But how well is that money being spent? People throw away mailed flyers, miss college fair tables, and only become aware of new buildings if they visit the school’s website or go on a tour. What if there was a way to cast a wider (even global) net that has the potential to attract more serious prospects?

With virtual reality, it’s already happening.

Schools are now hiring developers to create films that can be viewed in 360 degrees and accessed with an app. The educational institutions are including low-cost headset VR viewers (apparatus where smartphones are placed and used as the screen) in direct mailings or through an opt-in request at their website. Recipients can check out that new dorm and sparkling student center, and also listen to conversations with department chairs – experiences designed to elicit a campus trip for a more in-depth visit. When the prospective students arrive, the school can assume it’s a serious contender on these prospects’ lists.

“They have more detailed questions to ask, and they know what they want to explore even more when they get there,” says Gordon Meyer, director of YouVisit, a VR provider founded by three international students at Brandeis University who wanted to give more people the opportunity to take campus tours, regardless of income and location. “VR allows you to travel far afield in a moment.”

Virtual reality is no longer a futuristic pipedream. VR is expected to be a $30 billion global industry by 2020, with annual shipments of headsets predicted to exceed 12 million units this year and reaching 55 million in 2022.

But perhaps of more importance for advertising and marketing professionals is exactly who is using VR. It’s not just gamers with cutting-edge rigs, or Silicon Valley labs developing the highest technology. VR is within the reach of just about anyone, and it can be immediately leveraged in marketing and sales by offering interaction with a brand’s value proposition.

“I can’t think of one business that shouldn’t be in VR,” adds Meyer. “It serves marketing, sales and brand awareness for every vertical. The less-expensive viewers move like hotcakes at trade shows. People can jump right into it just using their smartphones.”

For the promotional industry in particular, it’s an exciting new reality. VR will allow distributors to demonstrate to clients how their branded products would work in a future promotion. Distributors can also partner with brand agencies to create VR marketing content for clients that is instantly memorable. Suppliers already sell VR viewers that can be logoed and given away for exceptional brand engagement.

Source: Sara Lavenduski, Advertising Specialty Institute

Sure, VR has been proclaimed the wave of the future before, only to fade into the background. But that’s not likely to happen this time. With major players like Facebook, Sony, Samsung and others investing huge money in VR, the medium appears here to stay. More than just “stay” – it’s here to shake things up, providing an immersive sensory-filled experience through which marketers can tell a brand’s story and much more.

Already, VR is making inroads in the promotional products industry. Suppliers are offering products like brandable virtual reality glasses and headsets. Distributors have scored success selling them. For example, Lacey, WA-based Budd Bay Promotions & Apparel (asi/149520) recently sold 2,500 virtual reality viewers to a fire department, which used them in a community outreach program.

Beyond the promo industry, an array of brands in diverse industries have leveraged VR in creative ways to do everything from build their brands to directly drive sales. Here are a few examples of VR in action that caught our attention:

Merrell TrailScape

Merrell desired a uniquely memorable experience with which it could introduce the Capra – what was then the brand’s most technically advanced hiking shoe yet. The high-performance footwear maker got that and more when it partnered with Framestore Studio to create TrailScape – a 4-D, motion-tracked, multi-sensory virtual hike experience. Debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, TrailScape had participants wearing an Oculus Rift VR headset that transported them to rough mountain terrain in Italy’s Dolomites – all while they walked across a prop rope bridge that was set up in the physical experience space.

TrailScape, Framestore says, marked the first ever commercial use of an in-motion Oculus Rift experience. “Motion capture technology allowed our adventurers to explore the mountainside, with tactile elements such as rope walkways and shaking wooden planks underfoot driving the immersive nature of the piece to the absolute max,” Framestore says on its website. “They were faced with mini-crises en route – the rockfall of a landslide, a precarious summit – which saw them dabble in scenarios beyond the confines of their typical hikes.”

Indeed, the experience immersed participants in the terrains where the Capra shoe would be an especially valuable asset, making for a memorable product introduction if ever there was one.

