Traditional promotional merchandise underperforms at industry events, with attendees retaining minimal brand recall from low-cost novelties. Businesses are shifting to larger-format, high-impact branded materials to address this ROI challenge and extend engagement beyond the event, Bagmasters reports.

Engaging Attention and Influencing Memory

The argument that larger-format, creatively designed branded materials have a greater effect on attracting the attention of event attendees and improving subsequent recall of a given company is backed by research. One study in the Journal of Retailing confirms that merchandise that is unique, bespoke, sustainable, and artistic rather than just commercial, enables brands to establish an identity and build stronger relationships with target audiences.

In terms of scale, bigger branded materials also hold sway over attention and recall. A study from The Journal of Vision proved that visual salience (size, contrast, and surface area) directly dictates automated attention capture. Larger physical objects bypass conscious processing and are processed immediately by the visual cortex, forcing the brain to register the stimulus before an individual even consciously decides to look at it.

Brands are learning that tiny, disposable event novelties generate minimal brand recall, so strategies are shifting toward larger visual real estate, such as custom tote bags emblazoned with logos and slogans. When these marketing materials are disseminated at trade shows or consumer expos, other attendees pay attention to them in the same way they would a static billboard.

Implementing Ownership to Extend Engagement

The shift from inexpensive, ineffectual event marketing materials to merchandise that bolsters brand recall and offers some utility to attendees has advantages beyond the conference center. Physical items like branded shoulder bags, reused over extended periods, double susceptibility to future brand interactions compared to media-based marketing alone.

The evidence for this doubling comes from a BMJ Open paper, with the focus here being on susceptibility to alcohol use among young people with branded merchandise from alcohol brands. While the report’s aim is primarily to draw attention to the problems that alcohol brand marketing materials can cause for young adults from a drinking perspective, the findings are nevertheless relevant to demonstrating the wider impact of branded merchandise in other contexts.

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The cost of landlord insurance for a small office building in a quiet suburb could look very different from a mixed-use property downtown. There’s no single price tag for landlord insurance costs because of the numerous factors insurers use to calculate a policy premium based on your rental property’s specific age, construction, location and level of risk. The best way to know for sure exactly what you’ll pay to insure your property is to get a free landlord policy insurance quote online in about 10 minutes.

When we talk about landlord insurance, that’s not usually a single policy. Protection for landlords (often called lessors in insurance terms) and their property is often a combination of different types of coverage to cover different risks, such as liability, property damage and loss of rental income. This aspect of insurance for your rental property can make pricing look very different from one property owner to the next.

ERGO NEXT broke down what tends to affect insurance pricing, the types of coverage many landlords carry and a few practical ways you may be able to keep costs in check.

What factors affect landlord insurance costs?

Insurance companies primarily look at two things: the property itself and the amount of coverage you seek. That’s why two landlords with similar-looking buildings can end up paying very different amounts for insurance.

Sometimes the difference comes down to location, while other times it’s the tenants, the building’s age or a history of previous claims. Generally, properties that have more opportunities for damage, lawsuits or expensive repairs tend to cost more to insure.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest factors that can affect commercial landlord insurance costs:

Which types of business insurance could commercial landlords benefit from the most?

A couple types of business insurance are the best fit for many commercial landlords. These include:

Business Owner’s Policy (BOP insurance)

For many commercial property owners, a Business Owner’s Policy, also called BOP insurance, is the first policy they buy.

A BOP combines two important types of coverage into a single policy that’s often more cost-efficient than buying two separate policies.

1. General liability insurance. This coverage could help cover medical costs for non-employees injured in your property, property damage claims for damages to property that doesn’t belong to you and some legal costs. For example, if a visitor slips in your building’s parking lot or other common area, or suffers an injury and needs medical care and then files a claim, this coverage could help cover some of the associated medical costs and legal fees that might follow.
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Globally, spending on home renovations exceeds $2 trillion, and in the U.S. alone, there’s north of $500 billion injected into remodeling domestic properties each year, with Grand View Research reporting that the market is growing 4.6% annually.

A paper published in Physica A states that delays occur in 75% of construction projects. More than that, the median delay duration is between 20% and 40% of a given project’s total timeline. In other words, holdups are almost inevitable and can be protracted.

The Cost of Indecisiveness

Data from Houzz’s 2026 U.S. Houzz & Home Study includes a survey of homeowners who’ve undergone projects of this type in the past 12 months. When exploring the reasons behind budgetary overruns, researchers found that 37% of projects exceeded their originally planned costs, while just 3% completed their renovations under budget.

One-quarter of respondents admitted that they had not even decided on a specific budget before beginning the remodeling work. Such a lack of foresight creates the conditions in which overspending and delays are incredibly likely.

The homeowners who created budgets during the planning phase but didn’t stick to them cited a few reasons for the mistake: 35% went over budget because they chose higher-end materials midproject instead of locking them in early, while 32% cited unanticipated project complexity, and 31% outright changed the project or design scope during construction. Early planning eliminates many of these midproject expenses. Finalizing decisions in advance allows time to assess viability and check affordability. It also ensures material orders are placed with a sufficient window to account for last-minute supply chain delays.

