Promotional Products Marketing Ideas

Hockey players and dedicated parents know the pain of 5:00 a.m. practice and are not unfamiliar with a cold frost first thing in the morning. For this year's fundraiser, give your players' fans and families some spirit items that show your appreciation for what they do and make going to games an even better experience.

Blankets in school colors and embroidered with your school's logo can be a great item for hockey fundraisers. Warm fleece blankets come with a convenient wrap with handles are easy items to bring along to the game. Fans can wrap themselves in the blanket during the third period to keep warm and proudly wear their support when they stand to cheer for goals at the sound of the buzzer.

A deluxe stadium seat cushion can give all of your team's fans the best seat in the house. Supporters can enjoy a thick foam stadium cushion that keeps them comfortable and warm on top of the cold metal bench. Since cushions are covered in durable material and fold up with a handle on top, parents can toss the seats right in the trunk with hockey gear and expect them to last as long as their player's career.

Foam fingers have been popular spirit items at high school and college sporting events since their invention by Geral Fauss in 1978. Whether you're at a football or basketball game, waving a giant foam finger is a sure way to show your team support. When there aren't any games during the off-season, school spirit gear can still be put to good use. Here are some suggestions to make sure that foam finger doesn't gather dust during break.

Wear them as mittens
This move has the potential to make you a popular person on campus. It may get you into the campus newspaper or earn you the 'most spirited' title in the yearbook.

Use them as golf club covers
Many college apparel stores sell mascot and school color golf club covers to proud alumni. If you want to show your school spirit on the golf course, but are restricted to a student-sized budget, you can bypass the expensive gear from the store by getting creative and using a foam finger. They might not be a perfect fit for your driver, but there will be no doubt which team you cheer for.

Hang it on your wall as decoration
A foam finger in the off-season can make for an easy way to spruce up a college apartment with decorations. Pin it up on a wall or bulletin board with other posters, pennants and ticket stubs for a creative collage that will inspire school spirit every time you head out for class.

Use it as an appliance duster
If you don't have a feather duster and you're running low on paper towels, you can try using on of those spare foam fingers hanging around from basketball season, which may make the task more fun.

Wear it to big lecture classes to improve the chance of being called on when you raise your hand
It can be daunting to ask a question in a lecture class with a few hundred people. Wearing a foam finger is a daring move that might make your hand more visible.

Keep your bills in a foam finger so they don't get lost and all of your roommates know where they are
Dedicating a place to store bills can help you keep track of them as they come in the mail and may reduce the chances of them getting lost in your apartment's junk drawer.

Stack a couple up and use them as a pillow
Foam fingers are padded and portable, which are two qualities that make them a great pillow for impromptu naps on a bench in the quad or after a study session in the student center.

Wear it as a hat to last-minute costume parties
If you've been invited to a costume party at the last minute, try going as one of those fans covered in body paint and wear the foam finger on your head as a hat. It can make for a good group costume as well if you have enough for your friends.

Use it as a chair cushion in uncomfortable seats
Using foam fingers as a seat cushion can make that chair you bought at the beginning of the year bearable again. If you find that your back starts hurting when you've been sitting at the library too long, try bringing some foam fingers for extra seat padding.

Use them to cheer on your roommates after a big exam
Show your roommates that they're number one surprising them with fanfare when they return from a midterm or final. Cheer on their victory with a foam finger and bring school spirit to academic celebrations as well. 

Schools that rank highest for school spirit probably also rank highest in apparel sales. If you visit top ranking Texas A&M, LSU or University of Michigan, you can expect to see more students than not wearing shirts in school colors, emblazoned with crests and initials. Go to students'  apartments and you will find penants, blankets, and refrigerator magnets. Schools with the most school spirit also usually have good football teams and games that are widely attended by students, alumni and the local community.

Schools that are lacking in the spirit department might need support from their local community to take it up a notch. Local businesses can help bolster spirit by printing t-shirts featuring school colors and school initials on game days. Use a local nickname or school slogan to personalize the shirts and make them more fun to wear.

Passing out mini footballs or basketballs as promotional items will remind students and community members of upcoming sporting events and encourage attendance. Foam fingers are great spirit items that fans can use to cheer local teams on to victory and will save after winning seasons for keepsakes. Providing students with sufficient apparel could encourage a rise in spirit and remind them that you are invested in the school and community.

