Feature: Incentive products: Electric dreams

As any parent will tell you, the Wii is a sought-after item. Its availability in the promotions market is just as low, confirms Rupert Poulson, promotions manager at AV Promotions. “Nintendo Wii is probably the most requested item for promotional use, especially since the launch of Wii Fit.

However until the stock availability from Nintendo is back to normal this item is going to be a nightmare to feature in a promotion,” he warns. “Hopefully the stock issue will be resolved by next year.”

There are plenty of other items to fill the gap. Recognition specialist Michael C Fina Worldwide compiled a list of the top 10 most popular gift redemptions. Electrical items featured heavily, with DVD players at number one, cameras at three, vacuum cleaners at four, stereo systems at five and satellite navigation at eight. “People consider electrical incentives not only as a real luxury treat, but also as an investment that they will hold on to and use for a long time to come,” comments Sheila Sheldon, its director of European operations.

Malcolm Fristschy, managing director at Oldeani, has just returned from a trade show in Hong Kong where he says popular items included battery packs for items such as mobile phones and computers. Oldeani’s Emergency Battery Pack has a good area for printing and is light.

Alex Turner, managing director of Business Gift List, agrees power is important, noting that his World Travel Adaptor is also proving to be a best seller. It can come combined with a USB charger allowing charging of USB gadgets. “Whenever we show anybody the World Travel Adaptor they have the same reaction: I want one of those,” says Turner.

Poulson notes that Apple iPods are still a favourite across all budgets, starting with the entry level 1GB shuffle through to the 32GB Touch. At the top end of the music market, according to promotions company Unmissable, is the Sony Viao TP2 with its sophisticated black finish and LED halo. It comes with desktop Intel processor, 500GB hard-drive, digital tuner and Blu-ray drive. For those who prefer the more funky things in life, there\\\\\\\'s the EzVision Video Eyewear. They plug into a portable video or movie player, retractable headphones are built into the arms of the shades, and it comes with an eight-hour rechargeable battery.

Also for personal use is the Archos 405 player (pictured) from Procurement International, with 3GB memory and a 3.5\\\\\\\" LCD screen. It plays videos, MPEG-4 and WMV files, plus MP3, WMA and WAV audio formats, JPEG, BMP and PNG images and even PDF files. Additional accessories allow it to be used as a video or audio recorder, and it can be connected to the TV for playback of MPEG-2 and videos. It has 12 hours of battery life when playing music.

New from The Electric Incentive Company (EIC) this June is the Sony Giga Juke HiFi System. This high-end product comes with the ability to rip CDs to its mass-storage server. With an 80GB memory, it stores up to 15,000 songs and has DAB and CD functionality. Music can be played throughout the house thanks to the wireless technology. “This year we will see the Giga Juke seize the market, revolutionising our use of stand-alone music stations and taking over from the laptop computer as the music library of choice,” predicts Ray Jobs, managing director at EIC. “Until now consumers have not had the opportunity to store large volumes of music on a dedicated music system.”

There continues to be much innovation in the USB market. Firebrand has a new-generation mouse that can be used as a mouse pointer and for writing digital notes via MS Office One Note. It can be custom coloured and the docking station can be branded. Its new USB Voice Recorder is also aimed at the corporate market, capable of recording 200 messages, and plugs into a USB port to allow sending of the audio file.

For companies looking to promote their environmental side, Keepme Promotions offers Eco USB sticks (8GB to 64GB), made from 100 per cent recycled plastic and aluminium, and come in either “wood” or “leaf” sleeves, made from recycled paper. “USBs are a popular choice when it comes to lower-cost electrical incentives as their functional value to the recipient far outweighs the unit cost,” says commercial director Steve Anderson. The packaging and stick can be branded, and preloaded with data if required.

Also serving the green market is Eco Incentives. It supplies a wireless optical mouse – made from recycled plastic – with an integrated USB receiver. Solar-powered chargers are also available (made from recycled plastic of course) and can be used with a variety of gadgets including mobile phones and PDAs. “The demand for hi-tech promotions remains extremely high, which does not always carry a green message. However with the launch of our latest range of hi-tech promotional items we are able to balance the hi-tech need with a strong recycled message, bringing both elements much closer together,” says director Matt Franks.

Pete Andrews, promotions manager at AV Promotions, predicts that the future for electrical incentives will “more than likely be the integration of technologies coming together in one unit. Expect this type of all-in-one technology to continue: mobile phones are being launched with digital TV tuners incorporated so you can watch TV on the go, and LCD TVs that have built-in hard-drive recorders – all part of the designer minimalistic fashion that has been created by brands over the last few years.”

Pictured: The Archos media player from Procurement International.