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Flash By Design, part of PTI, offers such promotional USB flash drives as tools to hook users into Web content while also giving them something of value -- a free flash drive to transport files.

The devices appeal to marketers because unlike other ways of enhancing brand awareness, their effectiveness can be measured directly.

"For the first time in history, a promotional products can be tracked" PTI President Ron Friedman told the ECommerce Times. "You can say that of the 25,000 drives you distributed, 62 percent are being used three times a week. You can't do that with a T-shirt or mug."

Better still, he added, the use of Web-based widgets enables RSS (really simple syndication) feeds of updated content to be delivered. Some drives, for instance, will include video messages from the sponsors along with links to other Web content. In addition to using the drive itself to port files between computers, users can be exposed to changing messages each time they load the device.

"You're adding real value for the end user," Friedman said. "That's the key. People are looking for value and they don't object to getting marketing messages if they come in the context of something they find useful."

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