First of all, make sure your company name and logo are prominent on your gift – the larger the better.

In this instance, big is definitely GOOD.

Choose colors which stand out and get noticed.  I like big, vibrant colors such as red, yellow and metallic tints and hues.  The whole point is to get the gift noticed when you are displaying what you have on offer at your booth and when the gift is being carried around by a happy attendee who has already visited you so other people at the show see what they have and inquire where to go get one themselves; trust me they do this all the time!

The gift should satisfy some practical function for the recipient; corkscrews for opening wine are great; multi tools are a favorite; baseball caps and t-shirts are always on offer – the simple fact is you are looking for something that will carry on gaining the attention of your recipient.

Make sure the gift has sufficiently high perceived value; by perceived value I mean, how much the attendee is going to value the gift and in this I remember something my grandmother told me about giving presents.  The ideal present is something someone wants but will not necessarily go out and buy for themselves; I follow this when it comes to choosing gifts for attendees; I constantly strive to think of something that my prospects are going to want but they will not particularly think of making a trip to the store to get it for themselves.

Underlining everything is your ROI; your Return On Investment.

Promotional gifts cost you money, they are therefore not “free” in the sense that you simply are not going to empty the company bank account and stand on the street corner giving dollar bills away.  You buy in promotional gifts and hand them out in expectation of a return; in the case of attendees, you are looking for interest leading on to discussion about your product or service and follow up calls and orders; in simple terms, SALES!

If the promotional gift cost does not add up, don’t buy it but you will need to monitor carefully how your giveaways are performing in their role in order to assess what they are worth to you.

Whenever I look for a gift idea I have certain criteria in mind which the gift needs to fulfill.

I am ideally looking for a gift which attendees want; if they don’t want it it has little value but bear in mind, the perceived value of a gift is more important than the actual cost.

I also look for gifts which will be used time and time again by the attendee; it gets my name and contact information noticed repeatedly as I am a adherent of repetition as a sales technique.

Budget is also a factor but this will be different for you as it will be for everyone else.

My top ten promotional gift ideas areas for trade show displays follows:

1. personalized pens – but make sure they are good quality  as you want them to last;
2. seasonal gifts – Christmas is coming, choose something commensurate for the season;
3. annual gifts – calendars are always good but are commonly offered, give something that stands a chance of being the one your prospect uses;
4. yardsticks – for me these just work; a simple yard stick is big and gets noticed at the event plus it has practical utility and is sure to be used repeatedly for years;
5. wine and bottle openers – always a popular giveaway as you can never have to many of them at home, at work or wherever;
6. multi tools – I have found combination pliers/scissors and screwdrivers very popular with attendees, in fact any kind of utility tool is popular;
7. truly novel gifts – I used stress balls when they first came out but not anymore, however I do use gifts that have a real novelty value so I keep an eye on the catologs and what attendees are picking up at shows I attend;
8. key chains- always a favorite but again, you need to be careful because the more common the gift is the better quality it has to be to stand a chance of being picked as the one your recipient is going to choose to use;
9. calculators – again everyone uses them and they are handy to have around the home or office; personally I like to use the big keypad versions rather than the little mini calculators; and
10. drinking mugs – simple, cheap and everyone uses them.

I do get into the spirit of a trade show; I enjoy playing to the crowd and that is just the kind of guy I am but as I don’t have the looks of Angelina Jolie nor the box office draw of George Clooney, I find that I have to attract my audience in other ways.

Sales people are the same no matter where you go – they play to their audiences even if the audience is made up of just one individual.

The trick is to find an audience and this is where I use my giveaways.

I tie receiving my promotional gift into a product display presentation; my audience wants my gift they have to put up with my performance and that means watching how my product or service works in practice; sitting through the presentation on how my company can solve prospect’s problems and satisfy their needs and desires.

It’s a quid pro quo – a straight forward exchange and it has never failed to get me an audience.

This just serves to underline what your giveaways are there for; they are not there to reward nothing; they are not a gift for attendees simply turning up to the show or your booth – they are there to get you noticed and get you business.

Never forget that!

I make sure that product and service trade show displays are strictly scheduled within the exhibition timetable we establish for our shows.  We also make sure that this timetable is communicated to prospects and customers as part of our show preparation and also to the event managers for communication to their attendee and exhibitor database and on the day we ensure the timetable for product ad service displays is prominently displayed.

