Category Archives: Event Planning

Marketing Guide to the Top 5 Promotional Giveaways

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Promotional Giveaways From Spotlight ApparelIt is clear that promotional giveaways possess no small impact if you’re looking for the easiest way to advertise your business or organization to people.

Spotlight Apparel can customize virtually any of our promotional products with an organizations name or logo. From Coffee Mugs to Calendars and everything in between, we have your business’ promotional needs covered. All of our digitizing & artwork is professionally designed by our In-House Art Department allowing us to create the perfect design for you.

Check out our online catalog to take a look at all of the products that we can do for you.

Top 5 Promotional Giveaways

1. Bags

Totes have the highest belief average per unit at 5,983 opinions each. This number is significantly higher than that of composing instruments–number two. Totes are used to work also to carry belongings on the bus, to the shore. Ultimately, men and women for carrying everything from their lunches to their own sons’ and daughters’ diapers us totes. There’s no weather limitation concerning when bags can be taken. 53 percent of the people who receive a free bag feel less unfavorable about the advertiser who gave it to them according to the Advertising Specialty Institute.

2. Writing Instruments

Pencils really are a favored giveaway for all reasons. They are utilized continuously, even at the site that is giving them away. They’re modest. Their size means they’re uncomplicated to carry around. And pens often move through accidental acquisition from one person to another. How many times have you walked off using a pen from eatery or a buddy’s house? Pencils are taken so frequently that banks, post offices and grocery stores put them on a chain to keep them within the building. Many Americans never buy a pen because they get so many free ones. Giveaway pencils get an average of 3,134 impressions each.

3. Caps

Caps are an American trend, worn by women and men equally for multiple purposes. They’re worn year-round except for in the most inclement weather, making them a good choice in virtually any climate. Another attribute of giveaway caps is the fact that they are multi-generational. Individuals of all ages from kids to senior adults love to wear them. These factors fire at giveaway caps to the 3rd area in the very best in average impressions. One cap will showcase your logo an average of 2,999 times.

4. Outerwear

Outerwear giveaways include jackets, windbreakers, sweatshirts and hoodies. These are often given at restaurants, trade show booths or summer occasions in promotional drawings. Similar to t-shirts, outerwear attire is worn offering your business’s message to the public an average of 2,288 times per item. If you give away merely a couple of pieces a year since clothing has a long term wear cycle, the feelings multiply exponentially.

5. Logo T Shirts

There is not any question that Americans love to wear t-shirts with their preferred businesses’ logos to them. Tees are comfort wear when people go out and that they use in the weekends. Since t shirts are worn around plenty of individuals, your advertising gets play. The Advertising Specialty Institute states that t shirts get seen an average for each one given away.

Be sure to contact Spotlight Apparel, Inc. of Jacksonville Florida for all your promotional giveaways.

Four Great Uses for Personalized T Shirts

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Personalized T-Shirts from Spotlight Apparel

Four Great Uses for Personalized T Shirts

There was a time when personalized T shirts only seemed to appear in sports contexts, but those days are long gone. Today, cheap custom T shirt printing is widely available, making it a favorite option for teams and organizations of all kinds. Here are our five favorite uses for personalized T shirts.

Charity Runs

Before stepping out to walk or run in memory or honor of a loved one, many race participants make a call to their custom T shirt printer to order team shirts that show their reason for running. By wearing the face or favorite quotation from your inspiration for donating, you can not only motivate yourself, but show your love and appreciation to spectators and other racers.

Small Business Advertising

Billboards are expensive, and commercials aren’t cheap either. Custom made personalized Tshirts, however, have a much higher ROI, especially when they’re worn not only by your team, but by happy customers. Put your logo and information on T shirts for wearable advertising that makes an appearance all over town!

Family Vacations and Reunions

In case that family resemblance isn’t enough to let strangers know you’re a unit, custom T shirts can be perfect for getting the message across. Whether it’s for safety on a family trip to a crowded amusement park or for a little reunion solidarity, custom shirts are a great way to let people know that you come as a package.

Class Bonding

Being a high school senior is an experience in and of itself, and there’s no better way to show class pride than to order custom shirts. They don’t just make great fundraising pieces, but they let students wear their school spirit proudly!

Personalized T shirts have plenty of great uses, and we’re sure there are even more we haven’t thought of. Where else have you seen custom shirts? Spotlight Apparel, Inc. is a locally owned and operated company creating custom made T-shirts for over 35 years, in Jacksonville, Florida. We are dedicated to creating a unique look for any event.

