Last week, your A-Z Swagman got to take some time away from the promotional products world and spend it with family. My father arranged a house in a vacation community in Pennsylvania, and five family units converged to forget work and responsibilities and just enjoy ourselves.

OK, right, very few of us forgot about work completely:

• Mike spent several evenings on the computer arranging music for work
• Shannon had to communicate with her office a few times.
• Peter and Sarah sent emails and called the charity they founded.
• The two veterinarians didn’t contact their clinics, but did chat about work (mostly with big words that your A-Z Swagman doesn’t always understand!)
• And of course your A-Z Swagman did find a promo story.

The community where we stayed has an interesting combination of what looked like permanent residents, private vacation homes and rental properties. All of these shared some wonderful recreational areas, including lakes with beaches, a small ski slope (not currently in use for obvious reasons), tennis courts, an archery range, arts and crafts, bingo, and sports fields. Residents and renters are able to boat and fish the lakes (although we saw several signs that say bass must be thrown back – so know your fish before you cast your line!) and many organized activities were on the calendar.

What caught your A-Z Swagman’s eye was on our first day while registering at the office (all renters had to get temporary wristbands and car parking permits). In the office, they had a slew of promotional products available for purchase, some of which we bought for use and this very blog entry!

Now, a quick side note about being nice: your A-Z Swagman, his wife and his sister (swaggy-sis?, probably not.) were told to our faces that we were liked by the property managers. I chalk that up to our wonderfully nice attitude when we walked through the door.

Anyway, the promotional items available included the usual T-shirts and caps. These folk had taken time to find some nicer quality caps and shirts to be emblazoned with their logo. Your A-Z Swagman has an overabundance of shirts and doesn’t wear caps, so only the cap was purchased by his sister for hubby (who unfortunately couldn’t make it).

What we did purchase were some fun drink items. First a fairly common item: a coffee mug. Being a community with some winter sports available, this could also be considered a coco mug. They chose a nice quality, wide-mouth campfire mug with a black rim. The speckles in the base mug make it much more interesting than a typical solid-color mug.

Second the can insulator. Yes, I know, you want to call it a Koozie – and that’s fine for you, but your A-Z Swagman is a professional (believe it or not), and just as a tissue salesman wouldn’t call all tissues Kleenex, I won’t call all drink insulators Koozies! But I’m happy to find you Koozies if you like. This can insulator is a definite step above the usual collapsible model. With a metal outer shell and a foam insulating liner, this product has more perceived value and will be kept for longer, which makes the brand message last longer! Only downside is that it takes up more storage space.

Finally, a fairly unique bottle insulator, that your A-Z Swagman used several times during the week. Three sections unscrew for the operation. The top bit unscrews to allow use of the embedded bottle-opener. The bottom unscrews from the top to add your beverage of choice (in your A-Z Swagman’s case, hard cider or ginger beer), then screws back on with only the lip of the bottle protruding. The metal part is double-walled, providing as much if not more insulation than the plastic part. One real selling point of this product for the property managers: no glass bottles are allowed on the beach (for obvious reasons), but could be enclosed in one of these and enjoyed sitting in the sand! This is a unique feature of this bottle insulator and wouldn't be found with a soft bottle insulator.

Other products they had for sale included flashlights and playing cards (for use in winter time when the power goes out and folk are sitting in front of a cozy fire). The great thing about all of these products is the way clients are not only gladly spreading the brand message, but paying for the privilege!

If you have an upcoming vacation and haven’t planned a spot to visit, look for Locust Lake Village properties available on vrbo.com. If you’re looking for a getaway community for a summer or winter home, check out http://locustlakevillage.org/ Tell them the A-Z Swagman sent you!

And as always, if this blog entry has sparked an idea of how promotional products can help you in your brand, please don’t hesitate to contact your A-Z Swagman at swag@azorinc.com.