In Spain, the history of the advertising and promotional gift is closely linked to two names: Naranjito, the World Cup mascot 82, and Cobi, the representative of the Barcelona Olympic Games, ten years later. Now, on wanamos.com, we mark another milestone, bringing together the best suppliers of advertising and promotional gifts and their articles in one place, giving a new impulse to the sector.
If in a previous post we saw where the origins of the advertising and promotional gift were in the world. In Spain, the big boom dates back to 1982. This year the country turned to host the World Wide Football Coup.
The case of the World Cup
Naranjito it was the first great promotional product really widespread throughout the state. And in all then known supports. From the traditional caps and t-shirts, even a series of cartoons. All of this only increased the popularity of this orange and became part of the history of advertising and promotional gifts in Spain.
Naranjito was created in the decade of the 70 by advertisers María Dolores Salto and José María Martín Pacheco, and it was not exempt from critics, especially at the beginning. But nevertheless, the success was resounding. The commercial exploitation of image rights (and its forgeries) he also broke records at the time. In fact, the Spanish Football Federation paid for the design a million of the old pesetas (6.000 euros). Shortly before the World Cup, he sold the rights to the British company West Nally for eight and a half million euros.
Until its appearance, advertising and promotional products were confined almost exclusively to articles for the hospitality industry. Who does not remember the ashtrays Cinzano on the table at the corner bar. West Nally He knew how to take advantage of it and devised a whole series of merchandising until then unpublished in Spain. He came to have a series of cartoons for TVE, who then only competed with his poor sister, the UHF, today The 2.
Cobi and the historical Olympics
It was also very profitable, Economically speaking, Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona Olympic Games 92. Ten years after Naranjito, history repeated itself with a more than considerable economic return. Own International Olympic Committee considered him the most profitable mascot in the history of the modern Olympic Games, notably influencing the advertising and promotional gift sector in Spain.
The first Olympic Games to feature a mascot were those held in the winter of 1968, in Grenoble (France). Misha, the bear that represented the Moscow Summer Games in 1980, also achieved great worldwide popularity. Misha and Cobi they had their own cartoon series. Barcelona's mascot was seen on televisions in 24 countries.
Cobi -name derived from the acronym of the Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee COOB- It was designed by the Valencian Xavier Mariscal; who also devised various characters for the opening ceremony of the Games, as well as Petra, the unknown mascot of the Paralympic Games of that same year. He also had his controversy around the breed of dog or even about whether he should be dressed or not; but in the end, His popularity finally prevailed and his image was reproduced in countless products..
Cobi lived with Curro, the mascot of the Universal Exposition that that same year was held in Seville. This bird with a multicolored crest and beak arose from the hand of Heinz Edelmann winning over twenty designs in an international competition. Its popularity was also enormous and its distribution, in different formats, took the image to travel throughout Spain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = QTMFaDny-x4
The Jacobean year
From 92, there have been no major milestones. Among them, stands out for having known how to take the witness of Cobi, the figure of the Pelegrín, the Xacobeo'93 mascot created by the recently deceased publicist from Ourense Luis Carballo, who finished making the famous pins fashionable, only the winning company Fisterra Camino S.L.. made more than a million pins with the figure of the Pelegrin in all kinds of materials from brass to gold.
And so far the approach to the history of the promotional gift in Spain. If you have missed "The origins of the promotional gift”, you can see it in our blog. In future posts we will continue to tell more about the history of the sector. But meanwhile, you can review the area of advertising gift of wanamos where with a quick visit you can see more than 26.000 Stock items and immediate delivery by suppliers in wanamos.com.