Special events are a fantastic place to hand out your promotional umbrellas especially if they are outdoors.
Outdoor venues in promotional umbrellas go hand in hand and really this is the only logical place to pass on a promotional umbrella. Often times however your company will have to be a sponsor of the event in order to pass out your promotional umbrellas so you'll need to add this into your marketing budget.
Under certain circumstances your company will get away with only having to donate the promotional umbrellas, though these events are usually very small scale and you may not get maximum public exposure. Below you'll find ways to help decide if you need a large-scale event for distributing your promotional umbrellas, or if a smaller scale will help you achieve the same objectives and minimize costs.
An easy way to judge if you'll need a large event to distribute your promotional umbrella is to look at the size of your company. The size of your company and the size of the events generally go hand-in-hand, with larger companies needing larger events to pass out their promotional umbrellas, and smaller companies being able to get by with using smaller events to distribute their promotional umbrellas. This is not true 100% of the time, though it is a good place to start your evaluation. If you do decide that a large event is necessary to distribute your promotional umbrellas then you will need to get in contact with whoever is in charge of marketing for that event.
This should not be difficult, and you'll oftentimes find that these people are more than willing to accept your donation of money and promotional umbrellas. Some great places to start our sports stadiums, check to see if your zoo has free days, or with your local museums. Alternatively if you're looking for events that will not require a contribution, and will simply accept your promotional umbrellas you may want to check with the local park system to see if they have any events over the summer. These events are a fantastic venue for passing out your promotional umbrellas because rain or shine people want protection from the elements.
Of course if you are unable to find a special event where you want to pass a your promotional umbrellas you can always use them at your own company events. For instance if you host a company picnic there is no better place to have promotional umbrellas on hand. Although technically you don't need to advertise to your own employees, it is likely that these promotional umbrellas will be passed along to their friends or at least viewed out in public when they use them at a later date, thus technically fulfilling the role of the promotional umbrella.
No matter what event or venue you choose for rolling out your promotional umbrella campaign you should be pleased with the results. Even if the event does not necessarily cater to your absolute core audience is likely that the promotional umbrellas will act to get your name out in a wider arena because of the very mobile and visible nature of the promotional umbrellas themselves.
Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's leading online promotional umbrellas and custom printed promotional umbrellas and promotional gifts company based in the north of England.
