Choosing Promotional Giveaways
Trade Show Booth Traffic Often Depends on Your Trinket
People always flock to the booth that has the best giveaways. In order to maximize your marketing dollars, make sure that yours is consistent with your messaging.
A dilemma faced by all marketing managers before the big trade show opening is what to choose as a giveaway. There are many choices out there, but some are obviously better than others.
First of all, keep in mind that what you give away is a reflection on your company. If you give away a trinket that will fall apart in a few weeks, you are basically telling your customers that you don't value quality! Buy something durable.
It also helps if you give something away that represents your company or your product. One of the best giveaways I saw at a recent trade show was a little light that fit on your mobile phone so you could see it in the dark. The company? Verizon Wireless.
Another company built telco installations. Their giveaway? A combination note pad, level and tape measure. This not only fits with the company product positioning, it fits with the messaging that they build precise, accurate installations.
Make sure that your giveaway is not going to be a carbon copy of everyone elses - during the last trade show I was overwhelmed with pens! I was very happy to get to the Cisco booth and actually get a nice laser pointer. Everytime I use this pointer, I am giving Cisco advertising and also seeing their name in front of me. It hasn't fallen apart yet...............
Boomerangs make nice giveaways as they symbolize your customer coming back to you, again and again. You can also get a fair sized logo and tag line printed on a boomerang. This is a great example of making your giveway match your messaging, if your messaging includes servicing your customers for life.
As many of your customers have children, toys are always popular. Don't give away anything that has small parts, you have no idea how old the children will be receiving the toys and they don't come printed with warnings.
Little stuffed animals with your logo printed on a ribbon or shirt are very popular, but costly.
Yoyos that light up were also popular at the last trade show I attended, but it did seem a bit ironic that big telcos whose profits have gone up and down were giving away yoyos!
A large bank had an ingenious giveway during a trade show I attended too - remember those foil covered chocolate coins you enjoyed as a kid? Many adults were enjoying them too that day.
Water bottles printed with a company logo were also given away that day. In my opinion, this is a costly bad idea. I saw many of them in the trash can after they were emptied, and I didn't see a single person look at the logo as they drank their water. It is always a good idea to put your logo on something that has a longer shelf life than a bottle of water!
