Tag Archives: john simonetta

eGreen Line Sports Raw Bags

17 Mar

Raw Cotton eGREEN Roll-Up Canvas Messenger Tote

The 2011 eGreen line from Continental Marketing Services or CM BAGS is sporting a line of Raw Cotton Canvas bags that are certainly worth a look -raw cotton is normally defined as untreated cotton with no dyes.

The process of dying cotton is one of the most pollutive parts of the creation of materials for cotton bags. So for the Raw Cotton Canvas line from CM BAGS, they just skipped over the bad bag parts.

Cotton is a naturally biodegradable material, so all cotton bags will share that attribute with these raw cotton bags. Also raw cotton gives no telltale signs as to origin, so this cotton can only be said to be non-dyed, it is not organic.

That said there are some quick wins with these raw cotton bags. For a start they are machine washable. They contain no dyes, therefor there are no colors to run or fade when washing. Second they look and feel different than “finished” cotton bags. The look really works well if your are targeting a market with a taste for the natural world; think spas, nature centers, conservation organizations. Indeed for groups from Ducks Unlimited to the Sierra Club, these raw bags make great membership appreciation gifts.

Take for example the very cool, very hip, eGreen Roll-up Canvas Messenger Tote made from 12oz 100% raw cotton canvas.  The 18.5″ x 14″ x 4″ bag rolls up to a snappy 9″ x 3″, perfect for bike basket or even back pocket, making it a great quick access tote. And featuring a 4″ embroidery area or larger 5.5″ x 4″ screenprint area the The eGreen Roll-up Canvas Messenger Tote has plenty of room for branding with message or logo. Additional touches to this bag are the zippered main compartment and adjustable shoulder straps, features normally reserved for higher end totes.

All in all the eGreen Roll-up Canvas Messenger Tote is a nice bag, with a clean look. I am looking forward to checking out the rest of the raw cotton bags in the eGreen line.

If you are looking for more information on the eGreen line write to Cindy Audoung at Continental Marketing Services. If you are interested in these items to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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K and R Jute Wine Tote

23 Oct

Jute Wine Tote

Even though it is not yet Halloween, it is certainly time for businesses and groups to start planning for their end of the year gift giving.

The jute NATURAL ECO-FRIENDLY WINE BAG tote from K & R Precision Corporation is a great tool for use in planning a gift program for any organization or business looking for a natural angle.

Jute is a renewable, naturally biodegradable vegetable fiber that has been used as a woven material for centuries. In the promotional products industry the material is primarily used for bags and totes, of which the NATURAL ECO-FRIENDLY WINE BAG is a perfect example.

The NATURAL ECO-FRIENDLY WINE BAG is 4.5”w x 17”h x 4.25”d with an imprint area of 2.25” x 8”. The two-tone construction is a nice touch, as are the bamboo ring style handles. The bag is designed to hold a standard 750ml bottle.

If you are giving wine, especially from a vineyard with an eco-friendly or organic pedigree, the jute NATURAL ECO-FRIENDLY WINE BAG might be a better choice than your standard bag. Wine bags work well because you can stage the value of the gift without lessening the presentation, i.e. the big client gets the $140 bottle, the lesser client the $50 bottle, etc., but the packaging and presentation remains the same.

Wine totes are also an idea to consider because their natural tall and lean shape makes a great gift bag for many items that are not wine, from sleeves of bakes fresh cookies, to holiday candy, to BBQ sauce, to fishing lures. Really, everything gets a perceived value boost when given in an imprinted wine tote. (And yes, unexpected items like fishing lures do work very well as the juxtaposition of the item and carrier gives your gift a quirkiness that helps people remember the giver and the brand, and isn’t that the point in the first place?)

If you are a promotional items distributor looking for more information on the NATURAL ECO-FRIENDLY WINE BAG contact Melanie Langille at K & R Precision Corporation. If you are interested in wine totes to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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AnvilSustainable™ Hooded Fleece

6 Oct

AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Full-Zip Hooded Fleece

Anvil is a clear leader in eco-friendly tees supporting the promotional apparel industry. Their AnvilRecycled®, AnvilOrganic® , and AnvilSustainable™ are workhorse tee shirts for eco-friendly branding and events, and if you are wearing an eco tee right now, there is a very good chance it came from Anvil. With the cold weather setting in I wanted to point out that Anvil is running more than adult and youth tees in their ECO line. Anvil also has a full set of hoodies available for embroidery or screen-printing.

