The Best & Worst Conference Giveaway Ideas for Brand Impact
Even in this time of digital marketing prominence, promotional branded merchandise is still a vital part of any strategy. Conference gifts and corporate swag bags are just the starting point. However, when you can print on anything from a teddy bears to sunglasses, how do you know what to include? Which products are your audience more likely take? And the ones they will toss?
A good quality bag is the first step. Tote bags are very popular as they are good for showing off colourful printed logos and can easily be reused in the future. This offers practically to the recipient and is more environmentally friendly than paper or plastic alternatives.
Read on to see what sort of gift ideas are worth your time and money and what to take out of the bag.
TAKE IT
The key questions on every attendee’s mind are, “Do I want this?” and “Does this help me?”. Here are the 5 key merch areas to hit when planning any conference giveaway.
1 Attendee-specific information
Any merchandise that is industry specific really drives home the core message of the event. For example, if you are running an aromatherapy conference, you may want to include something like samples of essential oils.
USB’s that hold the conference content are also a good idea.
2 Electronics
This doesn’t have to mean you channel Oprah and give free tablets to everyone! Items like phone screen cleaners or headphones are a much assessable option.
If your budget is a little larger, a car phone charger or a wireless laptop mouse are great useful gifts choices.
3 Clothing
This is fairly self-explanatory. T-shirts, hats etc. Just remember to think ergonomically. A big bulky hoody is going to take up a lot of space in the bag and could be annoying to carry around.
Keep things simple with small logos. A giant t-shirt with a logo plastered right across the front probably end up as pyjamas at best. Remember, if you wouldn’t wear it outside of your workplace, then neither will they.
4 Anything for Children
If you target demographic is mostly over thirty but under fifty, a significant number of the attendee’s are likely to have children, and what parent doesn’t like to come home with a gift for the kids after taking a business trip?
Gender neutral toys like soft toys have the widest appeal. Furthermore, these are easily printed and can be matched to the events branding, time of year or conferences location.
5 Practical items
Coffee mugs or water bottle are always a good. Notepads and pens are also great as they are very easy to reuse.
Think about your target market specifically. If the attendees would predominantly work in an office, desk top items such as coasters would be worth thinking about.
TOSS IT
On the other end of the scale are the cast offs. The printed collateral that will almost always be immediately tossed into the bin. These items are not only a waste of your money and bad environmentally, they won’t help carry your brands message forward.
1 Cheap, low quality items
Statistically, around 60% of stickers, badges, magnets, bookmarks, bugs and wrist bands don’t even leave the conference building. This means people aren’t even waiting until they get home to throw them away. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it’s worth it.
2 Flyers
We all know that conferences are expensive to run and, therefore, nearly always require sponsors to help with the funding. This normally results in multiple flyers lining the bottom of bag. Not only does this tend to annoy the recipient, it is a very bad business idea environmentally.
Try thinking of more sustainable options, like printing the sponsors logos directly onto the bags themselves. This is something we encourage at Monarch Print as our bags are made of environmentally friendly cotton.
If you have to include some paper flyers, use the minimum amount possible and have recycling bins available on site.
3 Anything that won’t pass airport security
If you are likely to have people flying in for your conference it is really important to remember carry-on luggage rules. This means no sharp objects and take the fluid limit into account. Through my research I discovered an event where a sponsor was giving away souvenir bottles of hot sauce with custom labelled. The next day it was reported that hundreds had been thrown at the airport as they were 60ml over the limit for carry-on fluids.
IN CONCLUSION
Conference giveaways are a great way to advertise your company and sponsors, but they must be personalised for your target market. This is the first gift your attendees receive so make it too good to throw away. The best freebies will last beyond the conference and help build your brand awareness in the market.
Consider how each item is going to add value and whether it fits into a ‘take it’ or ‘toss it’ category. If you can’t see yourself using the product then its probably not worth your money and try to make environmental decisions when it comes to the materials used. If you are looking for high quality branded products to start off your once conference swag bags, look to further than here [make into link to home page] Alternatively, you can email us at sales@monarchprint.co.uk or call on 01454 273 463.
