schwag – Terence Eden’s Blog

Lessons learned from bringing promotional sweets to a conference

@edent — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 12:34:28 +0000

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?

GovGeeks T-Shirts

@edent — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 11:05:00 +0000

Like all true geeks, my laptop is a smörgåsbord of stickers dedicated to openness. And, like all true geeks, I have loads of t-shirts that advertise failed start-ups, trendy apps, and unconferences.

Why not combine the two?

(Thanks to Matt Edgar for the NHS artwork.)

(Thanks to Jukesie for his MVB design.)

You can buy them from the GovGeeks SpreadShirt store. Available in a range of sizes, styles, and colours.

A few things to note:

I don't get paid for this. I've turned off the commission function of SpreadShirt, so each sale nets me £0.00. I did think about collecting the money and giving it to charity, but that gets complex.
The store has 15% off for a couple of weeks.
If you want more designs, let me know. I'm happy to upload sensible stuff to the store, assuming it is freely licensed.
Please do remix them.
All the artwork is available in vector format at https://gitlab.com/edent/govgeeks-t-shirts

Finally, if you buy one and wear it to an important meeting - please take a selfie and tag me 😆

No More Conference T-Shirts, Please!

@edent — Sun, 13 May 2018 11:18:25 +0000

In an unexpected fit of spring-cleaning, I went through my wardrobe getting rid of all my old conference t-shirts.

Hundreds of 'em! They're all covered in logos for companies which long-ago went bust, or for events which are no-longer running, and most have... errr... "shrunk" in the wash.

I know I'm a grumpy old sod. But I've a couple of serious points to make. T-shirts are wasteful, exclusionary, and a bit of a crap gift.

Firstly, if you have spare cash at your conference - SPEND IT ON THE CONFERENCE! Make the tickets cheaper - or give them away to people who can't afford to come. Get better catering than stale sandwiches or soggy pizza. Reinvest it into the community. Pay your speakers.

Secondly, sponsors - I promise you that no one is buying your paradigm-shifting product because they wear your logo under their armpit.

I've blogged before about how t-shirts can be exclusionary. I'm not alone in thinking this.

There's a side argument. When you attend the 2018 conference wearing the t-shirt from the 2015 conference, you're sending a message: "I belong and you're just a newbie." If you've ever been to a concert and seen a dude wearing a t-shirt from the band's original 1974 tour he's saying that he is a real fan - not like you Johnny-come-latelys.

Ewww.

Do you really want an unending supply of logo'd Ts? What can you possibly do with them all?

Yeah, fair enough. But there's a limit to the number of times I can colour my hair while doing the gardening.

This is a serious problem!

Alternatives

OK, so you want to give away something. You need to bribe your participants into loving you. What can you distribute instead?

Of course, you don't need to give crap away to attendees.

Or, alternatively, turn those old shirts into a blanket.

Check Your Privilege

I'm lucky. I can afford to buy my own clothes. And my body-shape is pretty well available at most retailers. I strut with the confidence of a mediocre white man and don't need to prove myself in the workplace by conspicuously displaying symbols of my in-group membership.

Am I wrong? Do you have a source of secret survey data showing how much conference attendees love free branded t-shirts?

Shove your thoughts in the comment hole below.

Edible Logos

@edent — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 12:24:01 +0000

Just a quick shout out to the wonderful people at Ink Edibles.

I was heading to a bunch of conferences and was looking for a fun and quirky way to promote one of my websites.

At some of the bigger conventions, I'd noticed people handing out branded confectionery. All the sites I went to would only take orders for several thousand units - which was far too expensive for me.

I stumbled across a new Manchester based company which will print colour logos on to all sorts of sweets.

Delivery was quick, print quality was top-notch, and everyone at the conferences seemed to appreciate the sugary pick-me-up.

If you're looking for a bunch of edible logos, I can recommend Ink Edibles.