I get a ton of PR pitches and therefore a staggering number of flash drives. Incidentally, I also receive a ton of CD roms filled with information I can’t access with my MacBook Air. (PR People please take note). I thought I’d follow through with Kelby Carr’s ingenious ‘Marketers Who Understand Blogger Outreach’ post with something fun before the long weekend. So I emptied my USB Drawer and found my ultimate favourites from Public Relations teams who know their brand and respect me as a writer enough to make me want to grin. Here are my favourites:
1. McCafe, who engraved my Twitter handle ‘@urbanmommies‘ on the back.
2. Honda – A clever car key (that I could make into a necklace a la Tiffany & Co and take my data with.)
3. Disney Fantasy. Rubber (waterproof I think), fun for kids to play with and very chic.
4. Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe. Gorgeous wood. Refined and symmetrical.
5. Dole. Because who doesn’t want to carry a banana-shaped flash drive in their purse?
6. Disney Cars Land – in the shape of a race announcer’s microphone.
7. Store Brand Formula.com in the shape of a formula bottle. Because I laughed out loud, as no Canadian PR company would ever attempt this given the volatile and judgmental Canadian nursing climate, and the most popular articles on UrbanMommies are breastfeeding-related.
8. The Victorinox 4GB super-secure flashdrive which cannot be broken into if you’re a PC user. And because it is made by Victorionox and stores information on it’s own brand, which is smart and somehow ironic. And I love the spy-like nature of it’s security.
9. The ultimate: The G. Marquis Winery flashdrive in a branded wine cork. Because it floats, it’s durable, cool, on-brand, and, well.. they did their homework.
Cheers!
2. Text Bands. Now kids only have to bump fists in order to pass notes. The text bands allow the message to appear on a friend’s wrist with a light bump. You can type up to 10 characters and each band can hold up to 24 messages at once. (Turning the band off will delete all messages). Now that’s a heck of an improvement from note passing. Hallmark.com
3. ABC Sigg Water Bottles are BPA and phthalate free. You can recyclable them at the end of their lifetime, and the nonporous interior lining in the bottles ensures that it remains taste and odor neutral. Know what that means? You can put grape juice in it (or something stronger for Mom) on the weekend and send it to school with milk on Monday. www.mysigg.com
4. Fun, Fictional Flash Drives – From The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Looney Tunes to skateboard USBs, students can transport files with their favourite characters. Unfortunately, they do not come with your very own Princess Leah hologram. You’ll have to hit the rides at Disneyland for that. www.staples.ca
5. The Madbox from Land’s End is the coolest lunchbox we’ve seen in a while. Five kids from Madison, WI set out to build a better lunchbox and Land’s End liked their idea so much – they produced it! It comes with an adjustable ice pack that focuses the cold to the food that needs to stay cold and leaves room temperature food alone. No more soggy crackers. www.landsend.com
got a rock-sold back-to-school pack and even preschool shoe labels. www.mabelslabels.com
7. New for the fall, the Native ‘Jimmy’. From the makes of our favourite summer show comes the Jimmy, just in time for fall. These durable and funky boots will look great with this season’s signature trench for kids. www.shop.nativeshoes.com
8. The Lunchkin reusable sandwich bag. In Hermes orange, or course. Wait. That’s for me. Well, if you want uber-cute, they’re available in crabs, sailboats, soccer balls and school apples too. And they’re great for the environment. And cool. Need we say more? www.raspberrykids.com
9. Any flower-lover would eat every bite out out of this adorable PVC-free grab-and-go lunch purse. But be careful. Unless you snag a couple you may have a fight on your hands, as we guarantee you’ll want one too! I think I may grab one and use it for a funky back tie clutch… www.lavishandlime.com