With thousands of promotional products out there, it can be difficult to figure out which are useful and which is a waste of what are probably limited funds for a branding campaign.

So why use a promotional umbrella in your campaign? Of course the answer may be different depending on the brand you are trying promote but their usefulness alone can be helpful to your company.

Using promotional items is quite different from an advertisement in any other form. While a paid advertisement will most likely give you specific reasons you should trust and use a company, a promotional item is there more to get consumers to remember your company is out there and provide mass expose in the consumer marketplace.

So again, why is an umbrella better than say, a pen and notepad or a bottle of hand sanitizer with your logo? The size alone is a factor in answering this question. An umbrella gives you much more space to work with and gives you the opportunity to enlarge your imprinted logo and perhaps use bolder colors, thus being seen by more people than many smaller promotional items. An umbrella with a simple and well placed logo will be seen and remembered by a greater number of people than hand sanitizer that you may pull out of your purse, pocket or desk drawer every once in a while. And even when you do pull it out, most won't see what's on the bottle, therefore making it almost useless.

You also may want to consider how long the item will last. A pen will run out of ink or get lost. The hand sanitizer will eventually run out, and is not a product that is a necessity. An umbrella will most likely last for quite some time, promoting your brand much longer than many other promotional items. The other great thing about an umbrella is that it is almost a must use item. If you are given a free umbrella and are caught in the rain, you have no reason not to pull it out and make use. If it is a promotional umbrella you are using, then every time it expands, you are giving free advertising to that company.

The popularity of promotional umbrellas seems to be growing. It's difficult to go to a corporate event such as golf tournament without seeing umbrellas with a company logo on it. This is because

More importantly, consumers appreciate items like umbrellas because they are extremely useful to most people no matter where they live. While they may be more useful in a place like Seattle where it rains far more often than many other cities, it rains everywhere at some point, even in the desert. Promotional umbrellas can also be used to provide shade during hot, sunny days.

A city where many people walk and take public transportation is an excellent market for promotional umbrellas as people have to spend more time outside and will undoubtedly need an umbrella. On top of that, those people using your umbrella are walking advertisements for all of the other people to see.

While an umbrella will be more expensive than other smaller promotional items, it will be more effective and therefore more cost effective. The initial investment will be worth it.