Challenging times can lead to innovation. The economic slowdown of the past two years has led many companies to hold back on major print marketing. Large catalogs have been replaced by files distributed on imprinted flash drives. One customized drive can hold thousands of pages. Environmentally friendly, USB drives eliminate a lot of paper — not just in the catalogs that normally get distributed, but, more importantly, in the elimination of waste when too many catalogs are printed and then become obsolete. Obsolete data on a flash drive is never a problem, since it can easily be replaced with fresh data.

A custom memory stick can carry branding both inside and outside. Catalog and product information can be loaded on the drive in such a manner that it can be automatically updated whenever the recipient uses it. No other media offers that option, outside of the web. But for speedy access, the flash drive runs loops around the internet.

Speaking of speed, the USB 3.0 format has just been released, following months of testing. Transfer speeds compared to the 2.0 standard are a full 10X faster! There have been some computer products available offering USB 3.0 ports for about a year, but adoption has been slow, as every new product must go through a certification process. Flash drives are among the latest products to become available, and APTCO is one of only a few companies to offer them in customized form for promotional marketing purposes.