USEFUL PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS: WE WANT SOMETHING PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY KEEP AFTER THE EVENT
Updated: 5 hours ago
There are few things more disappointing than spending thousands of dollars on promotional products only to watch them become rubbish before the event is even over.
You've probably seen it happen.
An attendee picks something up because it's free. It goes into their event bag. The bag goes back to the hotel, office or car. A few days later, everything gets sorted into two piles:
Keep.
Don't need.
If this were our brief, our job would be to make sure your promotional product has a very good reason to end up in the first pile.
Because the goal isn't simply to get your logo into someone's hands.
It's to give them a reason to keep it there.
Option 1: Give Them Something They Can Put Straight Into Their Daily Routine
Option 3: Choose A Notebook, But Give People A Reason To Keep This One
Option 4: Look At The Things People Constantly Need But Rarely Buy For Themselves
Option 6: Give Them Something That Earns Space On Their Desk
Usefulness Can Create Better Brand Exposure Than Bigger Branding
The Best Event Giveaway May Not Be The One That Gets The Biggest Reaction
THE BRIEF
Objective:
Find useful promotional products attendees will continue using after an event
Audience:
A broad mix of event or conference attendees
Quantity:
Several hundred
Budget:
Moderate, with flexibility depending on the product
Branding:
Visible enough to create brand recognition without overwhelming the product
Priority:
Longevity, usefulness and perceived value
What we'd avoid:
Novelty for novelty's sake and products people already know they won't use
This is a deceptively simple brief.
You might think the answer is just to choose the most practical product available.
But usefulness is personal.
One person will use a notebook every day, and another hasn't written on paper in years. Someone who travels constantly may love a luggage tag while someone working entirely from home has little need for one.
So rather than asking:
“What's the most useful promotional product?”
we'd ask:
“What's most likely to be useful to these people?”
That's where we'd start.
WE'D THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE EVENT
This is probably the biggest shift we'd make.
Most promotional products are chosen for the event itself.
We'd choose this one for the Monday after it.
Where does the product go when someone gets home?
Does it go on their desk?
Into their handbag?
Into the kitchen cupboard?
Onto their bedside table?
Into their gym bag?
In the car?
Or does the recipient genuinely have nowhere useful to put it?
That question can eliminate a surprising number of products very quickly.
And it can reveal some much better ones.
OPTION 1: GIVE THEM SOMETHING THEY CAN PUT STRAIGHT INTO THEIR DAILY ROUTINE
Drinkware is popular for a reason.
Most people drink water, coffee or tea every day, which gives a good bottle, cup or tumbler an immediate job to do.
For this brief, one direction we'd consider is the Bopp Hot vacuum insulated tumblers (600ml).
These have a generous capacity, vacuum insulation and a practical drinking format that can work at a desk, in the car or while travelling.
That's exactly what we'd be looking for.
Not simply a product that looks good sitting on an event table, but something that can migrate into everyday life afterwards.
Depending on the audience and budget, we'd also explore other insulated bottles and reusable drinkware from our range.
But we wouldn't automatically recommend drinkware simply because it's popular.
We'd ask one more question first:
Is this audience likely to already have too much of it?
If you're hosting a sustainability conference where attendees have received three branded bottles every year for the past decade, another bottle may not be the answer.
Useful doesn't mean universally useful forever.
Context still wins.
OPTION 2: MAKE THEIR WORKDAY SLIGHTLY EASIER
Sometimes the best promotional products aren't exciting when you describe them.
They're exciting when you suddenly need them.
A tech pouch is a good example of the kind of direction we'd explore for a professional audience.
Think about the collection of cables, adapters, chargers, earbuds and small technology accessories many of us carry between home, office, meetings and travel.
Giving those items somewhere to live solves a real little problem.
And products that solve little problems tend to stick around.
That's what we'd be looking for with this brief.
Every time the recipient packs their laptop bag and reaches for the pouch, your branded product gets another use.
That repeated usefulness is considerably more valuable than creating one big impression at registration and never being seen again.
