Promotional Products Summer Trends 2021

 

Promotional Products Summer Trends 2021

It's only May but it's not too early to be planning for the summer. Whether your clients plan to spend the summer by the grill, the pool, the park, or the beach, we have just what you need to send them the perfect gift.

Get Grilling

Grill Master Set

This 13 piece set includes everything needed to be King or Queen of the grill. Have grill will travel so take your case on the go! Kit includes: aluminum carrying case, spatula, tongs, knife, fork, four skewers, and four corn holders. Colorprint laser imprint option available.  

BBQ Set With Cooler Bag

Keep your cold drinks and grilling tools handy with this 2 piece BBQ set and cooler bag. Spatula and tongs conveniently store in the front zipper compartment while your drinks, or food for  grilling, stay nice and cool inside. Digital print - heat transfer imprint option available.

Let's Picnic

Modesto Picnic Carrier Set

This 7 piece set includes a wine opener, two stainless steel knives and forks, wood cutting board, and a zippered canvas wrap that holds three wine bottles. Yes, you read that correctly...three! This is a great set to take to picnics in the park and outdoor concerts. It's not too early to start thinking about 4th of July company events either. Host a patriotic party and send these home with all of your employees. We can also create custom branded wine bottles for you to include in their totes. Digital print - heat transfer imprint option available. 

Catalina Picnic Basket

You can never go wrong when gifting the quintessential wicker picnic basket. This classic basket comes with (2) plates, (2) mugs, (2) forks, (2) spoons, (2) knives, stainless steel corkscrew, and a set of salt and pepper shakers. Choose from the following patterns: Navy Blue & Beige (pictured below), Vista Blue with Red Watermelon, or Red & White Plaid.

Fun in the Sun

Set for Summer Kit

Hosting an outdoor event? Team building? Client BBQ? Our Set for Summer Kit is a must have! This kit has it all! Fun colored sunglasses in a full color neoprene case, vanilla scented lotion, aloe vera gel, coconut scented sunscreen, dual mint scented lip balm/sunscreen stick, insect repellant sprayer, mask freshening spray (comes in Sparkling Peach, Fresh Cucumber, or Lavender), mask, and lunch bag. Full color imprint option available.

Sun Bum Beach Bum Kit

Send a gift to let your employees or clients know you're thinking of them this summer with our Sun Bum Beach Bum Kit. Kit includes SPF 30 sunscreen, cool down lotion, and SPF lip balm in cotton carrying pouch. Every time it's used will be a reminder of how much your company cares about keeping them safe in the sun. Price includes 1 color/1 location silk screen imprint.

Hit the Road

Lunchbox Travel Kit

Our retro lunchbox travel kit is complete with all of the amenities your employees or clients need to feel comfortable wherever they are. Whether they are traveling for business or pleasure, this kit will deliver the kind of comfort levels they want. It is not only functional, it's pretty fun too and definitely a conversation starter. The lunchbox can be repurposed as a holder for snacks, supplies, or happy hour kit on the go! Kit includes: lunchbox, PVC pouch,  eye mask, hand sanitizer, tooth brush, nail file with key ring, ear plugs, first aid kit, mints, lip balm, and portable tissue pack. Full color imprint options available.

Road Trip Box

No road trip is complete without snacks! Our Road Trip Box is filled with the tastiest goodies and is ready to go in a sturdy and stylish box. Kit includes: buffalo wings almonds, spiced almonds, hickory jerky, beer cheese pretzels, pepperettes, and a Dip Trip Vehicle Sauce Holder. Full color domed decall imprint option available.

Graduation Gifts

Yay, You! Box

Looking for something unique and memorable to gift a grad? How about a Yay, You! Box?! Our premium snack boxes are curated with the most delicious bespoke treats! This Deluxe kit includes:  cotton candy, marshmallows, ice cream cones, rice crispy treat, sprinkles, Surprise Party snacks (there's a reason they are called Legally Addictive!), and a set of collectible pins. 

Wine Gift Set

Cheers! Let the graduate know you're thinking of them with a bottle of wine and a wine set for two. This sleek gift set includes (2) 12oz tumblers and a 25oz vacuum insulated steel double wall Santa Fe Growler. Comes packaged in a beautiful matte black gift box with foam inserts. Silkscreen, Spectrum imprint options available.

Celebrate the Red, White, & Blue!

