From the bags of candies and cake you got as a kid at your friend’s birthday party to Christmas hampers at the office, everyone loves a goody bag. Swag bags feed into that joy, but in place of leftover birthday cake and stale nuts, recipients receive everything from sustainable stationery to branded apparel.
If you’re attending or exhibiting at an event, a good swag bag could be the thing that helps you stand out among the crowd of attendees.
For an attendee, a swag bag is a welcome gift; a show of appreciation and loyalty. For a brand, it’s a positive first impression, a walking billboard, and low-cost advertising.
Giving out swag for corporate events could provide all the following benefits and more:
Who can resist a bag of free goodies? It’ll attract more attendees to your booth and foster strong connections. What’s more, as they wear/use your goods around the event, others will notice and stop by for their own swag bag.
Gifts trigger a psychological need to reciprocate. You did something for them, and now they want to return the favor. They’ll be more inclined to leave contact details and set up meetings, improving your lead generation.
Launching a new product? Product tie-ins are a great way to announce the launch and connect your swag to the product. Attendees will see countless products during the event, but if they have something tangible from your brand, they’re more likely to remember it.
What are the best swag items for events? Well, it depends on who you’re targeting and what type of event you’re attending.
The main consideration is that the items should be practical. Promotional is fine. Even heavy branding is fine. But it needs to be usable, preferably during the event itself. Power banks, chargers, reusable bags, eco-friendly drinkware—you want something they can wear straight away, and something that will be just as useful when they return home.
Branded apparel is a winner in any event swag bag. Go for subtly branded, quality materials, and maximum comfort. You want them to touch it and be excited to wear it, not to recoil in horror at the thought of wearing branded sandpaper. Focus on quality, not quantity—if no one wears your swag, even cheap apparel is too expensive.
Tech accessories always go down well at events. It doesn’t even need to be a tech-focused event. Everyone can use a phone charger or power bank, especially when they’re on the road and walking around with their phone.
Webcam covers, Bluetooth trackers, and earbuds are also great options, but with the prevalence of cloud storage, the days of USB sticks may be long behind us.
Finally, add some local flavor with locally sourced drinks, snacks, and candies. They’re not as brandable, nor are they something attendees can keep after the event, but they’re memorable, and they make great additions to swag bags for events.
Whether you’re hosting a tech conference or attending a food trade show, here’s how to curate the best swag items:
Don’t spend money on something attendees won’t actually use. That includes things they can only use at home because by the time the event ends and they return home, there’s a good chance they will have forgotten about it, trashed it, or left it in the hotel room.
Give them something they can use at the event itself, including drinkware, phone cases, power banks, chargers, and even stickers.
Originality helps, but there are countless events every year, and whatever ingenious idea you have, you can guarantee countless businesses have had it before you. There’s nothing wrong with going down the traditional route, provided your swag looks better than everything else.
If an attendee gets a dozen different tumblers, they’ll use the one that looks best. Typically, they want something that’s clean, classy, and professional; something understated with subtle branding.
Calculate the cost of each item and the total order against the likely ROI. You could spend more on getting the highest-quality products, but is the event big enough to justify the expense, and will they actually benefit your business?
A B2B brand that earns 6-figures from a single client can justify spending large amounts on a single luxury gift for a prospective client. A smaller B2C brand has to think more about exposure and find more cost-effective swag.
The best way to discover what attendees want is to ask them. Post a poll on social media asking for their best and worst swag. You’ll get a lot of conflicting responses—pens and tote bags will likely feature prominently in both the “best” and “worst” lists—but a few products will stand out above all others.
Just because there’s a great deal on cheap, branded pens doesn’t mean you should buy them. Carefully consider everything that goes into your swag bag, as it’s all reflective of your brand. If you blow your budget on a high-quality branded hoodie, don’t fill the bag with cheap, disposable items—just give them the hoodie instead.
If the hoodie is comfortable and durable, they’ll associate your brand with high quality. If you give them pens that don’t work and plastic tumblers that feel cheap and nasty, they’ll tarnish that reputation.
Sustainability is a buzzword in every industry. Whatever you do, whatever you sell, and whoever you sell it to, eco-friendly swag always goes down well.
Use sustainable packaging, recycled swag, and anything that promotes sustainable practices, such as sprout pencils, seed packets, metal straws, and metal drinkware.
A swag bag is a collection of branded goods often given away to attendees at events.
Stationery, reusable bags, drinkware, and apparel are popular options. It should be sustainable, premium, and useful, without overdoing it on the branding.
High-quality items work best for corporate events, including durable and comfortable hoodies, premium tumblers, power banks, and Bluetooth trackers.