In particular I wanted to talk about Anvil’s new AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Full-Zip Hooded Fleece and AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Hooded Fleece.

Like other items in the AnvilSustainable line these hoodies are a mix of materials, running 8.0 oz. 55% certified organic cotton blended with 45% post consumer P.E.T. recycled polyester. Basically this is a blend cotton poly hoodie using organic cotton and non-virgin polyester.

The hoodies might feel a little softer than your normal pullover because the quality is rather superior to standard blends, but other than that they take an impression or embroidery just as well as any other 8oz cotton/poly blend.

The AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Full-Zip Hooded Fleece and AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Hooded Fleece come in the standard nine colors of  White, Black, Charcoal, Chocolate, City Green, Heather Grey, Natural, Navy and Red. Available sizes run S-3XL and may vary by color.

AnvilSustainable™ Long Sleeve Hooded Fleece

Hoodies are a great marketing platform as they are nearly as ubiquitous an article of fall and winter clothing as the tee shirt is to spring and summer. They are also ageless, working with the youth and young adult market, colleges, and professional groups. Everyone has a favorite hoodie, and if you are lucky enough that the hoodie is branded with your company’s or organization’s brand, then you have a walking billboard for life.

If you’re in the business these hoodies are available from most of the usual suspects, SANMAR, BRODERS, BODEK & RHODES (talk to Marc Seiler).

If you need help with figuring out the best fits and styles for your clients, pricing, or running full jobs with custom embroidery and screen-printing, then you will need to talk to your local promotional apparel vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for more information.

Bundle up everyone, it is getting cold out there.

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Video: Shepenco Newsprencil

30 Sep

Stumbled across this video on the new Newsprencil from Shepenco. The Newsprencil™ is made from 75% recycled newspaper and 25% new paper, comes in five colors with brass-colored ferrules and green erasers to make this unit scream eco-friendly. Newsprencil™ is easy to sharpen and splinter free.

Here is the video from our friends at freepromotips.com filmed at ASI San Diego.

If you are an ASI member with questions about Shepenco Joyce Allen is the contact to talk to. If you are interested in these items to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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Calendars, Calendars, Calendars

28 Sep

Looking to run eco-friendly calendars in 2011? Well you better get a move on as most calendar orders really need to be in to your local promotional items vendor by mid-October for best pricing and selections.

It is a funny thing about the promotions industry, August is normally slow, then BANG end of September everything hits: Fall golf tournaments, events like Breast Cancer Awareness and Halloween for October, holiday cards for November and December, and end-of-year employee and client gifts. The last quarter of the year is a busy time, so plan ahead.

goingreen custom wall calendar

Ok, back to calendars. The calendar offerings in the goingreen® line from Norwood continue to expand, and for those companies looking for eco-friendly calendar options, Norwood is an excellent place to start.

Why calendars? Even though it is an “old” medium, the statistics for calendars as a branding vehicle continue to impress. Take just one point used in this Norwood sales video aimed at people in my industry. If a calendar is glanced at in an office only 12 times a day, at 365 days per year, that is your brand in front of your audience/client 4,380 times in a year, at a cost of only $0.0005 per viewing, or less than one penny per view.

Yes, that math favors the industry, and yes I am drinking the Kool-Aid. But cut the number in half if you wish and that is still a heck of a lot of “face time” with your audience for very little money. For organizations like Sierra Club, Forest Action Network, and National Arbor Day Foundation – basically any organization or company that can supply their own photos to be added to stock calendars (yes they do that) – an eco-friendly calendar is a simple home run, physically displaying your organization’s green credentials as well as unique photos and brand.

