PopSockets are the hottest phone accessories to come along in years, and custom PopSockets, printed with a logo of a company, school, or your brand’s logo are one of the hottest promotional products ever. Here’s a little background before we get into the nitty gritty:

PopSockets, the Best Way to Get a Grip

Before PopSockets, getting a good grip on your cell phone to take selfies, get the perfect photo, video chat with friends and family, and scroll through email or your social media feed was often a bit of a slippery proposition. Then came PopSockets, the awesome, fashionable phone accessory that transforms your cell phone or tablet into an easily-grippable device. See our previous article that goes in depth on what’s a PopSocket.

PopSockets are as functional and stylish as they are popular, so unfortunately many unauthorized retailers are selling counterfeit PopSockets. This is especially prevalent in the promotional products industry, so if you’re a marketing person shopping for the perfect piece of swag, beware; there are many sellers online of custom Popsockets that are actually fakes. Though the knockoffs can be pretty convincing, we’re here to help you identify how to tell a genuine PopSocket from a fake, so you can rest easy knowing that the ones you’re putting your logo on and giving to potential customers are legit, come with warranties, and will function properly for years to come.

Incredibly Popular and Easy to Counterfeit

When a retail product becomes globally popular, unfortunately it’s only a matter of time until counterfeiters start producing and selling inferior, unauthorized replicas of the genuine product.

These knockoffs are low-quality, made poorly with inferior materials, can break easily, and don’t come with the original manufacturer’s warranty. Whether you buy them knowingly or not, not only are you supporting the counterfeiters (which causes them to proliferate) and risking their having your personal details and credit card info, the fake versions usually break and fail soon after purchase.

There are currently many authorized retailers who offer genuine, warrantied products in a variety of colors, styles, designs, materials, and prices, so we strongly suggest that you make sure that you’re buying from one of them so that your brand is associated with high-quality, legit, properly functioning products.

How Can I Detect a Knockoff PopSocket?

Many counterfeiters are unfortunately good at what they do, so knowing if the site or products you’ve found are authorized can at first give you pause. However, the following 7 tried and true methods will help you determine whether a PopSocket is genuine or not. And remember, knockoffs are produced with inferior standards and can be stolen, damaged, defective, or used prior to purchase so they aren’t eligible for PopSockets LLC’s warranty.

Method #1
The PopSocket breaks easily, even while pulling it out of its packaging. Fake PopSockets are made poorly and are not built to withstand any wear and tear, so they fall apart incredibly easily.

Method #2
Does the repositionable sticky gel pad have have a thin, clear, hard plastic disc covering it? It should — any other cover (like a 3M label) signifies that the product is counterfeit.

Method #3
The patented PopSocket comes with a reusable, non-marring gel adhesive on the back that’ll work for as long as you have it (if it gets dirty just give it a quick rinse and let it dry, but the gel shouldn’t be exposed to air for more than 15 minutes). Knockoff versions have a non-reusable sticky pad that will only stick once and leave hard-to-remove residue on your device, and will probably start dissolving if the PopSocket is rinsed in water.

Method #4

Does the PopSocket accordion have two distinct expansions that each produce a bass-y tone as you pop it open? If it expands with no satisfying “pop,” it’s probably a fake.

Method #5

There are many terrific deals on legit PopSockets, but if the price is super low ― such as only a few dollars ― you can be pretty certain that what you’re looking at is a fake. If the price is too good to be true, guess what, it is!

Method #6

The clarity of details on the packaging are often a dead giveaway. Make sure that the printing is sharp and not pixelated, that there are no spelling errors, and that the PopSockets name on the base of the mount is depressed (debossed) into it.

Method #7

If you’re purchasing from Amazon, the only authorized sellers are Amazon and PopSockets LLC. Make sure the phrase “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com” or “Ships from and sold by PopSockets” is on the item page to confirm that it’s a genuine product. (And if you’ve already accidentally bought a counterfeit item, contact the seller for resolution and report them to the Better Business Bureau.)

In Closing

We hope that you now have a strong sense of what makes a genuine PopSocket grip, and when to find a new seller. Here at BestCustomFlashDrives we’re proud to say that we’ve been an authorized retailer since 2016, so head on over to our Custom PopSockets page to check out the newest, coolest styles for you to put your logo on, and feel free to contact us with any questions!

