Here is the scenario: you walk into a hospital, or a nursing home, or any health care facility. You meet the personnel there and all of them are wearing retractable badge holders in the shape of a pill. How cool is that? Yes, this sounds a bit geeky, but you do have to admit it makes sense to order a custom made retractable badge in the shape of a pill for a health care worker. Custom made designs like these are not only attractive, but they also serve as great promotional tools. Since the retractable badge holders are relatively inexpensive, these can be given away during fund raising events for the heath care facility’s benefit.

The key here is memory retention. Even without the standard graphics or logo or text promoting the facility, the person who is given the pill shaped retractable badge holder will remember and most likely “broadcast” where he or she acquired it. This form of passive advertising has worked well for a lot of products already. Additionally, these little retractable badge holders are both functional and convenient. This means that the person is bound to wear it more than the other similar products. And everyone knows that the more the person wears a promotional material, the more other people will see (or inquire) about it. This too, is part of the passive advertising scheme.

So if you and your company are looking for a relatively inexpensive yet effective promotional giveaway, you can look into retractable badge holders with custom-made designs. Depending on what idea, product or service you want to market and your budget, of course, you can have the standard circles and squares where you can have your company logo or text imprinted. Or you could go for the more functional and ingenuous carabiner designs for backpackers or those who put identification badges or tags on their belt loops and briefcases. There are also those badge holders that double as stylish necktie clips. Since the more functional promotional materials get more use, these have better “mileage” when it comes to passive advertising.

Others like the health care facility example from above prefer using unique holder shapes like hearts, pills and even cut out from the actual company logo design. These would ensure that the person wearing the badge is “reminded” constantly of its origin, even when the actual imprinted design has faded.

Some enterprising minds even go a bit further by adding flashing lights to the retractable badge holders, or a faint luminescence, or even some form of glow-in-the-dark material. These work well for kids who favor the fancy lights, or the employees who would appreciate the added illumination especially if they have to use their identification badges at night or in dark areas. Again, these are great vehicles for passive advertising because it is made attractive by its functionality.

As a rule, ordering custom made holders like these can cost you less than $2 per piece. The rates can go as low as $0.50 a piece depending on the materials, the size, and the actual design you want. Overall, this is not a bad investment when it comes to marketing.