From the bags of candies and cake you got as a kid at your friend’s birthday party to Christmas hampers at the office, everyone loves a goody bag. Swag bags feed into that joy, but in place of leftover birthday cake and stale nuts, recipients receive everything from sustainable stationery to branded apparel.
If you’re attending or exhibiting at an event, a good swag bag could be the thing that helps you stand out among the crowd of attendees.
For an attendee, a swag bag is a welcome gift; a show of appreciation and loyalty. For a brand, it’s a positive first impression, a walking billboard, and low-cost advertising.
Giving out swag for corporate events could provide all the following benefits and more:
Who can resist a bag of free goodies? It’ll attract more attendees to your booth and foster strong connections. What’s more, as they wear/use your goods around the event, others will notice and stop by for their own swag bag.
Gifts trigger a psychological need to reciprocate. You did something for them, and now they want to return the favor. They’ll be more inclined to leave contact details and set up meetings, improving your lead generation.
Launching a new product? Product tie-ins are a great way to announce the launch and connect your swag to the product. Attendees will see countless products during the event, but if they have something tangible from your brand, they’re more likely to remember it.
What are the best swag items for events? Well, it depends on who you’re targeting and what type of event you’re attending.
The main consideration is that the items should be practical. Promotional is fine. Even heavy branding is fine. But it needs to be usable, preferably during the event itself. Power banks, chargers, reusable bags, eco-friendly drinkware—you want something they can wear straight away, and something that will be just as useful when they return home.
Branded apparel is a winner in any event swag bag. Go for subtly branded, quality materials, and maximum comfort. You want them to touch it and be excited to wear it, not to recoil in horror at the thought of wearing branded sandpaper. Focus on quality, not quantity—if no one wears your swag, even cheap apparel is too expensive.
Tech accessories always go down well at events. It doesn’t even need to be a tech-focused event. Everyone can use a phone charger or power bank, especially when they’re on the road and walking around with their phone.
Webcam covers, Bluetooth trackers, and earbuds are also great options, but with the prevalence of cloud storage, the days of USB sticks may be long behind us.
Finally, add some local flavor with locally sourced drinks, snacks, and candies. They’re not as brandable, nor are they something attendees can keep after the event, but they’re memorable, and they make great additions to swag bags for events.
Whether you’re hosting a tech conference or attending a food trade show, here’s how to curate the best swag items:
Don’t spend money on something attendees won’t actually use. That includes things they can only use at home because by the time the event ends and they return home, there’s a good chance they will have forgotten about it, trashed it, or left it in the hotel room.
Give them something they can use at the event itself, including drinkware, phone cases, power banks, chargers, and even stickers.
Originality helps, but there are countless events every year, and whatever ingenious idea you have, you can guarantee countless businesses have had it before you. There’s nothing wrong with going down the traditional route, provided your swag looks better than everything else.
If an attendee gets a dozen different tumblers, they’ll use the one that looks best. Typically, they want something that’s clean, classy, and professional; something understated with subtle branding.
Calculate the cost of each item and the total order against the likely ROI. You could spend more on getting the highest-quality products, but is the event big enough to justify the expense, and will they actually benefit your business?
A B2B brand that earns 6-figures from a single client can justify spending large amounts on a single luxury gift for a prospective client. A smaller B2C brand has to think more about exposure and find more cost-effective swag.
The best way to discover what attendees want is to ask them. Post a poll on social media asking for their best and worst swag. You’ll get a lot of conflicting responses—pens and tote bags will likely feature prominently in both the “best” and “worst” lists—but a few products will stand out above all others.
Just because there’s a great deal on cheap, branded pens doesn’t mean you should buy them. Carefully consider everything that goes into your swag bag, as it’s all reflective of your brand. If you blow your budget on a high-quality branded hoodie, don’t fill the bag with cheap, disposable items—just give them the hoodie instead.
If the hoodie is comfortable and durable, they’ll associate your brand with high quality. If you give them pens that don’t work and plastic tumblers that feel cheap and nasty, they’ll tarnish that reputation.
Sustainability is a buzzword in every industry. Whatever you do, whatever you sell, and whoever you sell it to, eco-friendly swag always goes down well.
Use sustainable packaging, recycled swag, and anything that promotes sustainable practices, such as sprout pencils, seed packets, metal straws, and metal drinkware.
A swag bag is a collection of branded goods often given away to attendees at events.
Stationery, reusable bags, drinkware, and apparel are popular options. It should be sustainable, premium, and useful, without overdoing it on the branding.
High-quality items work best for corporate events, including durable and comfortable hoodies, premium tumblers, power banks, and Bluetooth trackers.