Promotional giveaway ideas for your next event

From sweet jars full of sugary treats to pens, stress relief balls and branded bottles of juice, choosing the right business promotional items can be tough.

So, what are they, why should you use them and how do you choose the right one for your brand?

Read our guide below and see our handy promotional giveaway ideas list to help you choose the perfect freebie for your next event.

Learn the basics: what is a freebie?

Let’s start with the basics. Business promotional items, also known as freebies, are merchandise, items or gifts that are branded with a logo and used in marketing. They are given away for free to promote a company.

Why use corporate giveaways?

Promo giveaways are a great way to increase brand awareness even after the event has taken place. Plus, they can invoke brand loyalty to a company.

Promotional giveaway ideas

See our giveaway ideas for businesses to use at events, exhibitions or conferences:

• Tote bags (or shopper bags)
• Branded pens
• Branded pencils
• Notebooks
• Notepads
• Travel mugs
• Stress balls
• Wristbands
• USB drive
• Keyrings
• Trolley coins
• Biodegradable pens
• Recycled money pencils
• Branded seed paper
• Branded seedsticks
• Sprout pencils

If the last few corporate giveaway ideas took your interest, head over to our eco-friendly displays range to find out more about them.

How to choose the right promotional items

So, you’ve seen plenty of promotional giveaway ideas, but how do you go about choosing the right giveaway for your business?

Consider the cost

You may feel pressured into giving away items because everybody else does it, but is it right for your exhibition? If you feel that there isn’t a justified reason to give away something, then quite simply… you don’t have to!

But, event giveaways can generate more interest on your stand if done right and they don’t have to be expensive. You could even cut down on costs by buying fewer and only giving them away as a thank you to potential lead or sale visitors as a little thank you.

If you manufacture your own products, why not give away samples? The cost will be significantly lower, and visitors will get a clearer indication on the quality of your product and how they can use it themselves. We recently attended an event to promote our new eco-friendly displays range and we did this by handing out samples of branded seed paper.

Make it relevant

Giving away a relevant gift is really important for visitors. Going the extra mile to make sure that your giveaway portrays your brand values and is relevant to what your audience would want can help make sure your brand is remembered at the end of the day.

Giving away a branded pen in the B2B world may be a bit of a cliché, but that’s because it’s a tried and tested method. Yes, it may be seen as a bit dull, but we all have those pens still in our pen pots at work. Some of my favourite pens are former freebies so I have a constant reminder of that brand every time I use them.

For the eco conscious brand, there's even pencils made from recycled money or biodegradable corn starch pens. Just make sure you choose a pen that won’t break after its third use or stop working after a quick squiggle else it’ll be counter-productive!

If you’re in the B2C world, this may not be the best giveaway for you – unless you’re a stationery supplier of course! Think about your customers and what they’d love to have. Match it with your brand and you could have a great campaign. Some brands use pocket mirrors, branded on the back with messages such as “a reflection of you” for marketing agencies and “You can do it” for positive messages from parenting brands.

Brand it

Always make sure your business promotional items are branded and do your best to make sure they’re linked to your brand in some way.

If you can add a logo on your freebie, then all the better – it makes sure that your potential customer can remember who you are. This is brand recall at its best. It's worth double checking the print options with the supplier as prices quoted are normally for single colour print.

If it isn’t possible to buy a branded item, think about how you can personalise it to add branding. We’ve seen generic plush toys being branded using ribbon and hole-punched business cards acting as a small flyer.

Or if you’re giving away sweets, why not add small printed stickers or purchase branded packaging? They’ll stay with the product until it’s eaten. Get creative with your branding!

Stand out

Whatever freebie you choose, remember that your gift will be side-by-side with your competitors. If you’re looking for a long-lasting memory, will your gift get lost in a sea of others?

See if you can be a bit different from the crowd and you could have the key to success. Just make sure it’s for the right cost, is relevant and branded!

Summary

There are plenty of promotional items to choose from. Ultimately, you need to choose the right corporate giveaway based on relevancy to your event and within the budget that has been set.

Think about your target audience. Do you need to cater for the corporate type with office stationery? Or do you need to appeal to the creative audience with eco-friendly giveaways that have more than one use?

A giveaway that reflects your brand is what will get the best reaction on the day and the best brand recall after the event has passed.

What are your thoughts? Do you use business promotional items? Perhaps you have some additional event freebie ideas? Leave a comment below. Alternatively, contact us today if you have any questions or portable display requirements.