1. Original Research

Gone are the days that you see only big consulting firms such as McKinsey, Bain publishing original research. Today companies are investing in original research and reaping benefits getting leads.

Clare McDermott, Head of Research, Mantis research in her Marketingprof event presentation stated

“If original research is well done, it offers highly visual shareable content, delivers backlinks, recharges the editorial calendar, gives authority and credibility, gets journalistic attention and inspires
new ideas for speaking gigs.”

You need participants to survey & publish research and there is no better place than these large tech events. But how do you get participants to spend 5 minutes to complete a survey.

Logz.io, AI-powered log analysis company, were giving out Star Wars Lego sets to the attendees, who were completing their DevOps survey. Swags related to children are extremely popular.

Imagine you are out on a conference for a week away from family and then you get back home and surprise your child with Star Wars Lego kit that they love.

2. Arousing curiosity

In the Marketingprofs event that I recently attended, at the registration desk we were given a swag bag with promotional information of the various booths in the exhibition hall. Directive Consulting, a B2B search marketing agency, had an exclusive key that could open the safe that contained an Apple Watch to be won.

This helped in driving the attendees to go the booth to see if they were lucky winner of the Apple Watch.

3. Give away utilitarian, reusable and high-quality swag

You want to give swag that attendees can use and keep in their desk so that they sub- consciously see your brand logo on an everyday basis.

You do not want to give swag that will be tossed in the trash. Power pack, multiple USB or good quality water bottles are good swags.

4. Thanking customers with swag for giving reviews

In the B2C world, Amazon, Trip Advisor and Yelp reviews have become commonplace. Many B2B companies are now leveraging customer reviews as a reference asset earlier in the sales cycle. In 2018 DemandGen B2B Buyers Survey, 65% of the buyers said that customer reviews was a very important factor when evaluating vendors in the buying process.

B2B review companies such as  IT Central Station and TrustRadius provide personnel to interview  customers who visit the booth or who are in the vicinity. The customer is generally given a gift card of nominal value or swag to show appreciation for taking time to give a candid review.

5. Differentiating to engage customers/prospects

Finally, I am proud that my company Pure Storage won the Best Swag award in the AWS re: Invent this year. Many companies give out T-shirts to attendees, but we took to a different level by giving the option to select a custom design and get it printed real time at the back of booth.

Please click to see the video below.   The attendees loved to see their T shirt printed under a minute and cherished it as they never experienced before.

Source- Best Swag Award, @AWSreInvent Twitter Feed