We also make sure that everyone knows they get a freebie if they come along for the presentation.

It works every time no matter what the gift.

A business associate frequently exhibits at county fairs and trade show events where there are plenty of kids, in fact where kids outnumber the adults.

Using giveaways is simpler and easier for kids but you still need to apply some thought to getting the most out of your budget when it comes to maximizing your ROI and overall results.

I asked him what was the best trade show display giveaway he had used in his experience and the answer was simple; helium balloons.

Helium balloons were simple and cheap plus they had two distinct advantages over most other promo freebies; firstly, every kid wanted one and he always had a queue at his booth with kids dragging mom and dad over to get a helium balloon which gave plenty of opportunity to attract their attention, promote and sell their offering.  The second major advantage was that the balloons effectively self-advertized across the venue attracting even more attention and more visitors to the booth.

Every time, simple helium balloons beat all.

Candy was obviously another giveaway but many parents are now shying away from force feeding junior 10,000 calories of sugar so he used a combination of alternates which provided a health option; I asked him which he preferred and he simply pated his stomach!

Kids also love clowns and entertainers; getting a finger on the youth pulse can get you noticed for a fraction of the price.  Two months ago we had a guy dress up in a Sponge Bob Squarepants outfit and the response we had was simply ridiculously high and from the adults not just the kids.  Juggling and conjuring are also firm favorites and anything that gets the audience to participate should be high on the list.

The basic elements still remain the same though; you are trying to attract attention, instill some curiosity and retain the attention of the attendees for as long as is possible after the show.  Any giveaway you come up with should have your contact information on it and best of all, the gift has some long lasting usefulness so it is kept around long after the show has ended.

I know this sounds a little lame but it works!

A couple of years ago I had a consignment of wine glasses foisted on me by a fellow exhibitor who was simply looking to get rid of some samples they had.  I had my SUV and had the room so we loaded up; 8 cases later I had more wine glasses than I could break for the rest of my life.

One of the cases ended up staying in the SV for the next show and my assistant took it out and thinking they were a giveaway had them set out in the trade show display.

I scratched my head wondering what was going on when I turned up at the booth after an early morning meeting only to realize the mistake; except by then several of my neighbors were asking how they could get hold of one of these flute wine glasses – they were decorated with a frosted base and stem and by accident just looked all Christmas like.

A week later and I was exhibiting in Tucson together with 6 cases of surplus wine glasses; they all went after helping with attracting attendees to the booth.

A simple thing; discovered for me by complete mistake was that people like the lame stuff; throw them some Christmas fayre at the right time of year and they will be over your booth like bees to the honey.  The same principle applies for other holidays and with Thanksgiving around the corner, try a cook’s thermometer for testing the temperature of food or at Easter, try an Easter bunny for the kids or whatever you can find in keeping with the holiday theme.

I may be a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas and the holidays but not when I am exhibiting at a show; no matter what your own personal feelings, people like the seasonal gifts so keep yourself apprised of the seasons when you are planning your tradeshow calendar and putting in your promotional gift orders.

Giving away a promotional gift does help attendees to remember you.

That is the simple message you need to understand; give a freebie and people will remember you.

BUT

Is this the right question to be asking to begin with?

Personally I use giveaways that have some useful function and will be used long after the show or exhibition is finished and I’ve made the trip back home to base.  I don’t bother myself with free gifts that have absolutely no utility outside the trade show event; stress balls for instance were great when they first made an appearance but now, their only use is for attendees to squeeze when they are getting stressed out with the frenetic exhibition schedule and more than likely they will end up in juniors toy box back home.

I aim to choose promotional gifts which will continue to retain the attention of the prospect long after the show has ended and here are some good examples:

• desk blotters
• calendars
• desk clocks or office “furniture” such as caddies, pen holders and the occasional executive toy
• yardsticks (I kid you not – yardsticks are hard to come by and are eminently useful)
• branded CD’s – we put a compilation of driving music together and created our own CD, every day our prospects played the CD on the way to and from work or had the CD in their collection they got to see my name and contact information
• something very novel and unique – if you happen across something truly novel you’re onto a winner so pay attention to what the fashion trends are.