Give Away Items

[ABergman]

I am looking for some cheap but useful give away items. Just wondering what others have used in the past and worked. So I can get some stuff for IFC informal recruitment this fall.

Thanks

[navane]

I use a company called Amsterdam to order pens imprinted with my company's name and website address. This company has a good selection and decent prices. The thing is that the website prices aren't as good as the prices I get in my catalog. The quarterly catalogs have items *much* cheaper and with lower minimum orders than the website. You can get pens with printing on them for like 19¢ - 29¢ and such. There are also keychains, magnets, plastic cups, lanyards, mousepads and things like that.

http://www.amsterdamprinting.com/

I'm not a guy, so I have no idea what would work for your fraternity and/or IFC. Actually, these things might be better suited to a specific fraternity as opposed to a general IFC marketing tool. Though, pens with a catchy recruitment slogan and your IFC website address would be cheap, handy and actually useful for the recipient.

Just an idea!

.....Kelly

[Blue Violets]

Cups are always good, especially if its during frat rush for ...soda.

I'm on my school's Honor Council and we handed out something like a thousand little plastic cups that said "DRINK FOR HONOR" on them. They were a big hit. You can get them at any mass-produceable type place or online.

[Kevin]

You can get beer bottle openers with some kind of printing on them done fairly cheaply. I'm always seeing those things as promotional items.

[sairose]

Originally posted by navane
I use a company called Amsterdam to order pens imprinted with my company's name and website address. This company has a good selection and decent prices. The thing is that the website prices aren't as good as the prices I get in my catalog. The quarterly catalogs have items *much* cheaper and with lower minimum orders than the website. You can get pens with printing on them for like 19¢ - 29¢ and such. There are also keychains, magnets, plastic cups, lanyards, mousepads and things like that.

http://www.amsterdamprinting.com/

I'm not a guy, so I have no idea what would work for your fraternity and/or IFC. Actually, these things might be better suited to a specific fraternity as opposed to a general IFC marketing tool. Though, pens with a catchy recruitment slogan and your IFC website address would be cheap, handy and actually useful for the recipient.

Just an idea!

.....Kelly

Well I looked on this site, and they do seem to have good prices...but are all their items a minimum of like 200-500? My SAI chapter was looking into having pencils made that say "ASU Marching Indians" to give out during the first day of marching band (because every musician is supposed to bring a pencil, but no one actually remembers one )

Anyways. Our total band has about 150-170 members. So we wouldn't meet the minumums.

Is there a good place online to order cheap pencils with lower minimums?

[SigPhiSunshine]

eh whats an extra 30 to 50 pencils, keep them for backups.

[_Lisa_]

Originally posted by SigPhiSunshine
eh whats an extra 30 to 50 pencils, keep them for backups.

True...because having been in an orchestra before, I can sympathize w/ forgetting a pencil several days in a row & being truly appreciative of whomever would loan me another one!

[IUPphimu]

You could also order enough for next year too.

Or, if your marching band is like the one here, they travel to two or three high school marching band competitions a weekend to do exhibitions. You could give them away there as a marketing tool to get high school students to come to your school for marching band. We even have billboards on the turnpike for our marching band.

Just an idea.

Deb

[Kevin]

Originally posted by crzychx
True...because having been in an orchestra before, I can sympathize w/ forgetting a pencil several days in a row & being truly appreciative of whomever would loan me another one!

I just constantly relied on the other folks to bring the pencils. Someone else (usually everyone else) had one. I couldn't personally see any reason to have two pencils on one stand

[_Lisa_]

Originally posted by ktsnake
I just constantly relied on the other folks to bring the pencils. Someone else (usually everyone else) had one. I couldn't personally see any reason to have two pencils on one stand

When I attended the University of Louisville we were required to have our own pencils. When we broke up into sectionals (after each day's rehearsal) we had our own stand & had to have our own pencils.

[WhiteDaisy128]

You can get pocket knives printed on...boys like pocket knives...

Also, the Kappa Sigma's here got lighters that had a bottle opener on one end printed with their RUSH chair's name and number on them...people liked those too.

[sairose]

LOL Glad I'm not the only musician who constantly forgets a pencil.

And yeah I guess we could just order plenty extras to have them around. Duh. I didn't think of that.

[navane]

Originally posted by sairose
Well I looked on this site, and they do seem to have good prices...but are all their items a minimum of like 200-500?

As I stated in my original post, the quarterly catalogs have items *much* cheaper and with lower minimum orders than the website. That is to say that Amsterdam DOES offer lower minimums....just not online.

For example, I ordered two different styles of imprinted pens at 50 pieces each set.

Anyways. Our total band has about 150-170 members. So we wouldn't meet the minumums.

As others mentioned, a few extra pencils won't hurt. Believe me, there are going to be tons of people who ask for two, or lose theirs and want another, and so on. If not that then there are your advisors, instructors, potential members and so on. You won't have any leftovers if you order 200.

.....Kelly

[BabyP]

I think some people do tealights as give aways. they would just write name on it and decorate the metal part........its hard to give away cuz some people may just show up for freebies........

[PenguinTrax]

Check Sam's Club website - the business section, they have various advertising specialties on the cheap. Also very inexpensive embroidered shirts.

Edited to add link: http://snipurl.com/6yrm