According to CMK Construction, a kitchen and bathroom remodeling specialist, more homeowners are choosing to outsource the planning entirely to professionals. With longer lead times for materials and often full order books for the most reputable operators in this industry, there’s actually more time available to most clients between the start of planning and when work commences, so having a properly finalized set of choices for design and materials is more common.

Early planning also affords contractors the necessary runway to navigate complex local regulations and successfully secure vital municipal building permits before construction begins. Furthermore, finalizing project scopes well in advance allows teams to reliably schedule specialized subcontractors, such as electricians and plumbers.

Because the construction sector is currently facing severe labor shortages across the industry, locking in these highly requested professionals early prevents extensi

Road safety directly impacts insurance premiums, liability exposure, and infrastructure spending across the U.S.—yet fatality rates resisted improvement for years. The automotive industry faced regulatory pressure over annual deaths, spurring advances in vehicle safety features. Road design also shifted, with changes to intersections and street layouts showing measurable impact. But the real question is whether those efforts are actually working.

New traffic data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals they are. Recent studies show a clear downward trend in fatalities. Technology embedded in vehicles, autonomous systems coming online, and smarter road infrastructure are all factors that are impacting road safety. Triumph Law Group, a personal injury law firm in Phoenix, unpacks what the data actually shows and where the safety improvements are coming from.

Road Accident Statistics Unpacked

Annual figures on traffic safety are produced by the NHTSA and DOT. While the driving data for 2025 is still a statistical projection rather than containing final, firm numbers, the trend toward fewer fatalities is clear. Specifically, it’s estimated that deaths from auto collisions fell 6.7% year on year, from just over 39,000 in 2024 to 36,640 last year.

Q4 of 2025 was the 15th consecutive quarter in which a decline in fatalities was recorded, and researchers are confident that this trend represents a rebalancing of road safety following the unexpected disruption associated with the pandemic. So, while we’re not yet at historic lows, there’s clear, continuous movement in the right direction.

To further cement the improving safety conditions, the report estimates that for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on U.S. roads, just 1.10 fatalities occur. That’s a decline from the 1.19 fatalities per 100 million VMT calculated in 2024. Only one other year in the history of recording traffic safety statistics has had a lower average number of fatalities per 100 million VMT.

The data shows fatality reductions across all regions of the U.S.—even in areas that historically had higher rates. The East Coast saw the largest estimated reductions in fatalities, with areas including Virginia, Kentucky, Washington D.C., and North Carolina even reaching double digits.

The downtrend in road fatalities does not mean there isn’t a need for further improvement.

Technology’s Influence

Mandatory safety tech is part of the story. Tighter vehicle regulations forced automakers to add features that actually prevent crashes. We’re entering a period in which true self-driving cars are a reality in more parts of the country, bringing the potential for even further risk reductions.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are now standard in most new vehicles. They range from general aid to direct intervention without taking total control of moment-to-moment driving away from

Buy the same property at the same price with the same tenant in two different states, and you’ll end up with two completely different investments. Property taxes, insurance costs, eviction timelines, and rent control laws vary enough from state to state that location alone can determine whether a deal makes money or bleeds it.

Most investors run the numbers on a potential investment property itself, but fewer consider its location. The legal and financial landscape where you buy shapes every part of the ownership experience, from your first tax bill to the day you need to remove a problem tenant.

TurboTenant has done that research for you. What follows is a breakdown of the worst states to invest in real estate. These eight markets deserve extra scrutiny before you commit. None are necessarily off-limits, but each one comes with homework that investors shouldn’t skip.

What puts a state on this list

To build this list of the worst states to invest in real estate, five factors were weighed against each other. No single factor makes a state a bad place to invest, but when multiple negative factors stack up, the math no longer makes sense for investors.

Effective property tax rate: Property taxes across the U.S. range from 0.27% to 2.2%, and where your property falls on that spectrum determines whether your state is working for or against your tax advantages as a landlord.

Rent control or stabilization laws: Even if you don’t intend to rent out your property, rent control and stabilization laws significantly limit how much you can recoup on your purchase if you change your mind later.

Average eviction timelines: Lengthy eviction timelines can cause major headaches and derail cash flow if squatters, holdover tenants, or other ownership disputes cut off income.

Population and job market trajectories: If you’re focused on long-term property appreciation, plan to buy in an area where both the population and job market are trending upward. Your property is only worth as much as people are willing to pay to live there.

Home price-to-rent ratio: Researchers analyzed up-to-date Redfin research to determine home prices and compared them to average rents in each state. If you decide to rent out a property, buy somewhere with a solid price-to-rent ratio that allows for good returns.

These factors differ slightly from the dealbreakers a landlord weighs on a day-to-day basis. Here, TurboTenant looked at investment returns across the full property lifecycle, from purchase to exit.

8. Massachusetts

Much of Massachusetts’ housing demand is concentrated in the metro Boston area, where Read more