4imprint, LLC

Posted: June 11, 2021 | Updated: July 12, 2021 4 min read

Classic promotional products remain timeless for a reason: people love them. Products that are useful—and fun—are always in style. Consider that 81% of people keep promo products for more than a year, and 18% keep them for more than 11 years. These fresh ideas for promotional products and gifts are sure to put your brand in the “keeper” category.

Make a splash with drinkware

Help customers stop and smell the rosé with drinkware gifts. A beautiful stemless wine glass and bottle of wine or sparkling cider is the perfect gift for customers who make a large purchase or for staff who meet a major goal. If your facility gives tours, hand out mood water bottles  as a gift to everyone who visits. If you’re throwing an open house, send  can coolers as your invitation. Water bottles also make great welcome gifts for new clients. Fill the bottles with goodies, like coupons and delicious chocolate cookie dough bites. Or tuck in an exclusive offer, like a generous percent off their purchase.

Choose out-of-the-ordinary outdoor advertising

Go out on a limb with eye-catching outdoor advertising. For sporting events, banner ads are great, but you can take it up a notch with some creativity. Hang a row of drawstring sportpacks on the chain-link fence instead. You can even give them away at the end of the event. If you have a booth at a farmers market or festival, string up a clothesline and hang colourful, striped beach towels. They’ll flutter in the breeze and draw in visitors. Have people enter a drawing to win one or gift them as a memorable surprise just for stopping by. Set up an engaging outdoor photo booth for selfie-snapping fun. Provide silly handheld props to amp up the smiles. Hand out a pair of metallic rainbow sunglasses along with their picture so they always remember you as a fun brand.

Stir up home products

Ready for some fresh team brainstorming? Gather your team and tell them you want to “stir things up.” Have staff offer ideas for communication improvement, client retention, generating leads and more. Gift classic promotional products like ice cream scoops and serving spoons for every idea offered. Whoever earns the most items gets a grand prize—like an extra day of vacation or a charcoal grill.

You could also host a social media challenge that lets customers show off their home décor skills. Create different categories, like most unique, most colorful, most professional, most functional, etc. Have followers upload their pictures and award winners a fringed throw blanket.

Jump into friendly competition

Get customers involved with your brand when you hold contest. Announce on social media you want some help with your new T-shirt design. Encourage people to enter their design and ask the public to vote on their favorite one. Encourage entries by offering a free T-shirt adorned with the new design to everyone who enters. You can also give back to the community at the same time. Put your new T-shirts up for sale and give a portion of the proceeds to charity. For even more incentive, make it the design winner’s charity of choice. You don’t have to limit it to T-shirts. Your contest could include a new design for a performance cap or cool jacket. To improve morale, ask team members to weigh in on a new dress shirt to wear around the office. The winning designer gets a free shirt.

Shake things up

With fresh ideas for using classic promotional products, like filling a water bottle full of treats and holding a design contest, your audience will remember you (and your promo) for years to come.