Advice: Choosing the right 'brand ambassador'

Long after an advertisement has been read and forgotten or a brochure received and discarded, a well-chosen piece of promotional merchandise, aimed at the right target audience, can remain with the recipient for a lifetime.

Not only will it prove to be the hardest working form of advertising you can find, it will also increase your brand awareness by putting your name in front of your customer all day, every day.

Define your objective; are you aiming to promote a new product, incentivise customers or increase traffic to your website? Clear objectives will ensure you select the right product to achieve that all-important ROI.

Think about who you're targeting, what the lifetime value of that client is worth and that should dictate the budget!

Make it functional and worth keeping. A ballpoint pen ticks the first box but is it worth making space in the desk tidier for? If not, your 'brand ambassador' will quickly find itself out of sight, and your brand out of mind.