The Pro

Name: Jamie McCabe
Title: President
Distributorship: McCabe Promotional Advertising (asi/264901), London, ON

The Sale

Dollar Value: $5,000
Client: Information Technology
Product: Apparel and hard goods

The Promotion

The global Information Technology market is diverse and growing; in fact, the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) predicts that the global IT sector will be worth more than $3.5 trillion by the end of this year.

McCabe knew this market presented a lot of potential for his company, though it had yet to work within it extensively. They set their sights on an IT company with four growing locations across North America and got their foot in the door the old-fashioned way – by calling, emailing and sending them direct-mail pieces.

“We just asked for the opportunity to pitch, and finally we got to the decision-maker,” says McCabe. “We showed them how they could increase ROI with their existing spend.”

They happened to have an event coming up that would give the McCabe team the perfect opportunity to show the company what they were capable of: 50 members of the prospect’s staff, spread out across North America, would all be meeting in Mexico for a four-day educational and team-building event. The company was looking for fun, creative items that would also bring the employees together.

“What they had found was that, because of the geographical distance between their locations and their aggressive hiring, employees only really knew the people in their own offices,” says McCabe. “So they planned a few days in Mexico where they got to meet each other and get to know everyone better.”

McCabe Promotional Advertising created self-promos using a few of the same products they sold to their new IT client, including this towel, tote, tumbler and journal.

The IT company gave McCabe and his team virtually free rein to work their creative magic. With just the event dates and promotional objectives in hand, McCabe was then tasked with putting together beach-inspired swag that would impress the recipients and stay within the client’s budget.

They started with performance T-shirts (42000/42000L) from Technosport Canada (asi/90703) in five different colors; each of the four offices wore a different color for the first three days of the event, and all attendees wore the same color on the last day. The distributor also branded hardcover journals (ST4143) from Spector & Co. (asi/88660) with tip-in pages showing the agenda, along with contact information and headshots for all employees.

Finally, inspired by the tropical locale of the event, the distributor filled tote bags (E1000) from Debco (asi/48885) with crystal sunglasses (SG9163), also from Debco, along with vibrant colored beach towels (HOT3060) from Towel Specialties (asi/91605) and 14-oz. vacuum tumblers (SL231SS) from Starline Industries (asi/89213).

“They loved it,” says McCabe. “And now they’re a loyal client of ours. You really have to be an extension of their marketing team.”

Takeaways:

1. Persistence is key when you’re looking for the decision-maker.
2. Show your team’s creativity while keeping products within the client’s existing budget.
3. A well-executed promotion will lead to more opportunities.

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