Greetings from BestCustomFlashDrives, the leading source for the most creative and fun custom-made flash drives anywhere!

Every once in a while here at the office we get to talking about all the projects we’ve done for our clients, sort of doing a trip down memory lane, talking about some of our favorites.  This one has to be at the top of the list!  We had a blast working with the folks at Gummibar and developing this fun flash drive for them, in the shape of yours truly.  Complete with 5 special remixed song loaded onto him, Gummibar, aka Gummy Bear, is such a fun product!  And hats off to the video production team that made this awesome stop-motion video of him rocking out, we love it!   2.5 million views on YouTube is impressive!

When the folks at Gummibar came to us with this project there weren’t any 3-D renderings of him or anything like that, just 2-D cartoons and images, so it was up to us to take the project from the flat files to the real living almost-breathing little guy that you see here in this video.  And we did!

The first step was collecting images from the client, as many as we could get our hands on, so we could see our green friend from as many different angles as possible, to get an idea of his total look, front, back, top, and bottom.   Then we needed some colors to match so they gave us the Pantone colors of his green, yellow, blue of his eyes – everything.

Once we had all of this data, our team went to their computers and by the use of some very cool software and great talent, came up with the size and dimensions he’d have to be in order to fit a USB drive inside.

Next came creating the actual 3D design rendering of him.  Here’s one of the iterations of the design:

After the client approved this design, we went into spec sampling, creating an actual Gummibar flash drive and sending photos of it to our client for approvals.  Usually we nail it on the first try, but for this design it was a bit tricky to get his butt right, so we had to make some adjustiments to make sure we got the lower regions right and do another sample.  Once approved, we went into mass production and packaging.

The packaging as you know is as important as the product, so the client’s graphics team sent us a great design based on the box dimensions we sent them, and then we did a full-color custom printed box with glossy finish, complete with window and plastic insert to hold him in place, making a complete retail-ready product, as seen here:

And taaa-daaaaa!  There you have it!  A relatively short timeline from start to finish, of just about 9 weeks. We can do completely custom-made flash drives like this in less time than that, usually about 4 to 5 weeks, this design was just a bit more complex so it added a little time.

And that’s it, fade out to this music video!

What’s the best content marketing activity that a marketer can engage in?  Excellent question.

Being a marketing professional in today’s digital world can be incredibly challenging.  We know we’re supposed to be segmenting our audience, creating personas, and then ‘content marketing’ to them – but what’s the best way to deliver that content?  Long form blog articles? Video posts on Instagram or Snapchat?  White papers?  With new digital platforms and tools popping up constantly, it’s hard to tell which ones to devote the most time and resources to, and how to analyze all the data that each generates.

The pace of innovation in the field is so fast that as one expert in New York told me after a panel discussion on digital marketing, “This information (about digital marketing platforms) will be obsolete in about 6 months.”  OK then.  Sounds like simply keeping abreast of the field can be a full time job.  And it is, but don’t let that make you take your eye off the ball.

Your marketing strategy must still include the tried and true.  You can try all the new social media platforms you want, but at the end of the day don’t forget to keep executing on the “old school” marketing tactics.  Because they work.  You have to execute them well, and then yes, use the new digital platforms to augment, track, and analyze them, but they’re by far the top performers.

So have we piqued your curiosity?  Ready to learn what the most effective form of content marketing is today?   Which one of the following do you think it is?:

1. Long form blog/website articles
2. Frequent posts and engagement across social platforms (of infographics, helpful info, etc.)
3. Video posts on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook
4. Events – user groups, custom appreciation outings, trade shows, etc.
5. Press releases and white papers

We kind of gave the answer away by saying it’s old school – the answer is D) Events.  Yes that’s right, events.  Or, as called now: Experiential Marketing, or Experiential Brand Activation, or IRL Marketing (short for “In Real Life” Marketing).  No matter what you call them, it’s in-person face-to-face events that are the best way to connect with your target audience, particularly in the B2B world.  But don’t take my word for it, hear it from the expert:

“In every year since we’ve been producing our content marketing research, in-person events are rated as the most effective content marketing activity.  Such an amazing opportunity for any-sized brand.”   – Joe Pulizzi, chief executive, Content Marketing Institute

That pretty much says it all, coming from the person with all the data.  But to add umph to that, I recently heard a marketing expert from Google mention, and I paraphrase here, that “Events are the original social experience.  It’s the immersive experience that really builds the brand and the connection with the audience.”

