Rod in Japan wrote:The reason why people still buy pens and pencils in spite of the drawerful of free ones is because the free ones are crap. They generally don't write properly. Wobbly, crusty biros and gritty but slippery pencil leads.
Also you need to ask, how many times have you picked up a pen and thought, "Gosh, I must dial these tiny numbers to find out more about the organization that commissioned this crappy pen!"?
And another question -- why does a local authority need to promote anything, and what are they promoting? If it is in fact right to promote what you do in some way, isn't it possible to promote it in a way that is actually related to what you do?
I've seen a few promotions that really did work well. One clinic had a stand at a job fair, and their give-away was a little bandaid dispenser that hooked on to a keyring. Just what I needed at the time, as I was studying electronics in college and kept sticking my fingers with the wire, or getting paper cuts.
If you do go with pens, make sure they're good quality. I still keep my TaxCut2006 pen because it works so much better than my others, and its chunky enough you can actually read the name on it.
One advantage with bags, of course, is that if you're giving them out at a fair or an expo, people can use them to carry the stuff from the other tables.
