Official promos are promotional records that were specially crafted for promotion by the record company. They usually have a special (often white) label, and a special catalogue number. These often have "Not For Sale" or "Promotional Record" printed on the label. While the USA prepared a few special Beatles promotional records in the 60s, Canada only produced one (Penny Lane). Otherwise, very few Beatles promotional records have been prepared by Capitol of Canada in the coming years, most being Capitol compilation sampler albums.
Designated promos are stock copies onto which were added a promotional designation (often stamped with ink, or added sticker). When it was not worth the money for the company to create a special promo, a much more cost-effective (and simple) method was used: designating a stock copy as a promo (this was in reality just as efficient).
Similarly, when radio stations were sent copies in advance as a promotional item, the stations themselves marked their promotional stock copy as "radio station copies", with a sticker identifying the station, and the date it was received. These are usually sought after because they often are the true first pressings, and sometimes the only rare surviving copies of very rare early titles in the discography of a well-known artist (e.g. the My Bonnie Decca 45).
Finally, there are also records found with punched or drill holes in them, and while many claim they are designated promos, they are in fact merely a "discount / not for resale" marking used when records did not sell well -- The idea being that you could not officially sell a "damaged record" at full price. These were often wrongly identified as a promotional marking, but are therefore not considered as "designated promos" featured in this section.
Note. Capitol USA has used a technique where the word "PROMO" was punched as a series of small holes through the top right corner of the album cover. This technique was never used in Canada on Beatles records.