Portable Fire Pit

 

Light a fire underneath your promotional group and offer this portable fire pit/grill as a giveaway at your next event! A unique way to have people talking about your brand or business, this 26" round firepit features a strong, durable, rust-resistant and lightweight steel frame with a BBQ grill grate, security ember screen and hanging plaque for a logo. The legs fold under, making the fire pit easy to fit into the convenient carrying case. Customize and add your company name or logo before your next promotional extravaganza for brand exposure which heats up your campaign.

Portable Pop Up Cornhole Set

Just because you have to pack light doesn't mean you have to leave the fun at home with this Portable Pop-Up Cornhole Set! Made of a durable 300D Oxford Polyester material, the two 24" x 36" boards, along with 8 bags and ground stakes all fold into a compact pouch that can go anywhere. Get your game on! Board size is 24"W x 36"L, bag size 4"W x 4"L.

Head to our Summer Trends 2021 Shop to browse other great summer kit ideas. We would love to schedule a demo and create a virtual catalog for you so you can see how your logo will look on these products. Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com.

How to Throw a Company Golf Outing

 How to Throw A Company Golf Outing

With our world opening up more each day, companies are looking for ways to bring their employees together again. Team building activities are always a great way to strengthen bonds within an organization and there is no better way to bond this spring than on the golf course.  

When planning a company golf outing there are a number of things to keep in mind like budget, location, and swag. We love swag around here and we've got some great ideas for you! 

Budgeting for Your Golf Event

There is a lot to consider when planning your company golf outing. How many people? How long will you play? Which golf course? Will you provide food and drinks? What kind of prizes will you award? What type of gear will you give your team? Below are some things to consider:

• Location - Contact several courses near your office and ask about group rates. Green fees range from $25 to $250 depending on where you go and the day of the week you choose. Most cities have a public course and their fees are usually pretty reasonable.

• Golf Carts - Most courses charge extra for carts. If you plan to provide carts for your outing, make sure you reserve enough carts to accommodate all of your players.

• Equipment Rentals - While some of your employees may have their own set of clubs, it's likely that most do not. If you plan to provide equipment, you will need to set up the rentals through the pro shop before the event. 

• Food and Drinks - It is customary to provide some kind of food and drinks throughout the game. Some courses allow you to bring in your own beverages and snacks while others have strict policies against bringing items in from the outside. Check with your venue about the rules and then determine what you would like to provide. 

• Gratuities - If you are providing caddies, using the services of a pro, or plan on purchasing drinks from the beverage carts, then include a line item for gratuities in your budget.

• Entertainment - If you would like to continue to the party off the golf course you can hire a DJ. Many golf courses have conference rooms or private rooms connected to a restaurant that can accommodate your group and entertainment.

• Golf Gear/Supplies - There are lots of options when it comes to golf gear. Your budget will determine what you are able to provide. Before the event consider sending each player a box filled with everything they need for the day including shirts and balls. 

• Games & Prizes - There are an infinite number of games that can be played on the golf course! For example, Longest Drive, Hole in One, Dunk Tank Hole, Closest to the Pin, Beat the Pro, Speed Hole, and Guess Your Distance are just a few suggestions. Make a list of games you would like to play so you know how many prizes you will need. Great prizes include gift baskets, company engraved wine bottles, earbuds, happy hour kits, and functional awards like Bluetooth speakers featuring your company logo.

• Marketing Materials - If you plan to put up banners or create signs you will need to obtain a few quotes so you can factor this into your budget. Other marketing materials could include decorations, posters, flyers, certificates, programs, brochures, raffle tickets, and t-shirts.

Golf Course Selection

One of the things to consider when finding a location to host your team building golf outing is proximity. It's best not to choose a site too far from the office. Aside from price, the difficulty of the course is important to be mindful of as well especially if most of the players are inexperienced. Choose a course that matches the skill level of the majority of your team.

Invite Your Employees to Play Golf

Once you have determined your budget, picked a date, and secured a location, you're ready to invite your employees for a fun day of golf. You can send an email, evite, or create one like the sample below.

Get Your Employees Ready to Par-Tee

Several weeks before the event you can surprise your employees with a kit full of everything they need for the outing. A redemption site allows you to hand pick items that are customized with your company logo. Our most popular golf outing swag boxes include a polo shirt, golf balls, matchbox of tees, water bottle, and a towel. Other popular additions are ball markers, gloves, sunscreen, visor, and a divot tool.

