When is a pen not a pen?

Actually - that's a trick question. A pen is ALWAYS a pen. I don't care if it can light up in seven different colours, turn into a pencil or nip down the shops to pick me up a Doner Kebab, it is still just a pen.

You see that's the trouble with a lot of promotional merchandise. Despite the fact that so many people ask us to show them something new and interesting, the plain truth is that we have seen it all before.

When I first got into this business, walking around trade shows was like Disneyland for me. "WOW! A mouse with coloured liquid inside it!" or "OOOH- this mug changes colour when you pour in hot liquid! and let's not forget "OH MY GOD - it's a stress toy in the shape of a human hand!"

Sadly, after 7 years, all I see are mice, mugs and stress toys. None the less, this cynical view of my world actually has an upside to it. Well I had to find one, otherwise I'd have The Samaritans on speed dial. Come to think of it, do you think The Samaritans use promotional merchandise? Maybe they keep a stack of post it notes next to the phone with "Everything's going to be alright" printed on them.

So what is the silver lining in my ever looming cloud? Well, you can spot it when I call your company and tell you that I have a new product about which I am genuinely excited. Such a call will come around once, maybe twice a year. In 2008 it was for the Stickydrive - a brand new way for people to use their USB flash drives. I truly believed that this was the future and I told all of my clients about it.

This year, it's a new type of MP3 player. A bespoke rubber mould with at least 1Gb of memory on board with prices from as low as £10 per unit. Now I spent 2 days trawling through a trade show to find something which got me excited and this really jumped out at me.

I know what you're thinking - it's just an MP3 player. Well that's true, but consider what you could do with it. If you're planning on popping down to Currys to pick up a bunch of iPod shuffles then think again. This product is cheaper and affords you the opportunity to get your logo out there.

Radio Stations, Museums, Travel Companies - I could go on and on about all of the different industries that can benefit from this product and so I will be dedicating a lot of my time in the forthcoming months to getting this out there.

I promised in my very first blog that I would bring you industry news and developments, and I want to make sure that amidst all of the rhetoric and fun that there is actually something that you can USE.

So jump on this one early, before you find yourself going from "WOW! a bespoke moulded MP3 player with my logo on it! to "oh yeah, a walkman".