Advertising with traditional media versus promotional items is like trying to hit discrete targets with a shotgun versus a rifle, says Terry Wilt, president of Austin-based Bells Promotional Products Inc., a promotional products distributor.

Whereas radio and television ads scatter messages toward many people who may or may not be who the advertiser is trying to reach, well-aimed promotional products often land on the desks or key chains of the people most likely to be customers.

“It’s a much more direct form of advertising,” Wilt says. With print or radio or television advertising the cost is per thousands, while with promotional products “you’re looking at cost per impression. Even though you may be putting a $3 coffee mug on someone’s desk, it’s how many times during the [use] of that coffee mug that someone’s going to look down there and see Bank of America or whoever on it.”

The cost of promotional items varies, and it’s critical “to find a product that fits with the market you’re targeting,” says Wilt, whose company markets and distributes millions of promotional products to several thousand clients every year.

Promotional products is a $20 billion industry and growing, with trinkets, clothing, technology and energy-efficient products being given away. With distributors buying from hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers, the promotional product industry has grown every year for the past six years from $15.6 billion in sales volume to $19.4 billion at the end of 2007, according to the Promotional Products Association International.

Wilt says revenue from promotional products has grown partly because wearable items such as T-shirts and baseball caps that had never been included in such totals are now counted. Wearables make up the largest selling promotional product category, representing 30.7 percent of sales in 2007, while writing instruments accounted for 10.4 percent of sales, according to the Promotional Products Association International.

Adding to the industry’s growth is that it’s become less expensive to print full-color ads on things like mugs and mouse pads, while promotional products are becoming a more popular supplement to traditional advertising.

“I don’t think people are spending less money on traditional media,” Wilt says. “They’re supplementing their campaigns with promotional products.”

The first thing a business needs to do before contacting a distributor is determine a marketing campaign’s mission, who will be reached and where they will be touched, says Al Emerick, director of marketing for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Sterling Health Care Inc., which provides management and staffing for hospital emergency departments.

Emerick was recently preparing for three national and some regional trade shows, where the company plans to hand out promotional items related to health care, such as hand sanitizers that look like pens and travel sewing kits.

“You hope that the item they get they will keep around,” he said. “But it’s the execution of how you use the promotional product that is how you make a difference.”

Emerick says a business should have a system to track data, such as leads generated through giveaways, and follow up with prospects after a trade show or product promotion.

There are many different reasons for a company to use promotional products, such as launching a new company product or brand. Besides reaching customers, promotional products can be used to reach internally. Jacksonville-based distributor Promo Depot helped create a marketing kit for the release of AXE deodorant body spray to help motivate the internal sales team. The kit included a customized AXE skateboard and backpack with sales materials.

“Whether internal or external marketing — [promotional products] move the sales,” says Dea Sims, Promo Depot founder and chairman.

While wearables are popular, new technology and green products are gaining interest.

Leed’s, a promotional product supplier based in New Kensington, Pa., began selling eco-friendly products to distributors and implemented a program in which the company plants a tree for every green bag bought. The bags are made from recycled yogurt containers and water bottles. The company has planted 4,700 trees, says Brian Frazer, regional sales manager for Leed’s.

Leed’s, known for its bags and notepads, also began selling computer flash drives to distributors three years ago. The price of flash drives has dropped significantly, says Frazer, adding that memory devices are among the largest product sellers for the company.

“Everybody’s using it right now,” he says.

Visit Jacksonville, which promotes that city to meeting planners, hands out flash drives with its logo at trade shows along with other marketing material, such as reporters’ notepads with images of the city, its logo and address on the cover, and contact information at the bottom of every page.

“They don’t want to carry around kits” at trade shows, says Lyndsay Rossman, director of corporate communications for Visit Jacksonville. Using targeted promotional items taps into that while “making sure we stay in the consumer’s mind and our client’s mind.”