These days, it’s not so easy to think of swag bag ideas for your next conference, giveaway or event. After all, how can you really predict what people will find useful, and shareable as the popularity pendulum swings so wildly back and forth?
In this piece, we’ve put together a range of options to consider for your next event, whether you’re looking for items that raise your brand’s profile, create goodwill, communicate your values or simply as a gesture to your customer base.
What’s Swag Used For?
The word ‘swag’ refers to branded promotional gifts given out in a range of situations, such as conferences and trade shows.
Broadly speaking, swag items are all about marketing a brand. However, specific reasons for giving away swag items in different scenarios differs depending on the end goal.
These reasons could be:
- Raising Awareness of a Brand – This usually means giving out larger numbers of products that don’t break the bank, can be reused and can benefit from wide-ranging exposure.
- Obtaining New Sales Leads – Often higher cost items that act as an incentive to attract and convert new customers.
- Strengthen Currently Existing Relationships – These items will largely reflect the value of the relationship you’re hoping to strengthen.
- Promote Corporate Values – This kind of product can be used as an expansion of corporate identity, such as sourcing eco-friendly only products to highlight your commitment to sustainability for example.
What’s the Best Swag for Your Brand?
The method behind giving out swag items is to primarily advertise your brand, but the question is: what is the best swag for your brand?
First and foremost, good swag items must meet two primary criteria to ensure they can make an impact with an audience:
Useful – Giving away branded swag is a waste of time and resource if the item you’re giving away is being thrown in the bin. The best items are those which are kept and used regularly.
Robust – It’s also a waste to produce low-quality items that aren’t fit for regular usage. That’s not to say that items like these need to break the bank either, but they do need to be of a quality where regular and prolonged use is possible. On top of which, you don’t want your brand to be associated with cheap and useless items.
Any good swag must solidify your brand name, while still being relatable to a new and existing audience. These items should also be both useful and robust, while also relating to the brand in question.
If, for example, you’re a wedding photographer, you might wish to display your portfolio to potential customers using branded USB sticks – not only can these be reused but they also add a nice touch of personalisation too.
Swag Bags Ideas For Your Business
Branded Clothing
No matter whether it’s socks, jumpers, hoodies or sunglasses, there’s a massive range of branded clothing to choose from. Clothing can be an ideal way to reflect the style and substance of your brand. Whether you’re a more relaxed tech brand or something a little more formal, there’s certainly a wealth of options available to you.
Reusable Cutlery
Single-use plastics are still a huge issue in the modern world, and plastic cutlery is certainly under the microscope these days. The likes of reusable straws, and knives and forks would be especially ideal for events focused around sustainability or for food and beverage brands.
Stress Relievers
Stress is certainly an issue for us all, so why not help your audience relieve some of that tension? Stress relievers can come in a range of sizes, shapes, colours and branding.
Branded Bags
Branded bags of all shapes and sizes are particularly popular as branded swag. They can be produced in bulk, and can be used over a long period by your audience.
They are also ideal if you’re looking to give away a range of different items, all you need to do is hand them a branded bag with all of the other goodies inside and your branding goes wherever they go.
Reusable Water Bottle
Again, as we know single use plastic creates a real issue for the environment, and statistics show that the average Londoner buys up to three plastic water bottles every week – equating to around 175 bottles every year.
Reusable water bottles come in a variety of shapes and sizes to choose from. Collapsible water bottles are especially popular due to their portability and convenience.
Blue Light Glasses
Blue light from smartphones and other devices has been linked to poor sleep, changes in metabolism and even retina damage. Blue light glasses can be both stylish and discreet, making them an ideal choice for those that work with computers during the day, or for use in the evening before bed.
Phone Charging Cables
A popular choice for tech swag giveaways. Branded charging cables are ideal for anyone on the go, and by ensuring they are of good quality means they can be a mainstay in people’s bags and suitcases for travelling for many years into the future.
Check out the extensive range of portable charging cables here.
Ear Pods
Ear pods are a must for easy portability and convenience; gone are the days of fiddling with tricky wires when listening to music. We offer a range of branded earpods in various shapes and sizes, such as the Capella, Orpheus, Draco designs among others.
Branded USB Sticks
Branded USB Sticks are an incredibly popular item, due to their being both robust and useful.
We offer a range of different designs, which include a variety of colours, printing and laser engraving to ensure that you can reflect your brand in any way you see fit. The USB drive itself can last for many years, which means that the USB drive is an absolutely perfect promotional tool for almost any business.
Takeaways
To get the most effective results from your event swag, it’s important to ensure that your products are well branded and reflective of your values as a business.
By also ensuring that all of the products you’re giving away are both useful and usable over the long-term, you’re far more likely to be able to maximise your brand messaging to make the most of your investment.
If you’d like more about promotional products, or you’d like to learn more about our extensive product ranges, why not get in touch with us today?