Be sure to contact Spotlight Apparel, Inc. of Jacksonville Florida for all your custom t-shirts.

Custom T-Shirts For Your Next Company Event

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Custom T-Shirts From Spotlight ApparelCustom t-shirts for your next company event – It’s never too early to start planning your next company or employee appreciation event! When you’re planning an event like this, the greatest challenge is coming up with a new idea. After all, company appreciation events don’t happen every day, and you want to leave a lasting impression. Custom t-shirts are a great way to say thank you!

A great idea to make this year’s appreciation event more memorable is custom t-shirts. Give t-shirts to your team to celebrate meeting a goal, the launch of a big project, or the end of the year. T-shirts and company apparel are always a big hit, and we think your team will love them, too!

Custom T-Shirts For Casual Work Days

Custom t-shirts are a practical appreciation gift. Employees will wear their shirts on casual days, and when they go out to lunch, advertising for your company! T-shirts serve as both an item of company pride and promote your culture in the community. You can create a custom t-shirt for any occasion. Our In-House Art Department can create designs to accommodate any and all events and celebrations. If you don’t have the perfect design, we can create one for you! Customize your t-shirts with your organization’s logo and a few lines of personalization to make a truly unique team shirt.

People Love T-Shirts For Gifts

Make it a memorable gift. Get employees’ shirt sizes ahead of time, so you can give each employee their shirt on the day of your event. When presenting custom t-shirts to your team, make it look beautiful and fun! Roll each t-shirt and tie with ribbon, package in a gift bag with other promotional items. Carefully consider the presentation so your shirts leave a lasting impression of appreciation!

Make Wearing a Company T-Shirt Fun

Encourage your employees to wear their shirts. After your appreciation event is over and gone, continue to engage your team by selecting days to wear their custom shirts. Celebrate many of the recognition holidays with a team casual day. Enter employees in a raffle when they wear their shirt on a casual day. Asking for employees to submit pictures of themselves wearing the shirts in interesting locations is another great promotional idea. Make the team shirts part of your culture for long lasting fun and engagement!

Be sure to contact Spotlight Apparel, Inc. of Jacksonville Florida for all your custom t-shirts.

Screen Printing For Summer Festivals and Events

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Screen Printing For Summer Festivals and EventsScreen printing for summer festivals and events – The short sleeve season is here and it will bring screen printing for summer festivals and events to a new level in the form of promotional t-shirts all across the country.

Selling T-shirts at festivals can be a fun way to make part-time income or a full-time living. At Spotlight Apparel you’ll be involved in the entire T-shirt making process, from design through production, and get to hang out at various cultural or music festivals while making money.

Screen Printing For Summer Festivals and Events – Spotlight Apparel

Festival Merchandising

The festival season is upon us and screen printing companies throughout the country are preparing for the short sleeve season and an influx of orders for festival merchandising and printed t-shirts. Promotional t-shirts as merchandising can be a great way for festival organisers to keep the party going well after the tents are taken down with their satisfied attendees wearing their printed t-shirts out of the gates with an “I was there” sort of pride.

Picture This…

You’re walking into a really cool house party in your super awesome [insert festival name] printed t-shirt and you hear that really cool song by [insert cool hipster band name] that reminds of you said festival and then you see someone else with the wristband from the same super cool awesome festival. No words will be needed, just a look paying tribute to your shared experience at the super awesome mega cool festival. And then they will probably say, “that is an awesome t-shirt, wish I had got one”.

Screen Printing Options

Screen printing for summer festivals and events is a popular choice for promotional t-shirts and festival merchandise because it is cost effective in large quantities and bulk orders. The best screen printing designs are simple yet effective and can include a number of colors, although it should be noted that the price will increase as the number of colors in your design do. Having said that, you don’t want to compromise on the quality of your t-shirt design because nobody will buy it and as a result there will be no knowing looks or shared experience conversations across the house party.

The process of creating an awesome product is often a complicated and detailed journey. Our goal here at Spotlight Apparel is to make that process as easy and quick as possible. Have a look at our process  below to get an idea of how we produce the quality screen prints that your company or organization desires.

Our Process

We begin with product selection where you choose the product type, style and quality suited to your specific event. We can print from your artwork or you can submit your concept to the Spotlight Apparel design department. Our trained professional designer can take your idea and develop it into a dynamic composition that is sure to impress. We will first send you a preview of how your art will look.

Once the art is submitted to you, you may approve the design for print, or you may give us a few revisions to enhance and refine the design to your liking. Once the design is approved, the art is taken to the screen department and that is where your shirt is inked.

