Custom Job

I'm sitting in a Doubletree Hotel in balmy Syracuse NY, hoping to get out of town before what they're saying is going to be light snow blows in and turns out to be two feet of lake-effect whiteout.

The hotel is quite nice and convenient and - a big benefit, given my lack of direction - I know just how to get here without consulting MapQuest. I may have liked it better last time I stayed here and it was a Wyndham, which provided free WiFi to members of their frequent guest program. Now I have to pay for the access - although it would be free if I was in the lobby or the restaurant. Frankly, I'm not willing to sit in the lobby in my PJ's and check my e-mails and blog.

But I am a Hilton Honors member, so on check-in they brought me two bottles of water and a small packet of custom M&M's - purple and white. And while I do maintain that white M&M's and, to a lesser extent, the pastels they sell at Easter, taste funny, it is nice to have this little mini-pack of M&M's. Just enough to give me my chocolate fix, without having to roam around - again something I wouldn't do in my PJ's - looking for a vending machine that sells full-sized bags of M&M's.

I've had these custom job M&M's (a.k.a., M&M Colorworks) before and I think that they're fun and a nice way to reinforce your brand.  (They'd make a good little trade show give-away, too.)

Of course, now that I've consumed the paltry little packet they gave me, I wish that they'd left me two packets. Now that would have been really thoughtful, and would have more than made up for having to pay $9.95 for Internet access.