As college football comes to an end with this week's bowl games, many fans will cast off their jerseys and recoil from lost bets. You can help your customers recover with promotional products that will remind them that the world isn't over – there's still basketball season.

Get your customers back on their feet and back into the spirit with promotional products to help them cheer their team to victory. Free team spirit t-shirts will give them something new to wear to the games and might take the edge off of financial woes if they can't afford to buy new gear from the university book store.

Fans will flock to the arena and take their seats around the court, surrounded by a sea of school colors. When it comes time to make some noise, fans can use thunder sticks and noise makers to distract shooters during rival free throws. After they cheer their team on, promotional key chains and lanyards will help fans keep track of their keys while they're celebrating the win. Team supporters will also think of your business at playoff time when that basketball-shaped stress reliever comes in handy during particularly tense games.

As the new year begins, it is a good time for many schools to look forward to the upcoming semester of classes and athletics. It's important to maintain school spirit as the school year goes through it's second half. As the summer holidays approach for all, and graduation for some others, it can be easy for students to forget the school.

This can be detrimental to the learning process, but one good way of keeping students in the present is through constant school spirit. School spirit items will focus the pupils on the fact that the semester is continuing and keep school enthusiasm maximized.

Look ahead at your popular spring sports. Baseball, for example, is a great sport for gifting these promotional products. Encourage attendance at school baseball games by providing students with noisemakers as they arrive. Custom thundersticks are a great way to get the crowd involved and excited. A foam baseball, or inflatable beach ball designed to look like a baseball are great items to get students in the mood. Don't forget to include your school name and mascot so that no one forgets the academic aspects of school spirit?

It can be easy to view sponsorship as something that is only done by mega-corporations with professional athletics, but that is a narrow view of this useful promotional technique. Sponsorship is one of those unique combinations that can both provide you with cheap advertisement while simultaneously showing commitment to the local community.

One of the most popular forms of local sponsorship comes with children's athletics. Businesses can often sponsor a team simply by providing uniforms. This keeps costs down for the team and league, while introducing the parents to your brand.

Of course, sponsorship means that you have to make sure you're a recognizable brand, and the first step toward creating that identity is with a visually appealing and memorable logo. Reading may be easy, but on a running child, the name and slogan of your company will be difficult to read. Retooling your logo to be easily noticed and remembered is key to taking advantage of this form of advertising.

While name and slogan can be important, the right logo can bring your company to the top quickly.

As winter unleashes it's full force on the country, football season is coming to a close. With the ending of the football season there is also an end to crowds gathered at the stadium and possibly less school spirit. Have no fear, however because if sports are what gets your student body riled up, then as one door closes another opens.

Basketball season is set to begin and over the course of the winter you can do plenty to provide your school with spirit. Help that enthusiasm along with the proper spirit items. Get the student body excited for the upcoming big game by giving out customized mini basketballs throughout the day. For example, give them to students showing school spirit or who can answer school related trivia questions.

When game time comes, hype up the crowd by handing out your customized products during  opportunities to make noise. A quiet court isn't very inspiring for your team and isn't a good sign for the amount of team spirit in the air. Custom thundersticks or basketball shaped clappers are a good way to help your student body make noise and support their team.

School spirit is an interesting concept. The result of high school spirit is a strong loyalty to the school, but what's the point of it? However, there is a lot of good that can come from a high school spirit.

A strong loyalty to the school, from a monetary standpoint, can mean a reduction in damage to the school. High school students are a rebellious group in the first place, and a school building can often be seen as a physical representation of authority. With high school spirit, those feelings of rebellion are somewhat mitigated. It can also foster a stronger feeling of community within the school, which can reduce the formation of cliques and improve student relations. Spirit items can work well to increase these feelings of loyalty.

Noisemakers

Noisemakers are a great way to encourage audience participation during athletic events, and the louder a crowd is, the more support they are providing to their team.

Promotional Pins

Custom pins can be a great way to give students something to collect that shows their school spirit. Have special rewards for whoever has the best collection at the end of the school year to really encourage the process.

Custom T-Shirts

Nothing shows support like a custom t-shirt. By showing support, students feel the need to match their exterior loyalty with interior loyalty as well.