The minds of consumers are flooded with promotions in a variety of forms each day. In today's world, firms utilize traditional media, such as billboards or TV commercials, and digital media, such as viral videos or social networking to broadcast their name to the public. It is estimated that Americans are exposed to over 3,000 ads on a daily basis. In 2008, businesses spent over $888.2 billion on advertising in traditional and new media as well as other information channels, such as Lexis-Nexis, trade shows and education training information. This large amount of money spent on advertising demonstrates that promotions have reached a point of saturation in the minds of consumers. As a result, unique promotional products have become an essential tool for businesses to set themselves apart from the competition.

Due to selective perception, individuals pay attention to only a small portion of ads that are exposed to them throughout the day. Various situational elements impact whether an individual actually processes the message of an ad. One factor that influences the effect of an ad is the ad congruency. Individuals remember incongruent advertising, or advertising that does not conform to the norms of a product category, more than congruent advertising. For example, a person watching a commercial for a sports drink would be more likely to remember the commercial if it played classical music as opposed to the predictable rock music. This strategy can be applied to a business choosing promotional products that are not the norm in a particular industry. For example, a bank could give out a beach towel or flip flops with the company logo, rather than the traditional company coffee cup or pen.

A second factor that determines the impact of a promotion involves the originality of the communication. Guerilla marketing capitalizes on this element by using unconventional and somewhat surprising methods to promote a brand. For example, one man from Pennsylvania agreed to sell his neck and chest space for a company to tattoo their name and logo on his body. In another instance, Proctor and Gamble placed product ads at eye level in women's bathroom stalls. This approach can be adopted by companies through the use of unique promotional products. For example, a beverage company could use a promotional cup with a creatively designed straw or lid to grab the attention of on lookers. Starbucks implemented that idea by creating a plastic travel mug designed to look exactly like the Venti paper coffee cup.

These unique promotional products that involve non-traditional means of advertising tend to capture and retain the interest of consumers more effectively than the standard media methods. Creating buzz in a world full of ads requires as much imagination as it does innovation.