Using Promotional Products during Virtual Events -
8 Ways to Maximize Your Visibility
Tradeshows and conferences rely on sponsors to help promote and fund events. This benefits sponsors by presenting their brand to attendees on merchandise, event signage and booths. How can sponsors maintain their visibility now that tradeshows and conferences have turned virtual during the Covid-19 pandemic? Below are eight ways that companies can use promotional products alongside virtual events to grow awareness and strengthen brands.
1) Swag Bags – A swag bag is a great opportunity to put sponsors in front of attendees. Providing useful items that will be kept for a long time are the key to driving impressions. You may also choose something that will be used outside the “office” to create additional impressions in public. Water bottles, umbrellas, hats, and apparel are great examples of items that are useful and create additional outside impressions. Premium swag bags can also drive attendance and signups. For example, you can entice people to sign up for the event by offering a premium gift package to the first 100 registrants.
2) Apparel – Provide apparel to every presenter, moderator, and host with the event logo and the sponsor’s logo to wear during their presentation. This is a good way to increase event pride and brand visibility. Make sure that the brand is visible to all attendees by placing the logo in a high-visibility area like the shoulder, chest, or collar. A logo on the back of a shirt has no value during a virtual event! Sending every attendee, a branded t-shirt to wear during the event will make them feel united and part of something bigger.
3) Engagement – Keeping an audience engaged helps keep attendees from being distracted. A great rule of thumb is to have a small audience engagement activity every 10 minutes. Add a contest during an engagement activity to create a fun and lively event. Offer a sponsored door prize for a high-end gift during the presentation to keep the excitement going and help the attendees stay engaged by creating energy in the online “room.”
4) On-line Pop-up Stores – Build excitement around the event by creating a pop-up store with event merchandise co-branded with sponsor and event logos. Pop-up stores are open for a limited period and a have a limited selection of merchandise. Pop-up stores allow event coordinators to provide more offerings since they will not need to hold large inventories of items.
5) Social Media – Social media is a good way to multiply your reach and can have a huge impact on the success of your virtual event. Encourage attendees to share photos with their swag with a hashtag to create buzz and maximize impressions. Encourage them to tag the sponsor, too, to generate even more traffic and visibility for everyone. Sponsors may even want to offer a prize drawing for attendees that share on social media.
6) Food – If you normally host a sit-down dinner during your event, send each participant a meal, champagne and/or wine as part of their registration package. Or provide a variety of snacks to keep participants engaged. Send a few bottles of wine and consider hosting a virtual wine tasting as part of the event!
7) Presentations – Provide a presentation template for presenters to use that has sponsor logos displayed. And, by sharing the presentations after the event, the sponsor's logos receive even more impressions.
8) After the Event – Sponsors can follow-up with attendees by providing a small thank you gift. The best follow-ups are personal, timely, and provide value. Useful and inexpensive follow up items that are easy to send through the mail are webcam covers, sling grips, or a mini microfiber cleaning cloth.
These eight tips will help you maintain visibility and grow your brand as you host or participate in virtual events. Incorporating promotional products into your event planning is a great way to build loyal contacts for your sponsors while providing thoughtful items that your attendees will use every day.
Are looking for innovative ways to reach your customers with promotional products and corporate gifts, either for an upcoming event or as part of your normal marketing efforts?
Reach out to Golden Bee Promotions today
Back to Work Essentials
Companies will soon be bringing their employees back into the office. For some industries, this will happen in waves. Are you ready for your employees to return to the office? Employers should focus on three areas in particular: 1) screening employees and visitors in the workplace; 2). Social distancing and hygiene in the workplace; and 3) cleaning and sanitizing the workplace.
Screening Employees and Visitors
Employers should institute screening measures for all employees, customers and visitors entering the workplace. This may include temperature checks and screening questions. For some employees that have returned to the workforce in other countries, they begin the morning with a temperature check. Reusable forehead thermometers or no contact thermometers are perfect for this task.
Social Distancing in the Workplace
Employers should develop protocols to maximize space among employees, customers and visitors allowing for a minimum of six feet of distance between them. Some strategies to assist in helping maintain social distancing include floor markers and the installation of partitions or shields.
Cleaning, Sanitizing and Hygiene in the Workplace
Before employees return, employers should deep clean the workplace and they should regularly clean and disinfect. In addition, to help keep the workplace clean, companies can provide personal protection for every employee. Employers should have hand sanitizer stations or individual hand sanitizers widely available for all employees. Also, providing “germ keys” to each employee is a good practice to help prevent the spread of germs. Or, tissues can be provided in elevators with instructions to use them to push buttons and then discard them in adjacent trashcans. Some companies are providing “return to work” PPE kits for employees that contain gloves, a mask, and antiseptic towelettes.
Making sure every employee has personal protection and feels safe is important to maintaining the health of the individual and the company. This is a moment for HR to shine. It is a chance to show employees that HR cares and that the health of their colleagues is of the utmost concern.
2019 PYRAMID WINNING CAMPAIGN
Self Promotion
Silver Level Award Winner
To educate distributors on the idea that Pop! Can be their industry "sidekick."
Pop! Promos launched its Sidekick campaign to provide compelling designs, tools and education tips to distributors to better sell products. As part of the campaign, Pop! Promos created 3,000 kits, which included custom Pantone-matched dress socks, Clubman sunglasses, touchscreen gloves and a sticky wallet housed in a full-color pouch. The fully customized kit highlighted creative, cost-effective solutions offered to distributors.
The launch of the Sidekick campaign saw distribution of hundreds of kits at tradeshows and events throughout the year, converting leads and opening conversations with new prospects.
2019 PYRAMID WINNING CAMPAIGN
Self Promotion
Gold Level Award Winner
To show customers how much they are appreciated and thank them for a great year of projects.
Axis Promotions made a plan to complete three tasks: to demonstrate its ability to combine hyper-personalization with state-of-the-art technology and stellar promotional products; to show clients how much Axis Promotions appreciates them; and to celebrate another successful year in business. Beginning with a customer survey asking each client for their birthday, favorite charity, favorite candies, favorite color and apparel size, Axis created a customized thank-you promotion for each client. Personalized gifts were sent monthly in custom boxes with the client’s name and favorite treats.
This multi-step program included features, such as choosing a charity for donation and customizing one of a dozen items for a final gift. The campaign, designed to show customers how much they are appreciated and to thank them for a wonderful year, received an overwhelming 85 percent redemption rate.
2019 PYRAMID WINNING CAMPAIGN
Self Promotion
Silver Level Award
To gain larger clients with the goal of presenting a company store program and eventually sign a contract.
Playing off the idea that lunch is the perfect relationship builder, the lunch bag kits were distributed using a plain white shipping box with a colorful label announcing, "Especially for you from The Creative J." The kit included items commonly used at lunch: a tumbler, placemat, cutlery and a nutrition bar, as well as a booklet with information about The Creative J. Each product was selected and imprinted with one of the four goals of promotional products: to encourage growth, reward success, create awareness and invite opportunity.
The goal of gaining a meeting and ultimately a contract for a company store was a success with new orders being placed and interest expressed in company store programs.