It can be a pretty deflating experience to hand a freebie to someone and watch them take 10 steps and chuck it in the nearest trash bin. The issue is probably not a lack of space in their bag, but the disposability of your giveaway item.

Best Trade Show Promotion Tip: Stick with Useful Items

The best way to maximize return on your trade show promotional items is to stick with something that people will find useful. Lanyards don’t come in that handy and a bottle of spring water with your company’s logo will end up in the recycling before the recipient leaves the trade show (and no, the logo will not be recycled and viewed again).

Best Selling & Highest Retaining Promotional Items: T-Shirts

The numbers are in. The statistics for the best selling trade show promo items back this up. Wearables make up 30%; promotional pens make up 10%; calendars make up 7%; drinkware accounts for 6%; desk items account for 6% and trade show plastic bags make up 5%.

Visual Consistency is Key

While it may seem like anything free is a no-brainer when it comes to promotional items, there’s a strategy to what you should choose to hand out at a trade show. The key is to give the recipient something they will use over and again for months or years. Your product or name ends up in their face on a consistent basis and that’s precisely how you get your return.

It’s estimated that 70% of people remember the company that gave them a specific product. Naturally, this success rate would multiply if you give away re-useable items.

Think desk items. Think t-shirts (even if you end up wearing them to bed, at least they aren’t in the trash). Think pens or items for the kitchen. These are things people will see and use on a frequent, if not daily, basis.

So while novelty may be exciting, utility is what lasts.