If you have a company sending you promotional material that are personal items like clothing, maybe a beach towel, coffee cup probably the assumption is that they would like you to use the materials and remember them - so it is a promotion intended for you personally to show your value to them, and they may hope that if they are ordinary items you might use them in your ordinary ways where others might see them.

So, if you are doing a podcast, your coffee mug on your desk may be from that company and it is a casual kind of thing, and someone may mention it or ask on a blog or website and you would mention the company name and url if the url was not visible on the item. Likewise, if you have a photo of yourself that is used anywhere you could have the mug on your desk and it would not be considered too extreme because people usually have whichever coffee mug they want. The comedian Craig Ferguson, on the Late, Late Show has a snake mug that someone gave him from a particular museum that is his favorite museum and people regularly ask him about it and the mentions the name and location of it thus sending business their way.

If you were to attend a business meeting with one person or more, and it is customary to bring your own coffee mug you could do that easily. If you are speaking at a conference you could bring your own coffee mug and if there is a promo picture for the conference you could send one in of you sitting at your desk with the mug clearly visible. Then it becomes a casual conversation starter, where people may not notice you and keep on daydreaming, but the mug may start up a conversation that could also help your own business and networking connections. Advertising works in many directions it is not just one way, then it becomes an easy icebreaker and you may get to know people more easily or faster if you have a conversation point to spark it.

If you do volunteer work somewhere, or are going somewhere casually, you can always wear a hat from the company and you may be surprised to find others that are already using that company and know it well, and you could end up having new friends in the long run that you would never have met in a million years, try it on public transit, in a mall, at a restaurant, if helping out at a homeless shelter or whatever your service activities are. Wear it picking up the kids, going to a movie, a sports event, a theatre. If you ever register folks at a conference as a volunteer - especially if the conference has anything at all remotely to do with the company that is a great way to do yourself a favor both ways. You can wear a shirt, you can wear a button, you can wear a hat, I would not leave a mug out without a chain attached as you never know who is trying to find freebies and it could vanish. If you have a professional association that gives conferences and normally you pay full price and go, then just wear something and that would work great too, especially to a reception or meal or event together. But even better, is this, contact them, and ask them if you would be needed if you wanted to help out at the registration or any service desk for a few hours to relieve some folks. If there is no dress code and you dont have to wear everything from the association, you can often stand there and register folks who are say A to C for a few hours and you are bound to strike up a conversation about your logo or company name if not at that moment when they are in a rush but later when it is quieter. That is also a good way to get hired, if they have already chatted with you at registration, then when you show up for the open job interviews or contract work presentations, they may recognize you already, but they probably would not have otherwise except there was something a bit eye catching or different or puzzling about you. So, you may in helping the company in a casual setting actually end up doing far far more for your own career with the serendipity that can happen with being in the right place at the right time - even if your motivation was originally to show up and be a walking billboard. Hope something there helps.

P.S. not every company would be thrilled to see their products show up on the evening news if it looked contrived or like a sales pitch. I think you may have a better chance at long lasting goodwill from relationships in casual settings that benefit both. If what they send you is not suitable for advertising in this way, you can always mention to them that a button with their name and logo on it would be really helpful to spread the good word, and you could even get one button made up as a sample or that you can use yourself, and maybe you will end up starting a wave back at the company where everyone has access to cool buttons that you have designed and that sends more business to you than you imagined, and that send more business their way than they could have predicted and it was all your doing. Good luck!
Source(s):
http://www.mahalo.com/craig-ferguson

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