It’s on us all to think smarter about business event swag

For those of us fortunate enough to have called the marketing or advertising industries home, myself included, we’ve seen every promotional item you could imagine. I’m sure the pastime of the conference swag haul photo post-conference is one I’m not alone in. It does raise the question –  isn’t there a better way to approach sponsorship and brand awareness in 2022?

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend conferences of varying sizes around the country over the past ten years at my company, and a consistent factor is an exceptional volume of flyers, USB sticks in every novelty shape, a vast array of phone attachments, beverage accessories and fidget toys. Limitless plastic, glass and bamboo shoved into a storeroom for a junior to maybe discover and enjoy. But more likely binned shortly after being received, with one Global Ad Impressions Study finding 21% of branded and promotional items are kept for any length of time, over half are given away, leaving 23% to end up in landfill.

Swag, or the ever-eloquent, “Stuff we all get”, shares its roots with marketing itself. In its 1800s origin, swag turned people into walking billboards for products and services. By the 80s, swag had evolved with the frenzy of marketing itself and emerged as an industry of its own. It sought to no longer just increase brand awareness but act as a gift of gratitude.