Pencils and folding rules as individual promotional messenger

Advertising effectiveness of promotional itmes

The great advantage of promotional products is obvious: Customers are in contact with them for a long time. Voluntary and without additional costs for your company.

Other forms of advertising such as print, TV or radio, only receive the promotional contact by constant investments. This causes continuous costs. Promotional products (and in particular writing implements ) are much cheaper!

The effectiveness of promotional products has now been proved in a study. The results of the advertising impact was presented by the GWW (Confederation of the German promotional products business) as part of the PSI Show in January 2012 and is updated every year to watch the changes in the whole business.

Results of this study

Haptic advertising is enjoying growing popularity especially because of the sustainability debate. This is also reflected in the Werbeartikel-Monitor of 2020, published by the Gesamtverband der Werbeartikel-Wirtschaft e.V. (GWW) in cooperation with the market research institute DIMA.

1. For 65% of the companies surveyed, sustainability is important when purchasing haptic advertising. Around 73% are willing to pay up to 10% more for sustainable items, 11% even up to 20%.
2. Promotional items are used gladly and often: Statistically, the use of a promotional product is once daily. Your client gets in contact with your advertising product more than one time a day. Pencils are an eco-friendly product made of lime wood and quite cheap apart from other promotional times (depending on desired lacquering or imprint).
3. Most important for the customers: a specific function of the product. Both pencils and folding rules offer that. Do it yourself is a favorite hobby in Germany, and not only craftsmen like to use folding rule for their work. Pencils can be used not only at school but also at work or at home.
4. Highly memorable: 70% Recall in promotional items. Thus, the Recall is significantly higher than for TV (28%) or radio (29%). An imprint on a pencil as well as on a folding rule is visible almost every time it is in use.
5. Promotional items are used for a long time: 22% of the promotional items are in use for months. 40% are even used for more than 2 years! Thus you achieve a real long-term advertisising effect! A folding rule is sure to be used more than 2 years and its owner has numerous sight contact with your logo.
6. As for 93% use the promotional products theirselves, there is very low »scatter loss«.
7. Promotional items reach more people than radio, television or newspapers: 89% coverage with promotional items (starting from the assumption that in average a promotional item is used on a daily base); This results in an even higher range than TV advertising (71%), billboard advertising (67%) or in daily newspapers (59%).

Who would have thought it:

They start to write, and need a while
Can’t go any longer, not even a mile

The legs grow tired when 300 m are passed
6.000 m – they are not made to last

50.000 m – that is what the best has done
A pencil, what else could last so long

Writing length:
fountain pen: up to 300 m
ball pen: up to 6.000 m
pencil: up to 50.000 m

For a long lasting advertising effectiveness!

Possibilities for your printing motif

If you want to print on a pencil of folding rule, there is always the question what exactly you want to print on it. You can print several lines of text for example. This would be suitable for company names, slogans or for your internet address. Of course combinations are possible for more information can be put in several lines.

Your logo on the pencil

In addition to plain text you can also print graphics or even pictures on the pencil. This option is used quite often for company logos. Even if your company logo is a bit complex there is enough advertising space to present your logo. For a good printing result we need vectorized data – photo or digital print is also possible.

Imprint on folding rules

No matter if you would like a 1-4 colour print or a photo print – there’s enough space for your advertising on › folding rules. But not only the high-side can be imprinted. If you choose the free-bar for your scale, you can have an individual print on that as well. The standard color of the elements is white, but you can choose from a range of colors.

Tips for your individual print

Lacquer color for pencils

› Pencils as well as › Colored pencils, can be lacquered with your special color that it goes well with your CI.
Quite famous and elegant is a black lacquering combined with an intense color such as gold, silver or orange. With its black color the pencil gives your message an elegant appearance. On › short or mini pencils there is less space for your text. But with the possibility of an all-round print or a print on more than one side a mini pencil also offers enough space for your advertising message.

Font size and color

There are several possibilities when it comes to text on your promotional item. Font size, type and color can be customized in many ways. A good contrast of the font color is necessary to stand out from the background where the font is printed on. Otherwise it might be hard to read your promotional message.

The bigger the font the better it is readable from long distances. But you should keep in mind »less is more«. A bit »white space« might be good and even accentuate your logo or text. Should you need any help with your design our graphics team is happy to assist you (costs on demand/expenditure).

With a bigger font there is a smaller amount of text available for the printing area. Therefore, stick to the basics and pay attention to the maximum printing sizes.

Contact opportunities

Customers like to use the internet for prior information. The pencil or folding rule is the »visual contact« for the customer to your company, you should offer at least one way to contact you. Phone numbers are still a good way to get in touch, but the web address is more and more important. Your webpage offers information in advance and customers get an impression which services your company provides and more information about possible costs. Depending on the product or service the customer is looking for, he or she will get in touch with you via contact form or by phone call.

Be creative 

Stand out from the crowd! Nearly any text, graphic or photo can be imprinted on your promotional item. It does not always have to be a slogan or the logo of the company. Even a bit of humor or funny quotes might be suitable for your target group. A positive thought and sympathy will stay in the mind of the customer. 

Advertising effectiveness

Advertising effectiveness through recommendations

Recommendations are a very important marketing tool. We place our trust especially in recommendations from friends. With an imprint on pencils and folding rule it’s easier to be remembered by the client.