The standard turn-around time for screen printing for summer festivals and events is around 5-7 business days. Our goal is to turn your order around as quickly as possible while still maintaining a high standard of quality.

Be sure to contact Spotlight Apparel, Inc. of Jacksonville Florida for all your screen printing for summer festivals and events.

Opening a Restaurant

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Thinking of opening a restaurant?

opening-a-restaurantThe unfortunate news is, the food is only about 20% of the restaurant success equation. Yes, the food needs to be fabulous. But, you must remember, restaurants are businesses first and foremost and food is merely the product for sale.

After opening a restaurant, you’re going to want to leave your guests feeling welcome and eager to come back. The service and food quality are obvious ways to do this, but giving a little something extra to customers will show them that you really care about them and their business.

Branded Apparel and T Shirts

Whether you’re a small family owned restaurant or a large chain restaurant with multiple locations, there’s no doubt that your brand important. Customer’s love to purchase t shirts and hats with your branded logo. Also don’t forget about custom clothing and accessories for your staff. They give a professional consistent look across your entire brand.

Comfortable and quality are the necessary ingredients for great custom restaurant uniforms, tshirts or hats. Restaurants and hospitality organizations know that when custom restaurant uniforms are done right, they make a great first impression when you are opening a restaurant.

Cups Runneth Over

A couple of essential items to open a restaurant is drinkware and custom printed menus. They should follow your custom theme to get everyone in the team spirit. Items that they can use in the restaurant and then take home will help keep the memories alive. Flyer/buffet kits are great, too when opening a restaurant. Patrons can also use the stadium cups, plates and utensils while there and then bring the flying disc home to the kids

Fun Stuff

Of course, no grand opening promotion would be complete without a whole load of fun giveaways. If your theme is sports related, think mini footballs for wannabe quarterbacks, nuts for the sports nuts, shot glasses on beads, LED badges and, even a hula skirt for your beverage. More expensive items, such as a hard side cooler should also be available to win as a door prize. Like we said, think fun.

Sign Here

In the end, despite all the giveaways on the day you are opening a restaurant, of course you want your customers to pay the check. Give patrons themed pens to sign their bills and also to take away in their purses or jacket pockets. Then, when someone asks them to jot down great eateries, they can use the pens to recommend your restaurant as one of their favorites.

Planning a Successful Family Reunion

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Planning a Successful Family Reunion – 12 Step Guide

Planning a Successful Family Reunion

Planning a successful family reunion may seem like an easy task, but a typical family reunion will assemble hundreds of family members from the eldest to the youngest for a meal, some fun and discussion. The older attendees are generally grandparents, parents, siblings or first cousins while the youngest could be second, third or even fourth cousins. It’s also not uncommon for regular family reunions to be sponsored by family organizations or family associations centered around common family member celebration or ancestor.

For some, receiving an invitation to a family reunion is exciting. For others, the same invite can trigger a headache. But what if you’re in charge of planning your family reunion? Do you know what to do?

12 steps in Planning a Successful Family Reunion

1. Which family name? It may seem obvious, but the first step for any family reunion is to decide which family. Which side of the family are you inviting? Do you want to include only close relatives or all descendants of Great Grandma Smith or other common ancestor? Are you inviting only direct line relatives (parents, grandparents, grandkids) or do you plan to include cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins or even 4th cousins? Keep in mind, when planning a successful family reunion, every branch on the family tree adds many more family members that could potentially attend. “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

2. Pick the date. It’s not a successful reunion if no one can attend. You may want to plan your family reunion to coincide with an elder family member’s birthday or a national holiday. Pick two or three dates and  poll family members to avoid time and date conflicts. Most importantly, remember that you won’t be able to please everyone. Choose your final date based on what works for most of the family members.

3. Select a location. Try to select a family reunion location that is most accessible and affordable to most of the family members. If relatives are living one area, then select a reunion location that’s nearby. If everyone’s located all over the country, then try to pick a central location to help cut down on travel expenses.

4. Develop a budget. This will help you decide the type of the food, decorations, accommodations and activities for your family reunion. You can choose to pay for all this out of your own pocket with the hope that family members will contribute; but unless you have a money tree in your backyard, you should collect a pre-registration fee to help with t-shirts, decorations, catering, activities and location costs.

5. What about a theme? Creating a theme for a family reunion is a fun way to attract family members and make them more likely to attend. It also makes things more exciting!  When it comes to planning a successful family reunion, be imaginative with the t-shirts, food, games, activities, invitations and just about every other aspect of the reunion. Family history themes are very popular, as well as celebrating family member’s birthday or anniversary, or your family’s heritage.