Happy Goggles

Last year, McDonald’s celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Happy Meal being in Sweden by spiffing up, via virtual reality, what might be the world’s most iconic box. In effect, customers could easily transform Happy Meal boxes into VR goggles – called Happy Goggles – by tearing along perforated lines, folding, and inserting provided VR lenses and a smartphone (not provided). Once enabled, kids and curious parents could play Slope Stars – a ski-themed VR game delivering a 360-degree ski experience that, in addition to being fun, provided education on how to stay safe when whisking down the mountain. The Swedish National Ski Team even endorsed the game. In all, about 3,500 VR Happy Meal boxes were available at 14 McDonald’s in Sweden. “The Happy Meal is one of our most loved menus and therefore an appropriate platform for reaching out to our family customers through experiences that focus on play and learning,” Jeff Jackett, marketing director at McDonald’s Sweden, said when Happy Goggles were released last year. “We believe that many people will enjoy the fun skiing game with the new Happy Goggles.”

The Holoroom & HoloGram Experience:

Lowe’s, the home improvement chain store, has orchestrated two unique VR initiatives. Introduced at two stores in Toronto, the Holoroom is a virtual reality design tool that helps Lowe’s customers visualize home improvements. Intuitive and immersive, the Holoroom is an actual physical space where customers enter to wear a VR headset that transports them to a room they’ve just virtually designed with home upgrades they’re considering. Launched in 2014, Lowe’s followed that initial iteration up with a second generation Holoroom that was available in 19 stores across the U.S.

Additionally, Lowe’s teamed up with Microsoft to create a mixed reality offering – the HoloGram Experience – for customers in two pilot stores. In this innovative venture, customers could view physical objects and digital holograms through a Microsoft HoloLens headset while standing in a showroom kitchen at Lowe’s. “Using simple gestures to interact with their environment, customers could easily select from an array of design options and Lowe's products, including cabinetry, hardware, counter tops and appliances,” the retailer said.

Lowe’s plans to launch the HoloGram Experience at three more stores by the end of 2017. The experience will feature enhanced capabilities, powered by Microsoft Cortana, such as the capacity to capture a customer’s Pinterest board to predict their tastes for home renovation. “It will also compile data from feedback given by customers during the experience, including their level of sentiment, the time they spend looking at various elements of the kitchen, and key phrases that customers mention during the experience,” Lowe’s says.

Source: Christopher Ruvo, Advertising Specialty Institute

Chris Faris, president and CEO at Boost Promotions (asi/142942), attributes the industry’s growth, specifically in the fourth quarter, to the presidential election. “Trump really understood the power of promotional products. He came from that background of personal branding,” said Faris, whose company increased sales year-over-year by 18% in 2016.

More than one-third (35%) of distributors reported an increase in sales for Q4 2016 versus Q4 2015, and 42% reported a revenue uptick for all of 2016 when compared to the prior year. The ASI study also found that more larger distributors (greater than $1 million in annual revenue) than smaller firms ($250,000 in revenue or less) enjoyed Q4 gains. About 45% of large distributors reported a fourth quarter sales increase compared to only 28% of small distributors.

“I’m not surprised that the larger distributors did better than the rest of the field,” said Mitch Mounger, president and CEO of Top 40 firm Sunrise Identity (asi/339206), which grew 2016 sales by 33%. “I am a little surprised that the industry grew as much as it did. Most of what I have been hearing from other distributors and suppliers suggested that the market would be flat.”

Gregg Emmer, VP and CMO of Top 40 distributor Kaeser & Blair (asi/238600), believes that large distributors are growing because they’ve been gobbling up the market. “The market for promotional goods is a finite one,” he said. “We didn’t create any more volume – we just moved market share.”

Faris agrees and thinks the industry has more work to do to really generate significant future gains. He worries sales increases will be capped until firms get more creative and progressive. Right now “it’s not new business being generated as a whole, it’s companies consolidating and taking business away,” he said. “We continually win new accounts based on different factors, but it’s not creating more revenue in the industry, just more revenue for Boost.”

Moving forward, Emmer believes the hostile climate surrounding the new White House administration will hinder the promo industry in the next six to eight months. “We try to get the message out there that we can move the economy, help businesses be more profitable and put programs in place that decrease your need to hire and retrain,” he said. "But when you hear people are rioting in the streets and airports are shutting down, it makes our message more difficult to be believed. If [businesses] don’t believe we can produce great outcomes in a negative environment, they won’t buy from us.”

Mounger, conversely, expects 2017 to be a strong year for his firm and the promo products industry. “We are projecting modest growth of 10% in 2017, but I would not be surprised if we do better than that,” he said. “I expect the Trump tax reduction to spur spending for many of our clients.”