To you, the marketer or business owner, note that of particular value are unique events that you create for your own brand.  Here’s a great example of some kickass IRL marketing, which is at the high end of the budget scale, but still serves as a great example of what we should be shooting for:

Experiential Marketing Case Study

A few years ago, AirBnB executed some experiential brand activation at SXSW (that’s South By Southwest in Austin, TX for those not up on their acronyms – a major annual event for technology, film, and music).    Since AirBnB was still fairly new, their target audience was young professional ‘influencers’ in the United States.  (I.e. not just young professionals with disposable income, but the cool kids, the leaders of that demographic, the ones who influence their peer groups.)  That demographic led AirBnB straight to SXSW, arguably ground zero for this demographic.  A perfect event for AirBnB not only to find their target audience, but also because hotels sell out in Austin for SXSW months in advance, creating huge demand for alternate housing.

With a budget of $1.2mm, they created a 5-day activation event by building a 12,000 sq. ft. pop-up neighborhood in a parking lot downtown near one of the SXSW locations.  They laid down astro-turf, built picket fences, put 3 houses up that were fully-functional mini-houses, and had a celebrity host in each house: Alan Stone in one, Capital Cities in another, and ready for this..Snoop Dog in the third.  Then they set up lemonade stands, coffee stands, a popsicle stand with hemp-milk popsicles and other cool flavors from a local company, a barber shop where you could actually get a haircut or your hair braided, a bloody mary stand, harmonica lessons, marching bands, an artist who used brain waives and a funky machine to blow up ballons, and to round it all out some morning yoga sessions.  Not too bad!

Imagine being a South-By attendee wandering around the sweltering heat of Austin and stumbling upon this?  They were literally an oasis in the middle of hot and sweaty SXSW where people could come in for free, hang out and freshen up.  Like grabbing a hemp-milk popsicle and saying hi to Snoop Dog!  AMAZING, right?!  And guess how these young influencers expressed their amazement and “pumped-ness”?  By immediately posting on social media of course, and reaching thousands of consumers right in the cross hairs of AirBnB’s target demographic.  With all the AirBnB branding in the images and videos being posted, and of course the hashtag.  Not too shabby.

Now of course most of us don’t have a budget of $1.2mm for one event.  Only the lucky few have that.  But we can use this as a great example of how it’s done and what we’re shooting for, even if on a smaller scale.  It can be as simple as creating a nice customer appreciation event at a local hang, or exhibiting at a trade show for your target audience.  This latter one is especially valuable for B2B businesses.  The point is to just get out there and create those face-to-face interactions, and the digital will happen as a result.

When you do stage those events, don’t forget to give people a reason and opportunity to post to social media.  Get creative!  Stage something fun and memorable that’s worthy of a snapshot, with your brand featured or in the background.  And this will be your most effective form of content marketing.

Greetings from BestCustomFlashDrives.com, your leading source for custom-printed and completely custom-shaped USB flash drives (and power chargers!).  We hope everyone is having a wonderful Cinco de Mayo, and may we suggest a celebratory flash drive to go with it?

One that’s particularly popular with wedding photographers and special event photographers, and perfect for any celebration and party theme, is our Custom Printed Cork USB Drive.  It can be printed with your logo or message in one or multiple positions.

So here’s to cork drives on Cinco De Mayo!  Ok, well yes, we recognize the irony – wine cork, wine being associated with the French, Cinco De Mayo being a celebration of the Mexican army defeating the French army.  Let’s just look beyond that, to the celebration part.  It’s a tequila cork, yea, that’s it!

Greeting from BestCustomFlashDrives.com, your leading source for custom-printed and completely custom-shaped USB flash drives.