So what stands out in green calendars. I have three examples from Norwood worth a look.

goingreen pocket calendar

The goingreen® Monthly Pocket Planner really starts the line. Pocket planners are great because clients keep them with them at all time. So that keeps your brand and message in front of your client at all times. Again, that is the trick of calendars, they are useful to your audience every day. The 3-1/2″w x 6″h (closed) goingreen® Monthly Pocket Planner comes in standard cover coloring of Espresso, Green Tea, Kohl, Wheat, printed with soy based inks, and is run with a  minimum of 30% recycled content paper (a percentage I would like to see raised). Each page carries a simple going green message, with your decoration added to the outside cover.

For those coming late to the party, the standard goingreen® wall calendar from Norwood is actually part of their guaranteed inventory program, which guarantees inventory in stock on a number of traditional and eco calendars up to an order date of Dec 31st 2010. Additionally the goingreen® wall calendar features easy to use templates for custom monthly and cover artwork, plus 12 additional pre-printed insert pages Norwood refers to as Insights Backmount Selections offering information on themes from First Aid to Identity Theft. This is your standard wall calendar with plenty of added bells and whistles.

If you’re going green and going big, the goingreen® Contractor is a good match for firms working in green construction (video). This huge calendar runs 18″w x 25″h and is printed on 100% recycled paper. Pages show how many days remain in each year, and how many days have passed, and other practical planning tools for construction projects.

If you are an ASI distributor Jim Munkittrick is the contact to talk to at Norwood about calendars. If you are interested in goingreen® products to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing. And hurry, the year is almost over.

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Carnival Cup Hit at Arlington EcoFest

19 Sep

Carnival Cup by Glass America

Just back from the City of Arlington EcoFest, where Proforma Green Marketing had a booth focused on educating the public about eco-friendly marketing solutions for business and organizations. What item in our booth seemed to elicit the most interest? The clear winner was the Carnival Cup from Glass America.

The Carnival Cup has the advantage of sharing its design with similar style tumblers seen in retail stores like Wal-Mart and Starbucks, so there is already a level of familiarity existing with the audience (which is a desirable attribute for a promo item).

Like those retail tumblers the Carnival Cup is a reusable, BPA free, double wall acrylic tumbler, with screw top lid, bundled with a matching acrylic straw. With single color imprint, a 20 oz. Carnival Cup runs $3.99 at 144 units. Imprint area is a large 4in x 2.5in, and multiple color imprints are possible. Glass America sells the same unit at 16oz for $3.49, again at 144 units.

Another reason the Carnival Cup might have collected so many questions from the audience is that the City of Arlington was selling the similarly designed 16oz spirit tumbler from the express line (the company that does not believe in capital  letters), so there were really a lot of these units floating around the event.

The spirit tumbler is available in 16oz, 24oz, and the brand new 20 oz tall. All sizes are available in 10 colors – Glass America offers only black, green, red and clear, while the express line has hipper options like aqua and tangerine – and like the Carnival Cup come with a matching straw.

Aqua 16oz spirit tumbler

Either of these units are great ideas for companies starting reduce, reuse programs, as the main claim to eco fame of this design is their re-usability. The wide tops and matching straws make them an easy beverage holder for soft drinks and ice tea.

Of course anyone in the beverage industry or food services might also want to consider the Carnival Cup design for giveaways. At EcoFest we saw their popularity with the audience and this is the type of item that travels with the recipient from work to home to play, always keeping your brand in front of your client.

If you are an ASI distributor Helen Henderson is the contact to talk to at Glass America, which also goes by the name Modern Glass. Nicki Russo is the contact to talk to at express line.

If you are not in the promotional items business and interested in either item to promote your own business or organization, contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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Leeds Green Grass Collection Supports American Forests®

13 Sep

By the end of 2010, American Forests® will have planted over 35 million trees in projects across the United States and internationally. Their goal is to plant 100 million trees by 2020.

Each item sold in the Green Grass Collection from Leeds will generate funds to support that goal. For example for every Green Grass Aluminum Bottle sold through December 31, 2011, 10% of the sales revenue will go to American Forests®.

Like all pre-prints programs the Green Grass Collection from Leeds allows more bang for the buck by supplying pre-designed artwork to which a company simply adds its logo.

The fact that sales of these items supports such a worthwhile goal is certainly a bonus.

