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A GIFT FOR IDEAS IN EL SEGUNDO Company creates promotional hooks for a who's who list of businesses.
What do you give the FBI agent who has everything? Why, a black T-shirt molded and shrink-wrapped in the shape of a handgun, of course. At least that's what you do if you're Bob Gray. Gray owns Grayt Idea, a promotional products company on the corner of Main Street and Holly Avenue in the heart of El Segundo. Gray's client list reads like a who's who of American business: HBO, Nike, American Airlines, Janus Funds, Paramount Studios, Farmers Insurance, Fox Studios, Los Angeles World Airports, Hollywood Park, the L.A. Dodgers, Time Warner Cable -- and the list goes on. And he has a million great ideas. Instead of having the name of a casino, poker chips with the name of the show ("Las Vegas," of course) in the center were set in high-quality wooden boxes with the recipient's name stamped in gold and given to the show's crew members. Or a product for which Gray holds a patent, a tiny plastic computer that dispenses candy disks from its "mint drive"-- investMints for financial clients, employMINTS for employment agencies, retireMINTS for financial counselors. These are not just promotions but rather gifts that are both useful and clever -- and that will be on display for a long time. Or, how about a high-quality radio that plays only one station? That was Gray's brainchild for Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, when he launched his Bloomberg Business Radio. These radios were distributed extensively throughout the New York area: at a Knicks game, as an exit gift to commuters at Penn Station, at music festivals on Fridays on Wall Street and in an extensive direct-mail campaign. "It really helped Bloomberg get established," Gray said . The most common ways companies use promotional products are for business gifts, trade show giveaways, brand awareness, and employee relations and events, according to the Promotional Products Association International. Richard Golden, trade show director for the Specialty Advertising Association of California, says, "We like to say that promotional products are the Œadvertising that remains to be seen.'" And it's not just hats and pens people are giving away -- especially in Hollywood. Golden, a veteran of the promotional products business, has seen many industry changes. "I remember 30 years ago some guy came up with the idea of printing on T-shirts," he said. "Everyone thought it was just a fad." With one glance at almost any gathering of Americans today, one can see the "fad" is alive and well. In fact, according to the PPAI, "wearables" (shirts, hats, etc.) are the largest segment of the promotional products industry, followed by writing instruments and calendars. The promotional products industry is an $18 billion business, according to the PPAI. But why do companies spend so much money on things they're just going to give away? "You know how there's beachfront property? Well I call this 'desk-front property ,'" Gray said. "Someone has one of your promotional items on their desk, everyone sees it. They use it all the time. In terms of money, nothing's more cost effective." And much of those billions are meted out in pennies. Gray says, "Let's say you paid 35 cents for a calendar with your name on it, and they keep it on their desk. That's .0009589 cents a day you are paying for them to see your name. And you can get a thousand of these for $350. That's nothing." Hanya Townes, a Grayt Idea customer and the vice president of marketing at California Medical Business Systems in Arcadia, has seen how promotional products boosted her business. "We have these golf shirts Bob designed for us that we give out internally and to our clients, and I've had people actually call me up to ask for more. From a marketing point of view, that's ideal." Townes also was impressed with a see-through pen with a promotional tagline that Gray designed for her company. CONNECTING CLIENTS WITH CONCEPTS It wasn't just the pen she appreciated but also Gray's ability to connect individual clients with unique concepts. Indeed, Gray's strength seems to be in making these connections. He is always looking for a way to find just the right product to get a company's message across. "I'm not an order taker," he says of himself. "At other promotional products companies, a client will call up and say, ŒI want some T-shirts,' and the person who answers the phone will say, 'How many?' Not me. I say, 'Why?' And then we go from there." Even his competitors agree that Gray's approach is unique. Leland Felsenthal, president and owner of Public Identity, a promotional products firm in Los Angeles, says, "Bob is really in an elite group of salesmen across the country. He has a keen mind for putting together the right idea and the right product. He does it much better than most. He gives it his all." Bob Gray has been in the promotional products industry for 27 years. Four years ago he set up his storefront shop in El Segundo. Entering Gray's office is like walking into a toy store of office supplies. On display, he has colorful little buttons, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup T-shirts, bendable figures with logos on their bellies, and every variety of pen, Post-it, or paperclip you could think of. Also on display is that T-shirt that looks like a gun. Gray explains, "TCS Translations called up and said they wanted something to give away at an FBI expo they were going to. So I thought, how about a T-shirt packaged to look like a gun?" Ask Gray how he got into this business, and he quips, "I went to Penn State, and now I sell pens." Although he did in fact graduate from Penn State, that's not why he's selling pens. He's doing it because he loves it. He relishes the challenge of coming up with a fresh connection between an idea and a product. Gray does not see himself as a salesman but rather as a "specialty advertising counselor." And, in fact, he's been at this for most of his professional career. After Penn State, Gray moved to New York City. His first job there was in marketing and sales at the Statler Hilton across from Madison Square Garden. The Statler had been called The Hotel Pennsylvania back in 1940 when Glenn Miller and his Orchestra's big hit "Pennsylvania 6-5000" came out. "My first business phone number was Pennsylvania 6-5000," Gray says. In 1981 Gray moved to California. Driving down La Cienega Boulevard, he saw a business sign, "Idea Man," that caught his eye. "After a few clever exaggerations on experience," Gray says, "I was hired to sell promotional marketing ideas." He spent 14 years as an "idea man" and then moved on to another company in the same field. "I eventually decided to parlay my experience into my own company. Since this is a relationship-building field, I was able to maintain most of my clients through these transitions," he says. "I don't want my customers to buy something that doesn't work. My job is to figure out what my customer is trying to accomplish. What business problem is he trying to solve?" Gray said. He made a connection like that for himself when he came up with the name for his business, Grayt Idea. "I didn't invent the wheel, but I know where to get the wheel. I match the right idea with the right project." Where does Gray get all his "grayt" ideas? From a broad knowledge of what products are available. In his office he has rows of file cabinets filled with catalogs of almost every conceivable product. Sure, but: Ashton Kutcher on a plate? Kutcher recently co-starred with Bernie Mac in "Guess Who," a remake of the movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Put these elements together inside Bob Gray's head, and this is what he comes up with: A high-quality ceramic plate with an image of the "Last Supper" on it. But instead of the biblical figures Leonardo da Vinci portrayed in the original, this supper features Kutcher, arms up-stretched, and the rest of the cast in loose-fitting robes. IT TAKES A TEAM TO SUCCEED Gray works with both graphic designers and vendors to bring his ideas to life for his customers. His chief designer, Nancy Fusco of Fusco Creative in Laguna Beach, designed the Last Supper plate, and it was decorated by Worldwide Art Studios in Covington, Tenn. He has been working with Worldwide for 25 years. Mitchell Kaplan of the Kaplan Stahler Gumer Braun Agency in Beverly Hills recounts many projects Gray has created for him and his clients over the years. Gray redesigned the logo for a recent Alliance for Children's Rights Tennis for Tots benefit that Kaplan's firm sponsors. "The new logo is on everything: shirts, the invitation. He took us way beyond what we had before," Kaplan said. |