What would you like to receive as a giveaway in an exhibition?

Question

Examples:
mp3 players, executive pens, teddy bears, stress balls, tickets to specific destinations ... anything else.
Any other ideas are more than welcomed :)

Answer 1

Your best promotional give-away will lead your trade show visitors or established customers to relate the give-away to your company. For example, if your company had anything to do with stress relief (chiropractor, time management consultant, religious organization, etc.), a stress relief ball or squeeze toy with your company's name appropriately printed on it (probably low-keyed presentation) would be appropriate. If you're selling doors, vacuums, or cell phones, forget the stress ball. If your company has a CD or DVD that presents a class image of your organization, or if your company is parterning with a production company that is promoting a movie, a free DVD player would be a great give-away. (Burger King is always doing this.) If you're a radio station, perhaps that mp3 player is a good deal.

Basically, the give-away must have some reasonable tie-in to the corporate image or presentation program to make both the emotional and rational connection stick with the consumer. When you do that, you're promoting your image, tapping into the public relations aspect of ROI. When you don't do that, you're just giving away junk. Sometimes very expensive junk. (We used to call it, "Giving away the prune farm.")

The name of my business is Cowsar Virtual Services. No, this isn't a cheap plug for my business. The reason I'm sharing this is for purpose of example:

My targeted audience mostly consists of marketing directors and editors or other writers who need help with various writing and editing projects. Do I send them a pen as a corporate gift? Maybe. But it wouldn't connect with the culture of my web site, which is written tongue-in-cheek, playing on the name, Cowsar Virtual ("Cows are virtual.") A serious executive pen just might not be the connection I would need as an effective promotional give-away tool, although the audience is correct, and the use of the pen to write out ideas and directions to me is a reasonable link. Unless I give out a pen that sports a cow-like appearance (which could then be mistaken for Gateway Computers), I'm conflicting my promotional message with my company culture, or what people think of when they hear "Cowsar Virtual." So what do I give out? Well, both marketing directors and editors are generally in high stress positions, and they are generally of a creative ilk. They can be either male or female (which is important), so the give-away can't be gender directed (such as something a lady would like, but a man would put away in the drawer or give to his kid). Ideally, I would give away non-squeaking (or non-mooing) transparent cow-shaped squeeze toys that can sit on the executive's desk. The cow-shaped toy is a rather obvious connection to my company's name, and making it noiseless is better for the odds of keeping it on the desk or out of the kid's or dog's toy box. Besides, that makes the give-away less costly. The reason it would need to be transparent is to connect the subliminal message of "Virtual" with the cow toy, helping to finish the name connection (branding). The squeeze aspect is to trigger the response to relieve the stress they are ever encountering, thereby evoking a call to action: "Call (or e-mail) Cowsar Virtual Services." Actually, I would put the following message on the toy (either on the toy directly, or on a tag hanging from the toy), along with my company logo as the cow's "brand": "Need help? Call in the Cows! / cowsarvirtual.com" (Virgule, or / indicates line return.) That gets in my tagline, my company name, and my web site. The give-away then functions as a constant reminder for the call to action, and it is something the executive would likely use or display on a regular basis. That's ongoing advertising.

Use ongoing advertising, and your ROI (return on investment) will be met again and again and again!

Ask yourself:
1. What is my company's culture, or image?
2. What are the characteristics of my customers?
3. What is the message I want to give to my customers relating to the products, services, or psychographic connection (belonging to a group, cause, or status) that I want to promote?
4. Who would likely use the give-away? The exeuctive, or the administrative assistant? Does the give-away need to be gender directed?
5. How and when would they use the give-away? Where would they keep it?
6. How does the give-away connect to my company's culture, or image?
7. How would the give-away function as an ongoing advertisement for my organization?

Answer 2

Usually, the fate of "give aways" is limited to:
1) some dark desk drawer, to perhaps never be seen again
2) a plaything for a child, or, on rare occasions
3) used frequently by the desired recipient.

The trick is to find something that your target customer will actually use, that is strongly associated with your company and brand, and that carries your message. Such items are often not inexpensive, so you'd like to give them to your best prospects, and know who those prospects are. I won't suggest anything specific, as I have no idea what product or service, the need for which you are trying to implant.

Good luck.

Answer 3

mp3 players are great. honestly i'd wanna know what it is your intentions are & what you're exhibiting or want to do.

personally with my company (construction related) i've thought about mp3 players around christmas but they're pricy. i've thought about pens but pens get lost. i want my logo on things. t shirts are good for the yard guys, and usb flash drives are good for architects & engineers. etc.

obviously you may not be in my industry but my point is that i'd go for something that won't get thrown away. :)

Answer 4

A crystal memento depicting theme of that particular exhibition e.g. if it is an aircraft exhibition, I would love a crystal carved helicopter (don't know if is possible!).

Answer 5

Q1. describe your favourite anime person in two phrases..... >> Smexy HoTTness Q2. Do you deserve the BA? >> Yup ^^ Lol Q3. I COMMAND YOU TO DANCE THE NUMA NUMA!!!!!!! Ok, now not quite however when you do....... I'll supply you a few chocolate milk!!!! >> Ehh No >< DIMDANCEST