Tech Support

I'd be rich if I had a dollar for every time I was convinced I had single-handedly broken the Internet, only to have the office I.T. guy come to my desk and bring it all back online with one keystroke. It's happened more times than I should be willing to admit in a national publication.

But every so often, the hardware really does go haywire. A scary red box of death gravely informs you of an error. You open your 2,000-word article and find little squares and assorted wingdings where there were once English words. It's the sheer, unadulterated panic typically reserved for Bruckheimer-esque catastrophes.

But the pros come in and, more often than not, they blow up the asteroid before it hits Earth. Sorry, wrong narrative. The pros come in and they find your files/debug your system/fix the Internet you broke. And suddenly, the I.T. guy becomes a rock star. He's your new best friend. He's a master. If human resources permitted it, you'd hug him. But just as quickly, he's off. There's always another computer to save.

Someone give this guy a slow-motion walk already.

Protect and Serve

The editors at Promo Marketing might not speak "computer," per se, but we do know promotional products. So in order to steal a bit of the I.T. department's collective adoration, we've compiled six tips for your next computer accessories promotion. The next time you find yourself in a cold sweat, wondering how you're ever going to help your end-buyer, rest assured we've got you covered.

1. Leverage popular items …

There's no getting around it, "The USB flash drive remains the workhorse of computer accessories," said Paul Hirsch, vice president of Houston-based Hirsch Gift. There's a lot to be said for ubiquity. Writing instruments, for example, have long been the bread and butter of the promotional products industry, and still find success even in a sea of like items.