Advertising is expensive. It costs a lot to get noticed and to make an impression. Promoting an effective call to action which ends with a consumer buying a product or using a service isn’t easy. There’s branding to consider, marketing strategies, as well as getting the message to your target audience. Your business may have a compelling USP )Unique Sales Position.) However, if the message never gets to your prospects, what does it matter? But did you know you can gain thousands of impressions for pennies?

“According to a research study conducted by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), among businesspeople over age 21, revealed that advertising specialties beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available. The average cost-per-impression of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive per impression than nearly any other media. According to Nielsen Media data, says the report, the CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $0.019; a cable TV ad is $0.007; a syndicated TV ad is $0.006; and a spot radio ad is $0.005.” —  Media Post

What Kind of Impression Do Promotional Products Make?

(Based on impressions per month)
1. Bags = 1038
2. Caps = 476
3. Shirts = 365
4. Writing Instruments = 363
5. Desk Accessories = 294
6. Glassware/Ceramics = 251
7. Calendars = 227
8. Awards = 221
9. Other = 192
10. Other wearables = 64

Numbers from  ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute)

It in the Bag

According to the Media Post article mentioned above, “Bags were reported to be used most frequently, with respondents indicating that they use their bags on average nine times per month. Bags deliver the most impressions, with 1,038 impressions per month on average.” ASI, (Advertising Specialty Institute) shared a few convincing facts about bags as advertising items including:

  • 31% of Americans own at least one promotional bag, which includes 36% of women and 31% of men
  • 35% of Americans earning 50,000 or less own bags while 33% earning 50-99,000 have specialty bags
  • Cost per impression on a logoed bag is less than 1/10 of a cent per impression

Impressions for Pennies — Do the Math

3,114 impressions are only three month’s worth of impressions at 1038 impressions per month. At six months that’s 6,228, and at a years’ worth of use, a branded bag has been seen 12,456 times. At TKO Marketing Solutions, we offer several styles of bags for less than one dollar—for pennies. So, if you were to give-away 500 branded bags at 1038 impressions per month times six months that would equal … a lot of impressions. If you’d like to learn more about bags and the impression they make, let us know we’ve got this one … in the bag.

Photo by Shot by Cerqueira on Unsplash

If you enjoyed this post you might also like, The Top Ten Promotional Products by Impressions.