Imagine this: You have decided to sponsor a large event that your target audience will be attending. You spend months curating the ideal customer experience for them to learn all about your brand, build awareness and gain their trust and loyalty. Your goal is to present your brand and gain new clients. The next question is, how will you get them to remember the brand experience once the event is over? How do you stand out among the other sponsors as a brand the attendees will purchase from?
This is where promotional products come in. Reserve part of your marketing budget to be dedicated to a promo item that will serve a purpose far past the event day and extend the shelf life of the event efforts.
To ensure your promotional product item selection is a success, make sure it has each of these 5 qualities:
Usability
We like to call this “no-throw promo”. In a nutshell, you do not want to select and spend marketing dollars on an item that will be taken straight to the trash can. Not only is it a waste of your time and money, it is bad for the environment! Spend time researching what your target audience cares about, what their values are and where their time is spent. This will narrow down your list and allow you to creatively determine a promo item you can be sure your clients will use and love.
Visibility
Promo is all about IMPRESSIONS. This is the number of times your brand will be seen. Wether it is seen by the same person every day when they sit down at their desk, seen by others who come in contact with your client who is wearing your t-shirt running errands, or seen by tons of people at a festival where your brand is on a party-goers phone accessory, choose something that will be out and about, displayed prominently on a body or desktop and SEEN!
Quality
Impress your clients by presenting them with an item that makes them feel special and cared about. Gifting quality promotional products reflects the quality of your brand and creates a connection between you, your client and high perceived value. WIN!
Alignment
This is a 2 part characteristic – the promotional product needs to not only align with your brand but align with the event or campaign as well. For example, if your brand values eco-friendly practices, ensure that your items and their factories do too. Communicate this to your recipients to deepen the connection with them. This is brand alignment. Event/campaign alignment comes in the form of choosing an item that will be used by its recipient AND in choosing a design to imprint and brand the item with that makes sense. An easy way to think of this is to pick a theme, then make sure that theme is something your brand can be proud of.
Memorability
Promo item selection should have a strong emphasis on customer experience – present the items creatively to etch the positive feeling into the recipients memory and the promo will pay for itself in a happy, loyal customer! That is VALUE.
With all of these attributes checked off, your target audience will have gone home from this event with a branded item they will hang on to, be proud of, show off and use. It will give them all the feelz when they whip it out and remind them to always turn to your company when the time comes for them to purchase. Your marketing campaign and promotional product was a success!
Creating success stories like these are our passion. Let us know how we can support your next promo campaign!