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Who says every promotion has to be 8½ x 11? (Yawn.) Who says it has to be paper? Who says it even has to look like a promotion?

If you're trying to capture the attention of customers and prospects, you need to create some hubbub. Let's face it, most of your prospects are bright, jaded, and not paying attention. You've got to take the time to create something that's worth their time — all 60 seconds of it.

Just to clarify: We're not talking about gimmicks. We're talking about innovative, relevant ideas that carry your brand message to the right people. And make them smile.

Whether you're promoting products or services in consumer or business segments, these five ideas will get you thinking about how you might jazz up your next promotion.

1. Entertain, intrigue, engage

Create a promotion with playful touches. Use tiny type and include a magnifying glass. Create folds and flaps to reveal hidden clues or interesting facts. Invent a game to reveal product benefits. Ask recipients to build something — or take it apart.

"We can't," you say, shaking your head. "This is business to business."

Business people are still people. They enjoy being surprised or delighted, even in the midst of a business day. Disarm them for a moment, and they might feel more inclined toward your brand.

2. Become something you're not

Your promotion doesn't have to be a brochure about your promotion. It can be something else altogether. Turn it into wrapping paper. Window clings. Paper vases. Playing cards. Placemats. Wine bottle wraps.

Use your ingenuity. Think of different ways to promote. Then link each to your strategy.

Just be smart. Tacky promotional items can cheapen your brand. Distinguish genuine novelty from cookie-cutter solutions.

3. Supersize, miniaturize, hybridize

Make your promotion big, small, or somehow different.

Consider an oversized, visually captivating poster or large format piece for a bold statement. If you've designed it well — and it has value beyond promoting your brand — prospects will display it for its "wow" factor.

Or, consider a tiny, pocket-sized piece — small in format, but full of big ideas. Imagine your prospects slipping it into a pocket, a purse, a meeting folder. If it's creative, it may get carried around and passed along, giving your message more exposure.

Or create a hybrid: a small piece housed within a larger piece. Tell one story on the larger pages and a different, more detailed story on the smaller pages. Pace your readers, intriguing them with varying content and interesting complexity.

4. Mix up the media

Move beyond print — to motion. Create a short video or an animation. Make it entertaining or informative, whatever works to intrigue your target audience. Then use it in unexpected places — like an email, a CD-ROM, a DVD.

If your animation is part of an email, make sure it's surrounded by eye-catching graphics and offers an easy way for recipients to forward it. If it's good, your prospects will pass it on, magnifying the effect. If you're sending a CD-ROM or a DVD, package it with pizazz: Use bright colors, different sizes, translucent elements.

5. Put it where anyone can see it

Put your promotion on the Web. Let prospects interact with it — directly. Create a sitelet (mini Web site) to promote your special offer, introduce your product, reinvigorate your brand. Consider an interactive game, a weekly contest, rich-media banner ads, appealing motion graphics, a Web cam focused on your product.

Create a buzz. Send the URL via email, promote it on your homepage, feature it in your print and Web ads, announce that it will only exist for a limited period of time. Multiple impressions create lasting impressions.

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