Swagonomics: Maximizing Your Marketing Impact with Memorable Promotional Products

Be it for a conference, a gala, a career fair, fundraiser or another occasion, personalized promotional products are an effective way to boost your event and to keep it vivid in your attendee’s memory.

Look around- you are likely to find something that you received at an event. Perhaps you attended a conference where you were given a notebook to keep track of the ideas you picked up, a thumb drive that helped you to print out a document on the facility’s printer or a bag to carry the information that you collected. How about a collectible to commemorate a special occasion? A shirt from a charity event that you strongly believe in?

Some refer to them as SWAG*, others call them Merch, whatever you call them promotional products increase engagement and create a sense of excitement around your event or cause. By offering giveaways or prizes you encourage your attendees to interact with you and to share their experiences on social media.

Nevertheless, not all promotional products are simply giveaways. At events they frequently have a functional use. Take customized lanyards. Lanyards are a convenient way for conference attendees to carry their event credentials and badges.

However, you would be surprised at all of the benefits that customized lanyards have that plain lanyards do not, starting with the aesthetic benefit of providing a professional and cohesive look.

Customized lanyards give conference presenters, visitors and staff quick visual identifications of others associated with that particular event. This is especially important in large convention centers where a multitude of events take place simultaneously as they increase security, preventing unauthorized individuals from entering.  Being able to easily identify the organization by its lanyards also assures attendees that they are at the right location (or perhaps lets them know that they are lost!)

Since conferences often serve as platforms for networking and building connections, customized lanyards facilitate ice breaking conversations as the participants can quickly identify others as fellow attendees and initiate contact.

By personalizing the lanyards with unique designs or event-specific information, they can serve as souvenirs or keepsakes. People like to collect the different lanyards from annual events as mementos, especially when it is a favorite yearly occurrence.

I bet you didn’t know that something that is as simple as customized lanyards serve so many purposes!

But giveaways don’t have to have event specific functionality for them to be valuable marketing tools.

You increase your visibility by putting your logo and message in the hands of potential customers or supporters. Additionally, the distribution of promotional products creates a lasting impression of your brand. This leads to increased recognition and recall.

Promotional products have a longer lifespan than other forms of advertising. When you distribute items that are useful or relevant to your target audience, they will likely keep and use them long after your event. The pencil holder on my desk, the large coffee mug that I use each morning, a simple plastic jar opener that I keep in my kitchen, and my fold-up picnic blanket have all become part of my life and are items that I rely on. For the companies that gave me these items, the results are continued brand exposure.

Giveaways have a long-lasting impact. It gives people a sense of pleasure and satisfaction to receive something that is shiny and visually appealing. Additionally, getting something without having to pay for it or receiving a gift for making a contribution is gratifying and makes the recipient feel valued and appreciated. And well-chosen merch will give those feelings longevity.

At Copycats, the promotional items most requested by our clients are pens, mugs, thermal bottles, t-shirts, tote bags and, of course, lanyards. We have supplied events with customized cocktail glasses, drink stirrers and napkins.  Among the more unusual things we have made are enamel lapel pins, selfie light rings and safety vests. And in this post-Covid world, customized face masks have become popular. What better advertisement than having a walking billboard- a person wearing a customized mask advertising your brand!

As you select your organization’s personalized products it is important, in addition to staying within your budget, that you choose items that not only align with your brand’s messaging, mission and values but are also something the recipients will want to use.  Some promotional products flaunt a membership that the recipient is proud of or a social issue that they support. Examples of this are college bumper stickers or tote bags from public television stations.

A printing company that is a member of a promotional products trade association, such as PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) is best equipped to help you decide the direction that you want to go with your SWAG Campaign. Our PPAI membership keeps us up to date with the latest products and trends that help our clients stand out. Copycats so-called King of Bling, Trevor, has found the annual PPAI convention in January to be very helpful.  He makes use of the myriad of educational seminars that are offered and always comes away, exhausted, but with tons of information about recent marketing trends and various new ways to help our customers boost their name recognition or commemorate a special event.

Bottom line- if you want to boost your event, increase brand awareness or promote your mission, customized promotional products are the way to go.

To get a feel for the tremendous range of imprinted items that we offer, click on Promotional Products and browse around.

*Copycats Trivia -the acronym SWAG in the promotional product world stands for “Stuff We All Get”. However, some use it to refer to “Souvenirs, Wearables, and Gifts