Lessons learned from bringing promotional sweets to a conference
I've recently set up my own consultancy company and decided to sponsor my local UKGovCamp conference. That entitled me to a logo on the site, a shout-out during the conference, and place to put any promotional stickers. Everyone loves stickers!
But I decided to bring along something different - promotional sweeties!
I found a small business to print my logo with edible ink onto sweets and ordered some fizzy flying saucers, mint Mentos, and fruit Mentos. They all had my company logo and name on them.
Here was my working theory. If I were a bigger sponsor, I'd have a table and people would have been able to come up to me and chat in exchange for swag. But I didn't have a dedicated space. That's OK, I could make my own space!
If you walk up to people while carrying a big bag of candy and say "Would you like a Jelly Baby an after-dinner mint?" people react with joy! Most people love being offered a sweet. It's a great way to meet people and start conversations.
It was great! It felt like I talked to all 500 attendees, I gave away most of the sweets, and I told people a little about the work I do. People had smiles on their faces and were happy to chat.
But… Here's what didn't work.
The key flaw in my cunning plan is that once you give someone a sweet with a logo on it, they eat the sweet. Now they don't have your logo to remember you by! A sticker is like a business card - a physical reminder. A sweet is gone in an instant.
The sweets are quite small and, as a consequence, the logo and text are also small. A few people didn't notice the printing or thought that the mints were designed to look like blue eyeballs.
My site has reasonable SEO if you search for "Open Ideas Ltd" - but there was no URl printed on the sweets because they were too small. And they would be eaten straight away.
Compact disks of sugar aren't the most health-conscious snack. I made sure that the treats were all vegan and gluten-free. While the big tub of flying saucers had the ingredients and allergens printed on them, the Mentos didn't. Some people were (understandably) reluctant to take unidentified sweets from a stranger.
So, lessons learned? Bring bigger sweets, with more eye-catching designs, including a clear call to action, and which are sugar-free and inedible.
Stickers. I've reinvented stickers…
And yet… I'd probably do it again! I'm not a mega-corp trying to convince people to purchase my services. I'm just this guy, you know? It can be a bit intimidating to go up to strangers and say "TALK TO ME". But saying "Hello! Would you care for a sweet?" is a socially acceptable ice-breaker.
I enjoyed the experience and, while I don't think it will lead to a 10x ROI with enhanced EBITDA and hitting my OKRs, it was a lot of fun.
My question to you is this - what's the favourite swag you've ever given out?
I think I've still got mine, nearly 20 years later.
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I was always reluctant to hand it business cards, so I made one that doubled as USB sticks. It helped that I actually needed USB sticks for workshops I was giving. But it did make it easier to hand out the cards!
Mike says:
Favourite souvenirs I’ve received are socks. They don’t trigger my aversion to wearing branded merch (unlike t-shirts), they go with a variety of outfits (and gender presentations), and they’re one of the few items I can never have too many of. 🧦
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They were individually wrapped and the wrapper featured the company name and URL along with some goofy eye-related slogan that I can’t quite remember. Something like “halten Sie uns im Auge” (keep your eye on us).
They were, if nothing else, attention-grabbing.
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Jade Ellis says:
However, all the plastic in it probably isn't great for the environment.
I once cheered folk on 1st day of a post-stressful utter cluster-F of a mass office move by offering vegetarian jelly beans Dr Who style.
Great way to get people to come and say hi and talk to one another. Management couldn't even make us go back to work cos there were no PCs or phones (their mess).
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Andrew Larcombe says:
This wasn't dreamt up by the marketing dept - just the development team who came up with and implemented the idea over a lunch beer.
Carrie Eden says:
Sadly that's going to be a bit more expensive than a branded Flying Saucer.
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morganism says:
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Nobody signed up despite this being a great book. My German colleague said I would have had more entries with an iPod or similar giveaway...
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Tim Haysom says:
does anyone put their address on a business card anymore? 😉
Steve Lake says:
So, at a big event in Earls Court that year, we had a big stand, and gave away garden gnomes with our branding on them! They were surprisingly popular, and we got emails from all over Europe where people had taken them home and had interesting conversations with airport security on the way.
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