The best thing about a redemption site is that you don't have to have the recipient's shirt size or even their address. A code is emailed to your employee which they use to redeem their gift. Before checking out they are asked their shirt size and their shipping address. Think about how much time you will save by not having to search for all of these items individually. Everything is kitted for you and you don't have to store a single thing. 

May the Course be With You

Now you're ready to throw an un-fore-gettable company golf outing. The most important thing to remember is to have fun. If you use social media share pictures of the event throughout the day. Your followers and customers will enjoy seeing you all having fun and may be inspired to host their own team building golf outing!

Create a "Run of Show"

Creating a timeline of events for the day will help you stay on track and on budget. Use our handy Golf Outing Timeline & Task Checklist...just right click, save to your desktop, and print!

We would love to schedule a demo and create a virtual catalog for you so you can see how your logo will look on these products. Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com.

What You Need to Go From Work at Home to Office

Your Hybrid Remote Office 

Our world is ever changing and the rules seem to change from one day to another. Little by little our daily routines seem to be inching towards our old normal and that means more people going back into the office. 

The hybrid working model is what many companies are moving towards. For some that means a couple days in the office, for others it might be stopping in from time to time or splitting the day between work and home. Whatever the workweek looks like, changes will need to be made to balance this new home and work life. 

Work Checklist

One big question many have is how to take home offices on the road to make them work in the office. Desktop computers may no longer work with new work arrangements which means taking a laptop or tablet back and forth. Easy enough right? Don't forget to pack your cable. You're going to need your phone charger too. Make sure you have a phone stand, cable organizer, notebook, earphones, and maybe a laptop video light for conference calls. There's so much to think about! 

Don't worry friend, we've got you covered. We created a checklist of all the things you need to make your new hybrid work schedule work for you. 

Right click the image below, save it to your desktop, and print.

What You Need to go Back and Forth From Home to Work 

We have been helping a lot of companies get their workforce ready for their new hybrid work plans. Our clients want to make the transition as easy as possible on their employees and we have come up with the best solutions. Our Back & Forth Kits are filled with supplies that can be easily transported back and forth from home to office while remaining safe and socially distanced.

Our two top sellers both include a laptop bag or backpack, cable organizer, wireless keyboard and mouse, charging pad, mousepad, journal, water bottle, lunch bag, and bento box with utensils.

Our kits are completely customizable and can be branded with your own company logo. Head over to our Hybrid Remote Work Office Shop for further information about each product. 

Shipped Directly to Your Employees

Worried how you're going to get these in the hands of your employees? Our Redemption Stores solve all of your shipping needs. We will create a store for you, gather the shipping addresses, and get their kits delivered right to their door. You don't need to worry about a thing! Sounds great, right? We think so too!

Your Logo on Work Kits

We would love to schedule a demo and create a virtual catalog for you so you can see how your logo will look on these products. Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com.

5 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day in the Office

 

How to Celebrate Earth Day in the Office

2021 marks the 51st anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration created by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Senator Nelson was a staunch environmentalist who was passionate about increasing ecological awareness. Millions of Americans, including college and university students, participated in rallies, marches, and educational programs across the country. This increase in awareness ultimately led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Act. For several years after, other programs we were adopted as well: National Environment Education Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Earth Day is now recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. More than a billion people every year honor what Senator Nelson began on April 22, 1970. Companies are realizing more and more the importance of creating internal programs and policies to affect change in their own environments. 

There are a few simple things your office can do to contribute the health and wellness of our world.

1. Go Green

Make your workspace, whether at home or in the office, a greener, healthier environment by placing an office plant or two on your desk. 

Research has proven that people are happier, healthier, and more productive in a room enriched with live plants. Not only do plants help clean the air of harmful toxins like nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, and benzene but they are a living reminder of your commitment to protect the environment. Small table top plants are attractive, easy to manage, and don't take up much space on your desk.

2. Organize Outdoor Cleanup

One of the best ways to honor Earth Day at your office is to host a Earth Day celebration. We aren't talking about the kind that involves a cake, paper plates, or party favors. We mean the kind were you encourage your staff to go outside and clean up around the building or take a walk, enjoy the fresh air and pick up some trash along the way with a recycled tote bag. 

Create an event this April 22nd to share your company's goals to go green and perhaps introduce new initiatives on recycling or energy efficient measures. Use Earth Day as an opportunity to designate a Green Team Captain who will help the company stay on track and will assist in implementing new environmentally conscience policies.

3. Reusable Water Bottles

Want to encourage your staff to ditch the plastic water bottles? Give them all reusable ones! 