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute

As part of the report, ISM’s new manufacturing index also rose to a two-year high of 60.4%. Meanwhile, the employment index strengthened to 56.1%. Following a long weak period, the gains continue a trend that started in late 2016 after President Donald Trump won the White House. Twelve of the 18 sectors surveyed by the ISM reported expansion. “This is the healthiest that the manufacturing sector has looked in quite some time,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, told MarketWatch.

ISM wasn’t the only manufacturing market watcher reporting a strong start to the year for the industry. In a related study by IHS Markit, manufacturing business owners reported “robust” growth in output volumes, a 28-month high of new orders, and the fastest rise in input costs since the end of 2014. “The U.S. manufacturing sector has started 2017 with strong momentum,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, stated in the report. “Despite exports being subdued by the strong dollar, order books are growing at the fastest pace for over two years on the back of improved domestic demand. With optimism about the year ahead at the highest since last March, the outlook has also brightened.”

Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced last week that the U.S. gained 5,000 manufacturing jobs in January, while losing 10,000 government jobs in the same month. While jobs in government outnumbered those in manufacturing by 9,950,000 in December, that number dropped to 9,935,000 in January.

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute

STOCK ITEMS WITH A CUSTOM LOOK
Sometimes your client wants a unique product, but the deadline doesn’t allow you to start from scratch. You can offer a custom-looking solution in a short amount of time if you pick a stock product that’s sufficiently distinctive. That’s why Cooler Graphics constantly adds fresh ideas to its stock items, such as its popular Neoprene Ice Cream Pint Sleeves, Fishing Reel Covers, Shaped Slap Beverage Wraps and Face Masks.

Challenge clients to give you their most vexing problem.

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute

Bright Graphics: Today’s graphic designs are clean and simple, and yet appropriately colorful and never boring.

Hand-Written Fonts: Creative text elements combined with decorations like rose gold foil are a simple-but-enchanting combination.

Oversized: A hit with girls, it now comes in a handful of varieties, including short sleeves and hoodies.

Subtle Branding: Left-chest logos are being embraced by this younger demographic, and hand-stitched embroidery adds a unique charm.

Unisex: As women move away from skin-tight shirts, both men and women become more comfortable with fitted unisex options.

Fabric Variety: There are more options than ever beyond 100% cotton, and the latest garments offer heathered and vintage looks that are insanely comfortable.

The Logos They Will (And Won’t) Wear

“Millennials can’t stand logos” Business Insider declared a year ago. “Teens don’t want to wear logos anymore,” asserted Bloomberg this past fall. What logos are they referring to? Retail brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale that splayed their names as big as possible – and then watched as millions of kids (and their paying parents) eagerly paid up for over a decade.

Now, in a quest to concoct their own style and avoid brand similitude, teens gravitate toward fast fashion lines such as Zara and H&M that eschew logos. Meanwhile, dozens of retail apparel brands are playing catch-up by de-emphasizing their logos as their bottom lines take a beating.

The pressing question: With an entire industry founded on the very notion of displaying logos, are promotional product companies now hopeless to entice the likes of Gen Y and Z?

Not exactly, say distributors and suppliers who work closely with the college and teen markets. “If you look at those brands like Abercrombie, they’re failing, and they’re trying to figure out what’s making them fail,” says Tony Poston, president of College Hill Custom Threads (asi/164578). Hot younger brands like Vineyard Vines, Southern Tide and Patagonia, he adds, “are putting prominent designs on shirts, and those are selling like hotcakes.”

Still, industry apparel companies are rethinking the design aesthetic for this age range. “We have seen a shift away from big, bold logos,” says Ashley Holbrook, marketing specialist for Kotis Design (asi/244898). She describes a “less is more mentality” that includes the use of hand-drawn fonts, subtle custom woven hem labels and a renewed gravitation to left-chest embroidery.

High school and college students will proudly display their allegiance to a brand or group – but only if there’s a story they can align with, rather than a retail aesthetic that allows them to fit in. “It’s more about the cause and the why of the company,” says Kevin Ostromecki, a 22-year-old Philadelphia-area resident who started the merchandise brand Altix Clothing at 18.

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute

People love receiving promotional products, there’s no denying it. Whether it’s a little boy playing with a yo-yo from the local bakery to a woman carrying a tote from her nail salon, promotional products are appreciated and welcomed in all walks of life. 90.4% reported either currently owning or possessing a promotional product received within the last 24 months.

Source: PPAI Study: Effectiveness of Promotional Products As An Advertising Medium