Today I received a box from the Portland Trail Blazers. The same organization that sent out the Brandon Roy Leatherman tool in an effort to get him voted the Rookie of the Year. Mission accomplished. The same organization that sent out the iRoy last season in an effort to get Roy elected to the NBA All-Star team. That worked too.

The box I received today may have topped either of those promotions. And the Trail Blazers are not only promoting Brandon Roy for this year's NBA All-Star team, they're also touting LaMarcus Aldridge.

I'll have many more details on these promotions later in the week and on this weekend's edition of SBR, but here's what was in the box I received today (see images below).

The first item was a nicely packaged box with Brandon Roy on it. When you open it up, its a Tom Tom navigation device, but its been renamed the Roy Roy7. You turn it on and the device gives you directions to Phoenix - home of the 2009 NBA All-Star game. Very clever.

The second item is called the La flipcam in honor of LaMarcus Aldridge. Its a Flip video camera. The camera has an image engraved on it of LaMarcus throwing one down as well as his autograph, his name and his number 12. When you turn the camera on, it plays a video showing highlights of LaMarcus complete with his voiceover talking about why its important to him to be an All-Star in Phoenix.

Both gadgets include stats and CD's with video touting Roy and Aldridge for this year's NBA All-Star team.

Last year after I received my iRoy video iPod, I had former Trail Blazers COO and current Vulcan Sports executive Mike Golub on SBR to talk about the iRoy.

I also wrote about the iRoy campaign here.

The thing that impresses me about these gadgets I was sent today is that they're both very clever. It also shows that the team once again spares no expense when it comes to marketing their players and getting behind them for individual accolades like postseason awards and All-Star berths. The Tom Tom navigation devices run anywhere from $160 - $200. And the Flipcam runs $199. If the Trail Blazers sent these out to 50 people, you do the math.

And don't think that these efforts will go unnoticed by the players and their agents when it comes time to decide whether or not to re-sign in Portland when their contracts expire. Athletes are always asking for some "love" from their teams and the Trail Blazers have certainly shown that they are not aftraid to promote their players.

We'll discuss this outside the box thinking on this weekend's show and I will try to post some images of the Roy Roy7 and the La flipcam soon.

UPDATE: Trail Blazers VP Marketing Michele Daterman joined us on SBR to discuss the team's thought process with these All-Star promotions for Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. And she hinted at similar campaigns for Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez for the Rookie of the Year award. Listen to the conversation by linking here.