OPTION 3: CHOOSE A NOTEBOOK, BUT GIVE PEOPLE A REASON TO KEEP THIS ONE
Notebooks are one of the most established promotional products.
That can be a strength.
It can also be the problem.
If someone already has six half-used branded notebooks in a drawer, simply giving them number seven isn't necessarily a brilliant strategy.
So if we recommend a notebook, we'd want it to have something that earns its place.
One option we'd look at is our recycled leather hard cover notebooks (A5).
The recycled leather cover gives the notebook a tactile point of difference while the A5 format remains practical enough for meetings, notes, planning and everyday work.
For another audience, we might choose something smaller that slips easily into a bag.
For a more premium event, we'd move further up the notebook range.
The important part isn't really whether it's A5, recycled, hard cover or soft cover.
It's whether the combination of design, quality and usefulness makes someone choose this notebook when they need to write something down.
That's the behaviour we're trying to create.
OPTION 4: LOOK AT THE THINGS PEOPLE CONSTANTLY NEED BUT RARELY BUY FOR THEMSELVES
This is an underrated category of promotional products.
Small everyday accessories can be extremely effective because they often don't compete with more desirable possessions.
A charging cable is a good example.
A luggage tag.
A quality umbrella.
A reusable shopping bag that folds small enough to live permanently in someone's handbag or car.
These aren't necessarily the products that create the biggest visual impact when 500 of them are laid out on an event table.
But six months later?
They may still be working.
For example, our foldable nylon tote bags with elastic pack down into a compact format when they're not being used.
That's a completely different proposition from handing someone another large event bag.
The useful part may actually be the fact that it disappears until it's needed.
It can live in a handbag, backpack or glovebox and come out when someone unexpectedly needs an extra bag.
That's the kind of repeated usefulness we'd value highly.
OPTION 5: IF THEY TRAVEL, MAKE THE PRODUCT TRAVEL TOO
If the event attracts attendees from around Australia or people who travel regularly for work, we'd look at travel products.
Not necessarily something elaborate.
Sometimes the smallest products earn the most use.
A good luggage tag can stay attached to a suitcase for years.
A sleep mask can move between countless trips.
A tech pouch can go from conference to conference.
A reusable bottle can end up in someone's carry-on every week.
This is where we'd use what you know about your audience.
If half the room has flown in to attend the event, that's useful information.
The promotional product doesn't have to relate literally to the subject of the conference.
It can relate to the person attending it.
That's often much more powerful.
OPTION 6: GIVE THEM SOMETHING THAT EARNS SPACE ON THEIR DESK
The desk is valuable territory.
If your promotional product makes it there and stays there, you've done very well.
But we'd be selective.
People don't need another object sitting on their desk simply because it can hold a logo.
It needs a function.
Wireless chargers, phone stands, quality pens, desk organisers and computer accessories can work particularly well because they become part of the workspace.
A product that someone interacts with several times a day can generate hundreds or even thousands of small brand impressions over its lifetime.
And unlike digital advertising, you're not paying again for every one of them.
You've already bought the product.
The recipient keeps creating the exposure by continuing to use it.
WE'D ALSO THINK ABOUT SIZE
This is especially important for event promotional products.
Imagine someone has flown interstate to attend your conference.
They have carry-on luggage.
They've collected brochures, documents and perhaps several other gifts during the day.
Then you hand them a huge branded product.
Even if they like it, you've just created a logistical problem.
The question is no longer:
“Do I want this?”
It's:
“Can I get this home?”
That's not a decision we want the recipient to have to make.
For events with travelling attendees, compact products can have an enormous advantage.
A premium small product may be more likely to survive the journey home than something physically impressive but inconvenient.
AND THEN THERE'S THE LOGO
There is a strange thing that can happen with promotional merchandise.
A business chooses a genuinely excellent product.
Then puts such enormous branding on it that the recipient no longer wants to use it.
We wouldn't do that.
Your logo should absolutely be visible.
After all, part of the purpose of promotional merchandise is brand exposure.
