Even the coolest promotional items can become discontinued

Every now and again (hopefully not too often), I will touch on some mistakes I've made. It's only fair that if I'm going to rip on others, I admit that I'm not oblivious to my own errors.

Early this year, my firm made a big transition to a new time and billing system. My manager and I decided immediately that our internal communications campaign should slowly educate firm members of the changes while making it fun and light. We toyed with lots of promotional items that we could use. Naturally, we settled on the Clock Rocker.

So over a couple of months, we developed the campaign calendar, email messages and posters. All had the Clock Rocker prominently displayed. We knew firm members would think it was silly and not care about the little dude til they saw him sitting on their desks the week before the switch.

It was a good plan. Was until we went to order the tchotchkes. They had been discontinued. We searched everywhere. With sunken hearts, we reluctantly ordered some of those rubber, photo-holding, stick figure things. They became the Clock Rocker's roadies.

I think I'm mostly disappointed at our lack of foresight. The firm actually loved their roadies and they in no way hindered the campaign, but I prefer following through on plans. Lesson: DON'T WAIT. You never know when something as simple as purchasing a promotional item will be impossible. We should have ordered immediately to complete what should have been the easiest part of the campaign. Better planning next time.