6. Determine the menu. Feeding a large group of people with different tastes is one of the trickiest parts of planning a reunion. Make it easier by choosing a menu that relates to your theme, or maybe a menu that celebrates your family’s heritage. If you are a tight budget, organize a group of family members to prepare the food. If you have a large group and your budget allows, find a caterer or restaurant to do at least some of the work for you. Fabulous food makes for a family reunion that everyone will remember.

7. Plan some fun activities.  Planned activities at your family reunion will help provide a comfortable atmosphere so people who do not know each other well will have fun and get together. Create activities that will be fun for all ages and help promote family knowledge and heritage. You may also want to prizes or special gift awards for the oldest family member or the longest distance traveled to attend the reunion.

8. Set the stage. You’ve got a bunch of people, now what do you plan to do with them? It’s time now to make arrangements for tents (if an outside reunion), chairs, parking decorations, programs, signs, t-shirts, goodie bags and other reunion-day requirements.

9. A picture says a thousand words. While many family members will no doubt bring their own cameras, it helps to also make plans to record the family reunion. Whether you designate a certain family member as the official reunion picture taker, or hire a professional photographer to take photos or videos, you should prepare a list of the people and events that you want recorded. For spontaneous “moments,” purchase some disposable cameras and hand them out to relatives. Don’t forget to collect them at the end of the day!

10. Print up a program Create and have a program printed that outlines the lineup of scheduled reunion events to provide to family members as they arrive for the reunion. You may also want to send this out via email or your reunion Web site in advance of the reunion as well. This will help serve as a reminder to people of activities which may require they bring something with them, such as a photo wall or family tree chart.

11. Decorate for the big day. The big day is almost here and now it’s time to make sure it goes smoothly. Create catchy, easy-to-ready signs to point arriving guests to registration, parking, and important locations such as bathrooms. Purchase or make a guest book to collect signatures, addresses, and other important information, as well as serve as a permanent record of the reunion. Purchase custom made name badges with lanyards to facilitate mixing and mingling between unacquainted family members. Family tree wall charts are always a big hit as reunion attendees always want to know where they fit in to the family. Framed photos or printed posters of common ancestors or past family reunions are also popular. And, if you want to know what everyone thought of all your reunion planning, print up some evaluation forms for people to fill out as they leave.

12. Keep the fun going. Designate a volunteer or volunteers to create and send out a post-reunion newsletter with stories, photos and news items from the reunion. If you collected family information, send along an updated genealogy chart as well. This is a great way to get people excited about the next reunion, as well as include less fortunate family members who were not able to attend.

Wedding Event Ideas

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Wedding Event Ideas – Is someone getting married?

wedding_Item_Ideas_Spotlight_Apparel_Jacksonville_Florida

Looking for wedding event  ideas for both the engagement party and the big day? Well, we have some ideas in mind.

Engagement Party

Love is in the air and you will want to give the guests invited to the engagement affair some mementoes, noting the date to look forward to. A decorative ornament can be hung from Christmas trees for years to come. Likewise, a personalized clock makes a nice accessory for desk or home.

Reception

The wedding day brings joy and excitement, so start off with fun bride-and-groom hand puppets, which guests can take home to their children. For the cocktail hour, provide cocktail glasses or a wine bottle corkscrew opener, so your guests can try a few different flavored cocktails. Be sure they’re imprinted with the couple’s names and the date for a personal touch that will remind guests of the special day.

Linen napkins with a monogram in metallic gold ink  adds a touch of class. Also personalized coaster from Spotlight Apparel makes a unique wedding favor to be given out at the end of the night. It’s a good idea to have drawstring totes so guests may carry home their party favors in a convenient reusable bag.

Overnight Guests

If you’re expecting out-of-towners who will be overnight guests at the hotel that is also the wedding venue, you’ll want gifts for them as well. Your guests will feel special when they find customized gifts in their rooms.  A personalized wine stopper or bottle opener is a great reminder of the big day that can also be used again and again. Negotiate with the hotel to pay for a portion of a luxury spa gift tote bag that can be imprinted with the couple’s names, wedding date and the hotel information.

Spotlight Apparel offers custom embroidery and screen printing  for a variety of products. These include screen printed t-shirts, hats, sweaters, jackets, bags, pants, blankets, towels, and just about every apparel product that you can think of. Be sure to contact Spotlight Apparel, Inc. for all your screen printing, embroidery and promotional products.