The depth of the Green Grass Collection is also of value to the client because with so many items available it is easy to mix and match ideas to support a single goal or marketing plan.

For example, if targeting young adults, think about bundling the Green Grass Aluminum Bottle with the Green Grass Laminated Non-Woven Inspire Lunch Bag.

Going after a more professional audience? Think about the Green Grass Ceramic Tumbler paired with the Green Grass Journal Book.

Add to these items both a Laminated Non-Woven Large Shopper and Laminated Non-Woven Small Shopper, and there are quite a few combinations possible to meet your marketing needs.

For more information on the Green Grass Collection and the relationship between Leeds and American Forests® contact Mary Beach.

If you are interested in the Green Grass Collection as a marketing idea for your own organization, contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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Cast Your Vote Now for the 2011 ASI Advisory Boards

9 Sep

{The voting for 2011 ASI Advisory Boards now open. We need your vote. I have been nominated for seat on the Marketing & Research board.}

The Advertising Specialty Industry is experiencing a world of opportunity as well as challenges. Mild but recovering economic growth, new regulations and laws affecting many products in our industry and new opportunities such as social media competing for our clients interest are all creating opportunities for our industry. These opportunities need leadership and input from industry participants of all sizes. In 2010, ASI launched the ASI advisory boards to help shape the future of the industry and voting for the 2011 boards start today.

There are four (4) elected ASI advisory boards representing:

  • Technology & Operations
  • Marketing & Research
  • Safety & Legislation
  • General Industry Issues

All advisory boards are volunteer driven, nominated and voted on by ASI members to share thoughts and develop solutions to ensure the success of the industry (existing board members can be viewed at: http://asiadvisory.blogspot.com/). The slate for the 2011 advisory board includes existing members of the 2010 advisory boards and a number of great candidates nominated and selected by industry leaders.

It’s time to do your part. Read the biography and statements from the new nominees and cast your vote for who you think will best represent the industry to ensure the success of all industry participants. Only votes from active ASI member employees are allowed.

Click here to place your vote.

Regards

Dale T Denham
Senior Vice President

dale.denham@asicentral.com

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Recycled Notebook Great For Back To School

8 Sep

Jetline has introduced a line of recycled die cut notebooks with a sport theme which seem to be just in time for the back-to-school season.

These trendy notebooks are great for booster and school spirit programs, and like pre-printed bags, the die cuts give you a bit more razzle-dazzle for your dollar.

As a line, the notebooks carry 80 sheets of 100% post consumer recycled lined notebook paper.

The Recycled Die Cut Notebook line is made of 80% post consumer recycled materials, with a metal spiral binding made of 90% post consumer recycled materials as well.  As a final touch each unit comes with a pen also made of recycled materials attached to the notebook via a simple elastic pen loop.

Currently die cuts are available in Baseball (white under page), Basketball (orange under page), Football (brown under page), and Soccer (orange under page).

There is also the more general themed Global (blue under page), and additional styles will be available in the Fall of 2010.

The 5 7/8″ W x 7″ H x 1/2″ D notebook run $2.75 EQP, which is a very competitive price for an eco-friendly jotter with an included pen.

If you are in the business and want more information on the Recycled Die Cut Notebook line from Jetline contact Alex Skorupsky.

If you are interested in the Recycled Die Cut Notebook line or other ideas to promote school or business, contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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John Simonetta Named to 2010 ASI Hotlist

7 Sep

I was recently named to the ASI 2010 Hotlist for my focus on green marketing. The ASI hotlist is meant to showcase “… the 41 people who are shaking up the market with new and innovative approaches”.

From the ASI website:

What’s hot now? Social networking, business growth, new marketing strategies, and yes, good-old-fashioned networking.

Indeed, 2010 has brought many shifts to the business world – and the people who are succeeding are approaching the market in new ways. They’re promoting themselves and their companies with innovative tactics, they’re looking for new opportunities and they’re working harder than ever to, very simply, make it happen.

These are the types of people on the 2010 Hot List. It’s a group of savvy networkers, successful businesspeople and driven entrepreneurs who are going to succeed at all costs. Read on to check out their stories.

Thank you ASI.

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