Reusable bottles come in a variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and types and can be decorated with your own company logo. They even make ones that look like stickers (made to match your company branding) which is very "on trend". 

4. Conserve Power

We are probably all guilty of leaving our computers, screens, printers, and coffee pots plugged in at the end of the workday, but it's really important to unplug them at the end of the day. Companies across the U.S. are wasting billions of dollars and emitting 20 million tons of carbon dioxide to power equipment not being used. 

Take a few extra minutes before signing off for the day and shutdown or unplug the appliances and equipment in your office. This goes for your home office as well. You will find that physically switching off your office will also be good for your mental health as it is a clear signal that your day is done and you will not feel tempted to read emails and respond outside of office hours. Give yourself, the electronics, and the environment a break! If you do find yourself thinking about work resist the urge to power up. Keep a notepad to write down those things you want to tackle when your workday begins.

5. Plant a Tree

Did you know that in less than a minute you can put the wheels in motion to plant a tree half way across the world? It's true! Treecycler Cards are a fun and simple way to let employees, for instance, donate a tree in one of many reforestation projects around the world. Users visit the website and enter their unique code and then choose where in the world they would like to plant a tree from the choices on the map. 

Reward codes can be printed on anything including seeded or recycled paper. Codes can also be emailed. This is a great program that directly helps the environment, the organizations that fulfill them, and makes the employee feel great about giving back with the support of their company.

Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com to place your Earth Day order today!

How to Use Bake It With Mel Cake Kit

 

How to Use a Bake It With Mel Cake Kit

Looking for a unique gift for your employees or clients? Send them a custom Bake It With Mel Chocolate Cake Kit! Each kit comes in a heavy duty vinyl drawstring bag and includes sugar, flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, sprinkles, offset spatula, piping bag, paper baking molds, and a cake board.

This would be a great party or team building activity and one everyone could do together via Zoom. We used our kit to celebrate Blue Sky Marketing's 24th birthday this year and want to show you how easy and fun it is to use.

Supplies

Before you get started you will need to grab a few items from your pantry:

• 1/4 cup milk (we suggest buttermilk)
• 6 large eggs
• 2 sticks butter, room temperature 

After whipping the eggs add half of the bag of sugar (#1). 

Beat until eggs and sugar mixture have doubled in size then add the rest of the sugar from bag #1.

Next, alternate folding in the milk and cocoa flour mix from bag #2. 

Looking pretty delicious at this point!

Prepare Cake for Baking

Pour batter into three paper baking molds. You want to make sure they each have the same amount so your layers are equal. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Every oven bakes a little differently but a great way to tell if your cake is thoroughly cooked, take a toothpick and insert it in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean it's ready. If it still looks a bit wet, place back in the oven for 2 minutes and check again. Continue baking in 2 minute increments until done.

Let cakes cool completely.

Once your cakes are cool, use a small jar or bottle to create a circle in the middle of the cake. You don't want it too big but just big enough to fill with sprinkles.

Cut out circles with a sharp knife and set aside. Watch the Bake It With Mel video to see how to properly put the cakes together...it's very helpful!

Make Chocolate Frosting

Make your frosting according to the directions provided and get ready to build your chocolate surprise cake!

Decorate Your Bake It With Mel Chocolate Surprise Cake

Snip a little off the top of your piping bag and fill bag with half of the frosting. You can twist the top of the piping bag or wrap a rubber band around the top to secure.

Place a small amount of frosting in the middle of the cake board so your cake does not slip off. Add the first cake layer and pipe around the hole in the middle. 

Place the second layer on the first and pipe around the hole just as you did before.

Finally, add the third cake layer.

Fill the hole with sprinkles.

Now, place one of your cake "plugs" on top. You may need to push it down a bit so it is flush with the rest of the cake.

Crumb coat the entire cake.

A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that helps create a smooth barrier over the cake to prevent little crumbs getting mixed into your frosting. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Once your cake has cooled, frost and decorate! 

Add a cake topper and candles and you're ready to party! 

This is such a fun activity! If you get stuck, you can chat with Mel herself and she'll help you out! She will also create your kit with sprinkles that match your company branding! Notice how the sprinkles match the Blue Sky logo? She can do that for you too! 

Contact us at sales@buybluesky.com to order your very own custom Bake It With Mel Chocolate Surprise Cake!

Happy Birthday, Blue Sky Marketing!