If you’re exhibiting at an event, branded merchandise is probably somewhere on your list of things to organise. But have you thought about how you’re actually going to use it on the day?
Event merchandising isn’t just about choosing what products to give away. It’s about how you use them – whether that’s getting people to stop at your stand, starting a conversation, running a competition or giving someone something useful to take away.
We’ve exhibited at plenty of events ourselves over the years, as well as helping our customers with their event merchandise. Here are five practical things we’ve learnt along the way.
1. Start before the event
Event merchandising doesn’t have to start when the doors open – there are plenty of ways to use your merchandise or giveaways to create a bit of interest beforehand.
If it’s your own event, or you know the type of people attending, you could use a giveaway to encourage people to come along or give them a reason to find your stand on the day.
For example, something we did ourselves was offer 150 free Americanos to the first 100 people who signed up to our event. You could use the same idea at an exhibition, with coffee available to collect from your stand on the day.
By offering a free gift, you’ve got a reason to promote your attendance beforehand, an incentive for people to visit your stand or event and an opportunity to start a conversation when they arrive.
And it doesn’t have to be coffee (although we do love our coffee at Steel City!). You could send something out beforehand that needs to be brought to your event or stand to claim a gift, or run a competition or prize draw through social media and tease what you’ll be doing on the day.
2. Don’t just put everything on the table
It’s tempting to cover your stand with branded products and let people help themselves, but that can be a missed opportunity. It’s worth having a think about how you’re actually going to give your merchandise away.
You might have a lower-cost giveaway available to everyone who visits, something different for people who have a proper conversation with your team, and a smaller number of higher-value gifts for particularly good prospects.
We use a three-tier approach to event merchandise to help with this – you can read more about how it works in our guide to Choosing event merchandise to qualify leads and win business.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Even keeping some of your merchandise behind the stand gives your team the opportunity to hand it to someone and start a conversation, rather than watching it disappear into a bag as they walk past!
Why does so much event merchandise get ignored?
We’ve all walked around exhibitions where every other stand seems to be giving away the same things – leaflets, pens, sweets.
The problem isn’t necessarily the item. A pen, tote bag or notebook can all work brilliantly. It’s often how the merchandise is being used.
If it’s simply sitting in a bowl at the front of the stand for anyone to take, there’s very little opportunity for it to start a conversation or help you engage with the right people.
Think about the role you want each product to play. Is it there to attract attention? Reward someone for taking part? Help start a conversation? Thank a good prospect?
That’s the difference between simply having merchandise at an event and actually merchandising your event effectively.
In this Branded Products Minute, James explains why so much event merchandise gets overlooked – and what he’d do differently.
3. Give people something to do
Rather than simply handing someone a giveaway, could you make it part of the experience on your stand?
One idea we love is to give visitors a free branded sweetie bag and let them fill it themselves from a pick-and-mix selection at your event. It could be sweets, small branded products or a mixture of both. People get to choose what they actually want, and while they’re doing it, you’ve got a natural opportunity to have a conversation.
You could also use a prize draw, game, challenge or QR code to encourage people to interact with your stand.
At our most recent exhibition, we used a QR code to take visitors straight to our prize draw entry page. It was quick and easy to enter, and gave us another reason to engage with people visiting the stand.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Sometimes just giving people something to do rather than something to take can make your stand much more memorable.
4. Think about where your merchandise will go
We like to think of a branded tote bag at an event as a bit of a walking billboard.
If you give someone a bag they actually like, chances are they’ll use it to carry everything else they pick up during the day – which means your branding is being seen all around the event.
This is where it can be worth investing a little more in the bag itself and thinking about the design. Rather than just putting a big logo on the front, could you do something a bit more subtle or creative? Something people would actually choose to use?
If yours becomes the main bag people are carrying around the event, you’ve got a lot more from it than simply giving away another tote bag.
If it’s a good quality bag with a design people like, there’s a much better chance they’ll carry on using it after the event too.
That thinking can apply to other event merchandise too – where will it go once it leaves your stand? Will it be used around the event? Will it make it back to someone’s desk, car or home?
5. Give people something to talk about
Sometimes it’s the products you don’t expect to see that get the most attention. An unusual product, clever packaging, an unexpected use of colour or even the way something is branded can be enough to make someone stop and ask about it.
We see this ourselves when we exhibit. Put something a little unusual on the stand and people will often stop to have a look, pick it up and ask “What’s that?” – and suddenly you’ve got a conversation going.
You can also make a fairly familiar product more interesting by doing something creative with it. We once ran a Willy Wonka-style competition with branded chocolate bars, hiding golden tickets inside a couple of them. Anyone who found a golden ticket won a hamper. It turned a simple chocolate giveaway into something much more fun and gave people something to talk about.
Of course, there’s no point choosing something unusual just for the sake of it. It still needs to be something that works for your event and the people attending.
But if your merchandise can get someone to stop, smile or ask a question, it’s already doing more than simply sitting on your stand.
Before you order your event merchandise…
A few things worth asking yourself:
- Who are we trying to attract?
- What do we want them to do?
- How are we going to give the merchandise out?
- Will everyone get the same thing?
- Is it easy for someone to carry around the event?
- What will we do with any stock left over?
- What happens after the event?
Thinking about these things before you order can make a big difference to how you actually use your merchandise on the day.
Planning your next event?
There’s no single product or approach that works for every event.
The right event merchandising will depend on who you’re trying to reach, what you want people to do, how many visitors you’re expecting and, of course, your budget.
If you’re looking for product ideas, take a look at our Exhibition range, or speak to the Steel City team and we can help you find products that fit what you’re planning.
And if you’re planning the whole event, not just the merchandise, we’ve also put together a free Exhibition & Event Planning Checklist, covering what to think about before, during and after the day.
