Responding to demands for healthier menu options, fast-food chain McDonald's will begin offering Go Active! Happy Meals for adults nationwide later this year. Successfully tested last year in approximately 200 McDonald's restaurants in Indiana, the meal will include an entrée-sized salad, bottled water or a medium-sized fountain drink, a fitness guide from celebrity trainer Bob Greene (Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer) and a pedometer to encourage walking for physical fitness. The Go Active! Happy Meal, which sold for approximately $4.99 in the test market, is one of several health-related initiatives the company began last year to position itself as a health advocate. For example, McDonald's launched its "I'm Lovin' It" ad campaign to promote healthful living and "Real Life Choices," a program in the New York metropolitan area that allows restaurantgoers to customize hamburgers and chicken sandwiches to meet special dietary needs such as low-carb diets. The company also has developed city partnerships such as "Get Lean Houston" in Texas and "Walk this Weigh" in Oklahoma City to promote physical fitness.
Night Glow Decals, Repositionable Sports Stickers, Palm Cards, Floor and Carpet Graphics, Custom Mouse Pads
Gill Studios™ Inc., Shawnee Mission, Kan., offers its 2004 Gill-line catalog, featuring a variety of new products, including night-glow decals, EZ-Peel™ repositionable sports stickers, palm cards, floor and carpet graphics, custom mouse pads, coupon magnets, memo board magnets and double-sided poly bag yard signs. The company also offers hard-hat decals, vinyl cut signs, coasters, computer monitor framers and toppers, bookmarks, rulers, compressed sponges, roll labels and more. The company also now offers faster production times on hundreds of items and expanded capabilities, including tipping, kiss cut polyester, alphanumeric and double consecutive numbering, static and consecutive bar coding, and more. Additionally, Gill Studios offers its 2004 Political and Patriotic Product Guide, featuring bumper stickers, posters, magnetic products and more. For more information, call (913) 888-4422 or (800) 392-4455 (fax). Visit www.gill-line.com.
Pullover Jackets, T-shirts, Tanks, Shorts, Jerseys, Athletic Pants
Augusta Sportswear, Augusta, Ga., offers its 2004
Collection catalog, featuring nearly 400 products, including pullover jackets,
T-shirts, tanks, shorts, jerseys, athletic pants, Polo shirts, sweatshirts,
ponchos, parkas and scarves in new colors and sizes. The company also offers
duffel bags, backpacks, bat bags, mesh ball/laundry bags, messenger bags,
garment bags, hanging toiletry kits, fanny packs, insulated coolers, CD wallets,
tote bags, aprons, athletic visors and more. Additionally, the catalog features
the company's expanded line of moisture-wicking Performance Fabrics, its new
Pro-Weight teamwear label and an outwear line with value-added features. Call
(800) 237-6695, (706) 860-4633 or (706) 854-0835 (fax). Visit
www.augustasportswear.com. Send email to sales@augustasportswear.com.
Promotional Rewards
Distributors help end users inspire and motivate employees with promotional products.
In 2002, businesses spent approximately $4 billion on promotional products for employees, including service awards, safety/education incentives, internal promotions and employee relations items. Such items can include clocks, electronics, automobile safety kits, travel items, watches and more.
When Dave Donnelly started selling forms out of his home 25 years ago, he never thought he'd end up selling clocks, coffee cups and other promotional items. But Donnelly, president of Suncoast Forms & Systems Inc., Sarasota, Fla., isn't complaining--his distributorship sold approximately $1 million in promotional products last year.
"Business is getting less personal," Donnelly says. "Security has gotten so tight, it's hard to just walk into places like you used to. With promotional products, you can leave something behind with your name on it. People will remember you."
The shrinking business forms market also is helping the promotional products industry, says Sales Representative Patti Donnelly. "People are using fewer forms and they're seeing their names on less paper," she says. "They want to get their names out there in some way."
Since it began targeting businesses for promotional product sales approximately five years ago, Suncoast Forms & Systems has provided an array of items. It provided a client with 5,000 imprinted apothecary jars, another client with 20,000 imprinted radios and a third client with 30,000 pairs of imprinted flip-flops. "The gamut of things you can sell is amazing," Dave Donnelly says.
When a large business with sales representatives nationwide wanted to reward its top salespeople, it turned to Suncoast Forms & Systems. The customer had planned to reward each of its top salespeople with all-expense paid trips for themselves and their guests to Cancun, but the firm also wanted to give them tangible gifts.
After analyzing the client's needs, Suncoast Forms & Systems provided 250 black beach bags silk-screened with the client's name in white. Each bag included a pair of flip-flops, a beach towel, a sun visor, a deck of cards and a bottle of sunscreen. All of the items were imprinted with the client's name. Suncoast Forms & Systems picked, packed and fulfilled the items in house.
--Kara S. Carpenter
PRINT-TECH Promotional Group, a manufacturer in Madison, Wis., was named one of the fastest-growing companies nationwide in Inc. magazine's annual Inc. 500 ranking. The Inc. 500 ranks the fastest-growing private companies nationwide according to sales growth during the past five years. PRINT-TECH Promotional Group's sales grew more than 352 percent during that period. Inc. has ranked the company for the past two years. Call (800) 682-7746, (608) 241-5027 or (608) 241-5067 (fax). Visit www.ptpromo.com.
Prime Resources Corp., Bridgeport, Conn., was awarded Promotional Products Association International's (PPAI) Gold Supplier Web Award for its web site, www.primeworld.com. The award recognized the site for its simple navigation, product presentation and distributor tools such as free virtual spec samples, a "send this info to a friend" function, marketing tools, an unbranded web catalog and free e-greetings. Prime Resources received the honor during PPAI's Las Vegas Expo in January. This is the second consecutive gold award for the company, which also won the Silver Supplier Web Award in 2002. Additionally, Prime Resources enhanced its web site to offer a more robust customer registration and login function. For more information, call (800) 873-7746, (203) 331-9100 or 203-330-0123 (fax).