But there's a balance.
Imagine a reusable bottle with a tasteful logo printed or engraved on one side.
Now imagine exactly the same bottle with a giant marketing slogan wrapped around the entire body.
Which one are you more likely to carry into the gym?
Which one would you put on your desk?
Which one would you take on holiday?
That's the test.
We want the branding to remind the recipient where the product came from without making them feel like they're carrying an advertisement.
USEFULNESS CAN CREATE BETTER BRAND EXPOSURE THAN BIGGER BRANDING
Let's say you give someone a $2 product with a huge logo.
They use it once.
Now compare that with a $10 product carrying smaller branding that they use three times a week for two years.
The second product has entered their routine approximately 300 times.
That's where promotional products can become extraordinarily effective.
The branding doesn't have to make its entire impact on day one.
It can accumulate.
One commute.
One meeting.
One coffee.
One flight.
One shopping trip.
One workday at a time.
That's why we'd rather create a product people keep than simply a product people notice.
SHOULD YOU GIVE EVERYONE THE SAME THING?
Not necessarily.
This is another direction we'd consider if the event structure allows it.
Instead of assuming every attendee wants the same promotional product, perhaps there are two or three choices.
One person chooses drinkware.
Another chooses a notebook.
Another chooses a tech accessory.
Choice can improve the odds that the recipient receives something they genuinely want.
It won't suit every event because distribution becomes more complicated, stock needs to be managed and quantities need to be planned carefully.
But for certain conferences, staff events or smaller activations, it can be a very clever approach.
You're no longer guessing what everyone wants.
You're asking them.
WHAT WE WOULDN'T RECOMMEND
We wouldn't choose a product purely because it's cheap enough to give to everyone.
We wouldn't select something just because there's a huge branding area.
And we wouldn't assume that a traditional promotional product is automatically the wrong answer.
A pen can be brilliant if it's a good pen.
A tote bag can be brilliant if it's a bag people actually want to carry.
A notebook can be brilliant if people enjoy using it.
A drink bottle can be brilliant if it replaces the bottle someone was already carrying.
The category isn't the problem.
The execution is.
SO, WHAT WOULD WE CHOOSE?
For a broad professional event audience, we'd probably create a shortlist rather than declare one universal winner.
We might put forward a quality reusable drinkware option for everyday use.
A tech pouch or useful technology accessory for the workday.
An A5 notebook with enough quality or material interest to distinguish it from a basic giveaway.
And potentially a compact reusable bag or travel product that can easily leave the event with the recipient.
Then we'd narrow those options using the three pieces of information that matter most:
Who is attending?
What is the budget per person?
What are they realistically likely to use afterwards?
Once we know those, the shortlist usually gets much smaller.
THE BEST EVENT GIVEAWAY MAY NOT BE THE ONE THAT GETS THE BIGGEST REACTION
There's an interesting trap with promotional products.
We naturally want the moment of handing them over to feel impressive.
And sometimes that's important.
But the biggest initial reaction doesn't necessarily create the longest lasting result.
Someone might laugh at a novelty giveaway and leave it behind.
Another person might simply say “thank you” when handed a beautifully made reusable bottle.
Six months later, they're still using the bottle every morning.
Which product worked harder for the brand?
That's why we'd judge this brief by what happens later.
Not simply what happens at the event.
IF THIS WERE YOUR BRIEF
If you're planning an event and your biggest concern is avoiding promotional products that end up forgotten, left behind or thrown away, tell us about the people who'll actually receive them.
Send us your quantity, budget per person, event type, audience, deadline and anything you know about how your attendees work, travel or spend their day.
We'll help narrow down the options and recommend useful promotional products that make sense for the people you're giving them to.
And if you'd like to see how your branding will look before deciding, upload your artwork with your quote request and we'll provide a free branded mock-up with your quote.
Because getting your logo into someone's event bag is easy.
Giving them a reason to take it home is the part that matters.
👉 Explore our promotional products range today: www.merchandiseup.com.au