We just added a new style of custom flash drive to our line up, come check it out.  It’s the Square Card Drive and it can be printed on one or both sides in a full-color process print.  This means you can print anything from your logo to a photograph full-card and it will look stunning.

These are perfect for photographers to give photos from a shoot to their customers – wedding photographs, event photos, etc.  For photographers, we can print your logo and contact information on one side, and a sample of your photography on the other, making a really nice presentation, and more importantly, a great promotion for your photography business.

Also great for mailers and press kits for large scale brand promotions.  Upload promotional videos and materials on the cards – and yes we can save you the hassle and do that for you.

Check the drive out here.  You can select memory size and quantity and hit the “request a quote” button and we’ll get a quote right out to you.  Once you receive the quote just email us your images and we can create a free mock-up for you so you can see what your custom flash drives would look like.

Greetings from BestCustomFlashDrives.com, your leading source for custom USB flash drives.   We just added these cool flash drives to our site.  These thin round USB drives are compact and light and perfect for mailers or handing out at events pre-loaded with all of your promotional materials – PDF’s, videos, whatever you need to distribute.  We can color print them on one or two sides in a full photographic print process.  Request a free quote and mock-up of your logo on them here.    Available in memory sizes from 128 MB all the way up to 64 GB.

Greetings from BestCustomFlashDrives.com, your trusted source for the best custom flash drives for over 10 years.  We just wanted to give a shout out to all the professional photographers out there.  We do a lot of business with photographers, and for good reason – nothing makes a nicer presentation, and promotion, for your photography business than giving a client their finished photos and videos on a beautiful custom flash drive.  Sure burning a DVD is cheaper, but there’s really no value in that.  Custom flash drives will be kept for years, giving thousands of impressions of your brand.  People will download their photos and either pass your flash drive to their friends so they can download the photos too, and/or they’ll keep the drive and re-use it constantly.    It’s great marketing for your photography business.  Drop us a line and let us tell you about some of the special gift packages we have available for photographers.

Greetings from BestCustomFlashDrives.com, your source for the best custom flash drives!  We added another cool USB drive to our site today, check it out when you get a chance.  Well actually, here’s a photo of it right here:

It’s called the Silverton and it’s perfect for putting onto a key ring.  Made of aluminum with a nice matte/brushed finish, it’s simplicity and elegance incarnate. Your logo can be laser engraved or color printed on one or both sides.  And as always, we can upload all your files to each drive for you, making life a lot easier when you’re trying to get everything together for that upcoming trade show or conference.

Happy Chinese New Year, or should we say Happy Year of the Monkey, which is the Chinese zodiac sign for 2016.

In less than a week, offices and factories all across China will begin to shut down for 2 to 3 weeks to celebrate Chinese New Years. It’s China’s biggest holiday, and a mass migration takes place, with workers in densely populated cities traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles back to their hometowns to be with family. The holiday’s effect can be felt across the globe here in the USA too, as manufacturing of all kinds of goods ceases production for nearly a month.

So, what is Chinese New Years? Well, after consulting Wikipedia and various other web resources, we can tell you that it’s the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar (see above). And 2016 will be, in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, the year 4713, and will begin on February 8, 2016.

Chinese months are calculated by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day (lunar-ly speaking). The New Year’s celebration starts on the first day of the first month of the new year, which is February 8th this year, and continues for 15 days until the moon is at its brightest.

We recently did some super-cool premiums for a public radio station’s annual pledge drive.  It’s a totally custom-made USB drive, made in the shape of a turntable headstock.  (For those of you who are vinyl record neophytes, that’s the part that holds the needle in the arm of the record player. )

The radio station wanted a premium that would incentivize a higher level of donations and also drive awareness in the future.  These custom-shaped flash drives fit the bill perfectly:

The radio station loaded them with music – all the year’s in-studio sessions from various musical artists – and offered them for pledges of $50 or more.

The station had many different pledge premiums, several of much greater value, but the headstock flash drives were by far the most popular, enabling the station to hit both their fundraising and awareness goals.

People love these little flash drives, and with your logo molded right into the side, each one provides literally thousands of impressions for your brand.  That’s tough to beat.

For more information on how to get your own custom-made flash drives, visit us at BestCustomFlashDrives.com.