Human resources professionals are busy people. Besides hiring and firing employees, quarterbacking 401(k) programs and spearheading training initiatives for the company, they are also responsible for health-care decisions. To separate themselves from the many other health-care providers out there, Right Choice Health looked to promotional products.

In May and June, it gave out 1,500 branded USB ports to HR executives, personnel departments and company controllers. “They were very pleased with what they were able to get out of the program,” says Phil Masiello, vice president of sales at HyGrade Business, which created the effort. “They were looking for a marketing tool that could carry the brand name that salespeople could give out to clients that wouldn’t just end up in the desk.”

The USB ports contained materials that were helpful to the sales staff’s presentation and also functioned as a powerful leave behind chocked full information about Right Choice Health’s offerings.

What’s more, it contained a widget. This branded piece of software, which functions when the logoed USB is plugged in, offers the user the chance to get up-to-the-minute information about traffic, weather and other news through the Web. “It’s useful,” says Masiello, so the client is more likely to use it again and again.

“This way they always have the brand in front of them,” he says. “It’s a very inexpensive tweak to a standard USB that provides a bunch of other marketing tools for the client. In the grand scheme of things, it’s an inexpensive upgrade that adds in impressions. In promotion, you are always looking for something that will have retention power. This particular USB will take precedent over any other item you could possibly give them.”