Case Studies

Large mortgage provider Pepper Money are a long-standing client of Manic Merchandise. We understand how important the appearance of quality is to Pepper Money and have worked with them to create a range of branded products that reflect the high standards of their business. Projects include quality cotton shopper bags, Prodir pens and an exclusive box containing sticky notes, pens, and a luxury Castelli notebook. These were created with a subtle emboss so that while the branding would be there are a reminder of Pepper Money, it would not be so obvious that people wouldn’t choose to use it.

Algarve Granite briefed us on promotional mugs and post-its to leave on trade counters, simply looking to have their logo applied to the products. At Manic Merchandise, we know how many brands are competing for attention in this space. To really stand out and secure a place on the countertop, we needed to create something different. The solution developed was a beautiful set of branded mugs and post-it notes, printed in detail with a photo of real slab granite. To really make an impact, they were printed all the way to the edges, even around the handle, to give the impression they were made of the high-quality granite Algarve Granite supply.

Insolvency company Quantuma approached Manic Merchandise with the brief that they wanted to celebrate their upcoming 10th birthday with clients and make a big event out of it. To share a slice of their celebrations with as many clients as possible, we created 350 large, delicious, branded, iced chocolate cakes. The edible icing top was branded in full colour, ready to deliver to all clients on the same day, along with a Quantuma branded birthday card. This had huge social media engagement with over 200 posts tagging Quantuma. Posts appeared sharing birthday wishes and mentioning how delicious the cake was. Quantuma were delighted with the result: happy clients, appropriate and targeted social media attention and each cake delivered on time to celebrate at once.

Lifestyle brand YOLO Books saw a gap in the market for a branded diary for busy working mums and wanted to create a solution. Working in partnership with Manic Merchandise, we developed a book that brought their vision to reality – covering everything they decided to include and ensuring the look and finish were high quality. There were four different cover options, many different pages that needed to be collated and a matching notebook and bedside book in the set. The project required excellent project management to ensure that 500 of each design were delivered to meet the idea they envisioned.

Looking to stand out as an institution of excellence to prospective Chinese students and investors, the Business School at University of Greenwich were seeking a memorable gift. In the briefing, we noticed their pride in the famously beautiful and historical Maritime buildings. Manic Merchandise developed a detailed 3D crystal of the buildings, using photos to draw an exact to-scale replica. This spectacular answer to attract the high-worth investors and students they were looking for was so successful that other schools at the University repeated the order. We continue working with the University for marketing merch and creation of student necessities with an extra Manic Merchandise element when possible: a ‘Today to do list’ in notebooks and sticky notes and page tabs in study books.

Client Ted Baker approached Manic Merchandise with a last-minute request for some mini footballs in time for the World Cup that was taking place in five weeks. The challenge of timing was not just the lead time, but that most global football suppliers were extremely busy with current contracts to prepare for the tournament. Using our global network, Manic Merchandise managed to source the footballs from Pakistan and delivered full colour, great quality footballs in time. It was more than a single shot though, since that success we have a continued relationship with them, as we do with so many of our favourite clients.

Manic Merchandise have been working with Gatwick Airport, for several years. The partnership started when Gatwick Airport were re-positioning as a business airport rather than a package holiday hub. With this came a new slogan: ‘Your London airport’ which we have brought to life on items including air fresheners for car valeting, branded cups, branded USBS, keyrings and hygiene packs. New route promotions have included a Pantone™-matched Gatwick embossed notebook, branded on each page for a more personal feel and the introduction of the Norwegian Air route to New York. Our ‘USA’ concept composed branded strawberry and peanut butter jelly beans and a Statue of Liberty foam crown that created HUGE customer engagement and a buzz around Norwegian Air.

When DoubleTree by Hilton took on sponsorship of every outdoor cinema event in the UK, there was a huge opportunity for a branded presence.

Manic Merchandise created ideas that would be relevant to guests and fit into the experiential nature of the event.

The festival kit included a fold-out fan with a large space for branding alongside practical gifts such as sun cream and a poncho, to use at the event and keep. 35,000 kits were distributed with great results in social media engagement.

Two further years of sponsorship were testament to success for DoubleTree by Hilton with pop-out postcard sunglasses and face masks continuing to impress and gather social media shareability.

Agricultural company AB Vista asked us to supply branded mugs. Using the exact colours from their logo, we created an appearance of light and dark across the mug, reflecting the hours that farmers work.

Working with a supplier with new technology, we created a full-colour printed mug, inside and out, in their brand Pantone™ colour. This was revolutionary for promo merch at the time and remains a brilliant way to elevate your branded products. Matching to an exact colour ensures every mug is the same, without compromising to the nearest match to your brand colour.

The result was a delighted client, a very happy supplier to see their new technology used to such great effect and an excellent example of what can be achieved when promo merch goes beyond the application of a logo to a product.

Local to Manic Merchandise HQ, Redbridge Council were looking to encourage people to make the switch to reusable bags rather than single-use plastic. They wanted to create branded tote bags that would be used with pride in the area.

With that in mind, we felt it needed more than your average cotton tote bag so that it could be as useful as possible. We suggested a bigger bag with a gusset to carry lots of shopping, a reinforced handle and a thicker ten-ounce material. This bigger bag also has a larger branding area for messaging and is a landscape bag which makes it feel different to the more common portrait versions on the market.

The council reported a phenomenal success in the uptake of reusable bags and increased their original 5000 unit order by another 2500. Likewise, these brilliant bags worked as an advert in themselves and as a result we had other companies come through Redbridge Council to order their own!

Pixl Club are an educational service provider. Having previously been let down by other promotional companies, they found Manic Merchandise because of our reputation for being reliable.

Our first project with them involved two beautiful sets of full-colour cards in full-print boxes, created to link to the play ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. They were made as a learning resource to help students remember details from the books by playing the games.

Since that first project, we have continued to work with them creating all their conference name badges, stationery, gifts, cards and many more pieces. We have kept good on our reputation too, never letting them down, even when it meant Ben going to the depot to pick up some delayed conference name badges at 6am and personally delivering them to the conference hall for an 8am start. They were amazed at our level of service and dedication to get them what they need.

This charity is close to the heart of our founder, Ben. As meningitis can be particularly dangerous in student accommodation, the charity needed to raise awareness of the symptoms amongst university freshers and help them to spot the early signs of the disease.

The solution was a branded bottle opener, Pantone™ matched to the charity’s colours and printed with the cheeky words ‘Don’t get legless’ alongside the website URL for information. By creating a branded merchandise item that would also be of use, the charity helped to make sure students continued to think about meningitis. The client was very happy with the result and these have been on repeat order for the last three years.

Sports tech t-shirts are notoriously hard to brand as this sort of material does not take ink well. Our client at Duke of Edinburgh needed breathable t-shirts for practicality though.

Manic Merchandise worked with the clients to adapt the design in a way that allowed application of the print directly to the garment. The result was high quality, looked great and worked well in use too.

Book Trust are a national charity, run by the government, to provide parents with books and advice to help educate their child in their reading journey. A Book Trust bag is given to every child when they are born, filled with books and information. Further bags are provided throughout childhood as they progress through stages of development.

Book Trust invited companies to pitch by tender for the contract to produce 1.6 million bespoke bags. Our founder, Ben, sourced the bags from China, where they were handmade to spec. He personally visited the factories to check processes, adding quality control teams to ensure health and safety procedures were adhered to for a child-safe end product. A low 1% rejection rate in the factory was testament to the high level of attention to detail throughout delivery of the project.

The contract continued over subsequent years with the client very happy with the end result, dedicated service and quick turnaround each time.