Attention trade show exhibitors: Swag (aka promotional products) is still in style.
The Marketing Tango crew has been sorting through all the swag (stuff we all get) and booty we brought back from the big Winter NAMM Show. Based on the abundance of branded loot, promotional products were out in full force at NAMM—the largest trade show on the west coast.
For companies willing to make the investment, branded giveaway goodies were as popular as ever among the nearly 100,000 NAMM attendees at the Anaheim Convention Center. Whatever you like to call them—tchotchkes, merch, trinkets, toys, gewgaws, stuff—the advantage of using branded promotional items remains the same: affordable, memorable cost per impression. If the item is relevant and useful to the attendee, it serves as a three-dimensional reminder of your product or service that can last long after the event is over and the trade mags have been tossed.
Of course, no exhibitor wants to get stuck taking home a bunch of promotional stuff that attendees didn’t want. So plan your promotional product campaign carefully before sticking your logo on the first tchotchke you see.
Popular Promotional Products
Popular branded promotional items at NAMM included guitar picks, tote bags, DVDs, t-shirts, and flash memory drives. Print products were also well represented with plenty of stickers, posters, postcards, photo slicks (sometimes autographed), sales sheets, brochures, and catalogues.
Despite rumors of their imminent demise, business cards were in widespread use. For tech-savvy exhibitors willing to pay for a NAMM badge-scanner, a booth visitor’s contact info could be gathered with a simple swipe of a NAMM member’s entry-badge barcode.
Goodie Bags
Some of the goodies were so good, they weren’t even free. At the Marshall booth, attendees eagerly paid $2 for a Marshall tote bag designed to look like the company’s iconic amplifier. But across the hall, rival company Orange Amplification gave away their bright orange (naturally) branded tote bags, plus guitar picks and posters in exchange for a swipe of the attendee’s badge (with email address, etc.).
Respect the Email Inbox
Visitors were only too happy to pause for a quick scan of their info. But a word of caution to collectors of email addresses: it doesn’t take much for someone on your list to get fed up and opt out. So don’t get too carried away with the number and frequency of your follow-up emails.
