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Article
-Linda Musgrove
-TradeShow Teacher
-www.tsteacher.com
Hello class, it's good to be back for our next lesson. In this lesson we will take a closer look at promotional items and how they need to tie into your exhibiting objectives. There is no "one size fits all" approach here, and the right choice or choices will always depend on your company and your customers.
I'm sure most, if not all of you have at one point or another strolled through a trade show and collected a massive amount of "give-away" items. Many of those items were more or less randomly picked from a catalog or web site and surprisingly few companies spend the time to think about their target audience, how a promotional item fits into overall branding and marketing initiatives. My favorite promotional item blunder is a Magic Eight Ball that Microsoft had during the launch of Outlook 98. Like most Magic Eight Balls, one of the messages it would display was "Outlook not that good". But let's come back to our objective, picking the right give-aways for a show.
In many cases, you will want to have more than one item – and for different purposes. Often there is a benefit in having a cheap, mass audience item that you want as many people as possible to take, and promote your brand. Trade show bags, cheap T-Shirts, hats and pens are often in that category. But you may also want to have more expensive items for a more select audience, for example qualified leads or even new customers. In that case, the objective is to stay in the recipients memory and promoting your brand is more of a side effect.
So in order to pick the right promotional item, you need to have a clear understanding of your target audiences and their interests. Set objectives for each item you are considering to purchase and make sure they fit into your overall marketing programs and branding initiatives. And lastly, make sure you define benchmarks for success and track the effectiveness of your selection so you can make the necessary adjustments for the next show.
Now that we discussed the principles, let's take a look at the 10 most common Promotional Items used at Trade Shows, along with some helpful TradeShow Teacher advice.
1. T-shirts
Always popular, the screen-printed t-shirt is the promotional favorite. A great design can be seen by hundreds of people each time your shirt is worn. A good t-shirt is a cool, comfortable, walking billboard. Make a larger impact and compress your t-shirt into a meaningful shape such as a house, bottle, airplane, pizza, or just about anything else!
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Have an incentive for the Trade Show attendees to wear the T-shirt while walking around the show floor.
2. Promotional Pens: Another traditional and effective favorite; pens are extremely affordable and travel well. The life of a pen could be a year or more while it travels through the hands of 25 or more people. We leave our pens in restaurants, banks, store counters, and more. You probably have a drawer at home with a couple dozen pens or more.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Buy a unique pen; check out the Post It note pens, Fan Pens, Highlighter Pens, Bendy Pens and more. Just have fun, there are so many to choose from. As long as you fight the urge and stay away from the standard pens that have been around for years, you'll be memorable!
3. Mugs and Travel Mugs:
Affordable and effective; and people get attached to their mug! Mugs reflect personality too - a great mug can be a conversation piece or a subtle, conservative accessory. The popularity of travel mugs is growing with modern cars seeming to have 16 cup holders each. Even better, people rarely throw mugs away; they have incredible life spans.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Assuming the Trade Show rules allow it, have a drink station in your booth. Then attendees will walk around the show floor drinking from your mug and be promoting your company and brand!
4. Key Chains:
Key chains are still popular, the most popular key chains have useful tools such as, flashlights, bottle openers, tape measures, compasses, and thermometers.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Consider having a Booth Activity that is related to keys such as having the attendees choose a box to open with a key attached to the promotional key chain you are giving away - for a chance to win a prize! Or have a key chain containing your logo, with a key that says "your key to success". The "key" is to be creative! Make sure to stay away from key changes that have little pocket knives or other sharp instruments. You don't want all your promotional items ending up in TSA bins.
5. Bags:
Bags are a traditional trade show favorite. They come in all sizes and varieties from the ever-popular plastic bag with the die-cut handle through affordable, reusable cotton and polyester bags. A great plastic bag design will get into the hands of almost every show attendee producing tremendous visibility and brand awareness. A good reusable bag will have a long lifespan beyond the two or three days of the show.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: If your budget allows for it, sponsor the Attendee bags, which every attendee gets at registration and walks around with for the rest of the show. If you can't fit that in your budget, use creative promotions and incentives for attendees to show off your bag on the show floor.
6. Golf accessories:
Golf items are popular across industries and geographies. It seems that almost everyone can use balls, tees, divot tools, and more. There are a wide variety of golf items to choose from at affordable prices.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Consider having a putting green game in your booth. Have attendees listen to some information about your product and gather lead data, then give them their golf ball to take their turn putting; consider giving them the opportunity to win a bigger prize if they get a "hole in one"!
7. Food Items:
Food and beverages are popular giveaways at trade shows. Candy and cookies come in individual servings in a variety of clever packages and containers. You can put your logo on the wrapper or container or shape the product to fit your needs. Bottled water is a traditional favorite too, with your logo on the bottle label or the plastic cup. With bottled water selling for $4 or more at most convention centers, your booth could be very popular.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: We all know that any food or drink item will always be popular. Be sure to check the rules and regulations in your Exhibitor Kit before deciding to use a food related item though; you may have to pay extra fees, or may not be allowed to distribute a food or drink item at all.
8. Magnets:
Business card magnets and magnets in special shapes, such as houses, cars, trucks, circles, ice cream cones, and many more are very affordable and can keep your name in front of the customer.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Magnets are great, particularly if you market to consumers, everyone needs magnets for the refrigerator to hang up notices and their kids drawings. For better effect, add sports schedules, calendars, weights and measures conversions, or other useful information
9. Desk Items:
Promotional products for the desk are a great way to keep your name in front of office workers. Popular products include envelope slitters, staplers, calculators, rulers, and paper clip holders. People often use these products for years.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Desk items are fantastic, particularly for the B2B market; think carefully about your key prospects and select an item that they are most likely to need, don't just go for "cute and funny".
10. Calendars:
The right calendar at the right time is a real winner. A calendar can present a new message each month or week and be an important part of someone's life for a year or more. Calendars offer an incredible variety of styles, formats, and price points so there's a right one for you.
TradeShow Teacher Advice: Once again, think carefully about your target audience and their lifestyle, then you can determine if a planner calendar, or desk calendar, or magnet calendar, etc. is the best selection to accomplish your objectives.
Homework
For the next show you are exhibiting at, follow these steps and reference the lesson outlined earlier before selecting your promotional item:
1. Definite and understand key prospects
2. Set objectives
3. Measure the success of the promotional item; for future shows, as well as other marketing campaigns
That's it for this lesson! Bye for now.
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