensive mistakes with your swag budget.

Thanks for reading - as you can see I took a little break from my 'Swag Du Jour' format, but I wanted to share that blog post with you. Have a great day & come back soon - my next post will be on a new eco-friendly swag idea you'll love!

Coolers are a useful and popular swag idea for summer, and this is the first one I've come across that is also eco-friendly. Brand new from Gemline, this All-Sport Jr. Cooler is made with 51% recycled PET fabric. It's a nicely-sized with a 12 can capacity & has many great features that make it super useful.

You can't tell from the photo, but that top mesh pocket is actually a pass-through opening. Stuck down with velcro, you just pull it up to get easy access to the inside of the cooler without having to unzip the whole top. The zip front pocket is quite roomy and a great place to keep items like napkins, utensils or bottle openers... or things you don't want to get wet like cellphones and wallets. The side mesh pocket offers more room to store things or to keep a water bottle handy. The inside is heat-sealed and the shoulder strap is adjustable.

Priced between $17-$23, with a low minimum order of 25 pieces, this is a swag idea that will work for all sort of summer promotions:

Golf Tournaments
Employee Incentive/Reward Programs
Volunteer Appreciation Gift
Great for Boat, Motorcycle, Car or RV Clubs
Swag Bag- tuck goodies inside for a nice VIP gift
Lunch Bag- pack a lunch & give to participants at retreats, trainings, conferences

Here's a creative idea for this earth-friendly promotional product: put a container of ice cream inside, along with paper bowls, spoons and a romance card, and make "The Ultimate Cold Call". Show up mid-afternoon to deliver this to your prospect - it's after lunch and the perfect time for a bowl of ice cream. The gatekeeper is almost forced to deliver this to your prospect right away (because it will melt). It's so creative that you're bound to make an impression... even if your prospect doesn't meet you to thank you on the spot, chances are excellent that they'll remember you and take your followup call the next day.

Interested in the Recycled All-Sport Jr. Cooler with YOUR custom logo? You'll find the items featured on our blog for sale at http://www.swagconnection.com/. Just click "Collections" on the homepage to find our Blog collection. You can get more information and pricing, and even order online if you'd like.

Even though we offer online ordering, most of our clients really dig our personal service and look to us to make great suggestions for their marketing and events. Many of our clients come to us through our blog. If you need a good company to work with for your swag, we'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading and keep checking back for new, different and eco-friendly swag ideas.

There's a growing concern worldwide about the huge number of disposable plastic water bottles being thrown away every year, and more people are carrying a personal water bottle than ever before. As a swag idea, having your company logo on that bottle is huge! It gives your excellent, repeated logo exposure, in a way that is also promoting health and environmental stewardship.

Until recently, plastic water bottles were king in the promotional products industry. Marketers were buying a ton of them, prices came down and what began with the plain-jane Nalgene bottle spawned hundreds of new bottle designs. That changed virtually overnight earlier this year when the media picked up a story about Bisphenol A (an ingredient in many plastic bottles) and it's possible link to carcinogens.

As a precaution, many companies are now avoiding plastic promotional bottles and turning to metal bottles instead. The popularity of the Sigg bottle at retail has helped drive this trend, much like the Nalgene bottle started the plastic promo bottle craze. Suppliers in our industry are scrambling to adjust to this new trend, as the offerings of metal bottles have been pretty slim pickings with few style variations... until now.

One of our favorite suppliers in California is coming out with 2 new styles of stainless H2O bottles, and my blog readers are among the VERY FIRST to find out about them. This one is called "The Balance". It's got a curvy, sexy shape that's easier to grip, and it holds a generous 24 ounces. The threaded screw-top lid is leakproof and it comes in a smashing array of cool colors. This bottle will be available on July 18th (but we are taking orders now).

For the 3rd quarter only, our supplier is offering special pricing and a low minimum order of 36 pieces (higher pricing and 72 piece minimum go into effect 10/1/08). Priced between $6.99-$8.99 depending on quantity, this is a great business gift, employee incentive, safety reward or gift-with-purchase premium for companies of all types.

For more details, breakpoint pricing or to order online, you'll find this item at http://www.swagconnection.com/, our searchable website. Click COLLECTIONS to see the items featured on our blog.

Thanks for reading & keep coming back for what's new and green in the wonderful world of swag!

Great swag and prime real estate have one thing in common - LOCATION. The desktop space of your target audience is the #1 best location for swag because you get daily, repeated logo exposure.

Here's a nearly perfect desktop swag idea for you that also happens to be Eco-Friendly. Mousepaper Pads are a dual-purpose promotional product, a unique combination of a mousepad and a notepad. Each pad contains 24 pages (containing 30% post-consumer recycled content) which have a special texture for optimum mouse tracking. The non-skid paperboard backing is made of 100% recycled fiber (50% post-consumer). 

They're the same size & shape as a mousepad with rounded corners. Specially placed side adhesive keeps the pages from lifting while mousing, but still allows the top sheet to easily be torn off. Printed from edge to edge with your custom 4-color graphics, there's a ton of room to work with from a design standpoint. Best of all - they're about the same price as a regular mousepad ($2.50-$3.35 depending on quantity, minimum 250 pads).

These are a great way to keep useful information in front of your target audience, like the 'Short Keys' guide printed on the example shown above. They would be great for any business where keeping your schedule in front of your target audience is important - sports, schools, the arts, radio, television, etc. They're also a great way to keep information in front of employees in large corporations or across dealer networks.

One more idea for MousePaper pads is use as a FUNDRAISER. There's plenty of room for a couple of sponsor logos along with a school or sports schedule, and they could easily be sold for $5/each to members of the community who support your cause.

If you like this SWAG IDEA for your company or non-profit, you can find more information and pricing on this item on our other website: http://www.swagconnection.com/. Simply click 'COLLECTIONS' to see the items featured on my blog, all of which can also be ordered online.

Need someone good to work with for YOUR company swag? We're here to help, just call or email us for friendly service and creative ideas. Thanks for reading & have a great 4th of July weekend!