Promotional Products have grown into a 17 Billion Dollar Industry. Find out what's hot and how to benefit this year. Gone are the days when people think of Promotional products as gadgets or toys. Today people use these items for incentives, branding, product launches and public relations.

After attending the largest Promotional Product Show of the year in Las Vegas recently, I compiled a list of the 5 hottest items in my opinion that will do well this year.

1) Gift Cards, Ringtone Cards, Game Cards, Music Download Cards:

These can be inexpensive ways to show your customers you appreciate them. With IPOD's and MP3 players flying off the shelves, content becomes king. These people need to fill their product and giving them 3 or 5 free songs will certainly be appreciated. These cards can be used as well to sooth an unhappy customer. It's always easier to try to sooth an unhappy customer as opposed to finding a new one.

Gift Cards were the rage in 2005 and the trend will definitely continue in 2006. Today stores just advertise gift cards, they no longer advertise product. They let the customer decide what product they want. With 25% of all balance amounts never being claimed these cards have become a cash cow to those selling them. With quantities available at 1000, these cards are now available to every size business, no longer just the Walmarts and Costco's of the world. One of the most important benefits of gift cards is guaranteeing future sales in your store or business.

2)Apparel:

When people in promotional products used to think about apparel it was usually associated with cheap t-shirts. Today every manufacturer wants a piece of the pie. Corporate Apparel is a big business. Companies like Liz Claiborne, The Gap, Old Navy, Nike, Reebok, Ping, Ashworth, American Apparel and others are all involved. Todays products include t-shirts, pants, sweat pants, jackets, oxford shirts, hats, golf apparel, socks, and shoes.

3)Lanyards:

These things are everywhere. Once the domain of the trade show, lanyards have branched out into hundreds of industries. The quality of the material and printing has greatly improved over the years. Minimum quantities for special plastic designs from China have been reduced. Lanyards are found in Hospitals, Customer Service, Store Sales People to ordinary people who use them to hold their water bottle when they walk. With tens of different attachments available these items are become a necessity in many businesses.

4)USB Drives:

A few years ago these were seen as a novelty. Now they've become an essential as busy executives carry their files with them everywhere. Branding on these items is sure to be seen and appreciated hundred of times. A useful item that can also automatically send people to your web site. With different storage amounts available your sure to find ones in every price range.

5)Dog Tags:

These items have taken over from the awareness bracelet craze of the last few years. These items can be co-branded and even personalized with bar codes or consecutive numbers. This gives you the option to use them as raffle tickets, admission tickets or as incentives to drive people to your web site.

If I have one piece of advice to those thinking of using promotional products, it would be "IT DOESN'T COST MORE TO DO IT RIGHT!". One sloppy product can tarnish your image and reputation more than the pennies you've saved on an inferior item. The goal should be not to spend the least but to get the most for the money you've spent. If you have any questions or need any advice you can drop me an email. For ideas you can visit my site www.solutionsink4u.com with over 600,000 different items or just google promotional products. Good luck with your next project.