This is really cool!

Well a very hearty and happy hello to all of you - I trust that the day finds you well. Does it? Good. Me? Well thanks for asking - I'm great, despite the fact that young Felix has decided to start skipping his dinner and then waking up at four in the morning feeling a little hungry.

You'd think after a couple of weeks of this he'd have figured it out by now but NOOOOOOO!!!! Why should his loving parents sleep when he's awake and needs something? I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love him but sometimes he's an idiot.

It's been a fantastic week for Merchandise Mania. On Monday, we were awarded Distributor of the Year for London and the South East 2010. This is award granted by Promota - the UK trade association that gives you the peace of mind that its members aren't some bunch of cowboys selling dodgy merchandise made by five year old Vietnamese children each being paid a weekly wage of three cents and a packet of Fruit Pastilles.

It's an important award because it's actually voted for by our manufacturers and importers. It tells us that we are practising good business with them and that they like to deal with us, and that's great, because the more they like us, the better a job they do and that's the service that we get to pass on to our customers.

Incidentally, it's not the only award we have here by the way, and you're more than welcome to visit our office and stare at our trophy cabinets. That's right - cabinets, plural, because we've got too many trophies to fit into just the one.

OK, enough gloating, I mean it's not like I do it all that often is it? Last week I told you that I was going to tell you about some of the more popular products from this year's Confex show, so here is my personal favourite.

Now for quite some time, various gadget companies have been making different types of speakers for your MP3 player. Some of them are quite cool and some of them are frankly laughable. In fact, I saw a pair last week that proudly boast that they don't need a battery - sounds good, until you try listening to them and realise that you'd get more volume taping a couple of empty toilet roll holders to your earphones.

However, something has come along which I really love. It's called the Anywhere Speaker and the clue is very much in the name. It's a small white box with two attachments. The first is the headphone jack - no prizes for guessing where that goes - and the second is a small adhesive pad that you can stick (and here's the clever bit) anywhere. Stick it onto any flat surface and, using vibration technology, that surface instantly becomes a speaker!

We've tried it out on various different surfaces and we've found that shoe boxes, drinks cartons and bottles work particularly well. The very best surface is my fridge, but I'm afraid that it's not for sale. I mean I say that, but you can always make me an offer.

To see it in action, you can go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DVKg6pw77Y&feature=related

No don't click it yet! Finish reading this and then click it.

Now this box has a really great printing area and you'll be delighted to learn that prices start at less than £10 including branding.

It's a truly novel product and think of the marketing potential - I have one and I make a point of showing it to all of my friends, not because I am trying to sell it to them, but because I think it's cool. Can you imagine your own brand name spreading like that? People talking about your company with their friends and all because you gave them a really interesting product - just imagine what that could mean for your bottom line.

Now remember what I told you. I don't get excited about merchandise that often. I'm a cynical old git and I've seen it all before, so when I tell you that there's a piece of merchandise that got me excited, you'd best believe it's knocking sliced bread off of the top spot.

Seriously, what's the big deal about sliced bread anyway?