Ever seen an exhibitor like this? At first everything goes according to plan. The show opens, the branded items are lined up at the front of the booth, and within the first hour they are half gone. The foot traffic into the booth looks good, people are stopping. The team is handing things out, smiling, doing the job.
But then day two arrives and they look at their lead sheet. Something does not add up here, weird? Not really. The pens are gone, the USB sticks are gone too, and the tote bag? Poof, gone too. So why does the pipeline doesn’t look how it should? My friend, that’s because the qualified conversations never happened. They might have collected a stack of business cards from people, but these are going to be non responders after the show.
So what happened? Here is what happened: the giveaways worked. But not for them.
What trade show swag really stands for
Ever heard the word swag? That's how we call the giveaways in trade show circles. S.W.A.G. is an acronym. It stands for Stuff We All Get, which is the covert confession that most trade show giveaways are interchangeable, expected, and so, in reality, meaningless. Walk in any exhibition and you will find them accross the tables. The pens branded with someone's logo. The stress balls. The USB cables. The Keychains. The Mints. I'm not over, wait. The sacred notebooks (I have 20 in a drawer at home). And of course, the tote bags that will carry them all. Did I mention the phone stands?
Let's agree, first. The intention is commercially, how can I put it... logical? I mean they want to be remembered, they want "visibility". But can a pen achieve that? No seriously, it's a genuine question. I get it, they want to leave a trace (there the pen can help). But am the only one seeing that a pen with a logo does not make a company memorable? Especially when thirty other companies on the same show have the same. Oh, ok, you agree. Then why the hell are they spending money, and worse TIME, on that? (Did I tell you about the time a ceo told me his marketing director spend 2 days choosing a SWAG?)
The visitor who loves your trade show giveaway is not your customer
Here's the little dirty secret goodies and swag sellers don't tell them. Giveaways attract a specific type of visitor: the person who wants the item! Not the solution they sell! I'm sure you've seen them...at every trade show. Yes there is a population of attendees who have developed, what should we call it? An appetite, a lust maybe, and professional talent for collecting freebies. Some are like real pickpockets. They walk the show with a mission: get the free stuff! They will only stop at booths that have swags. They sneak in with a smile, sometimes ask a polite question, and once the exhibitor turns his head, or sometimes, in their face, they snatch the pen. They have no budget, no decision-making authority, no project that aligns with whatever the company does, and of course no intention of buying anything. They are here to take.
I mean, do you really believe someone with authority will visit a booth and select a company to do business with because of free pens? Do you really believe it's the giveaways that pull that kind of people in? No, right? Who these things attract are free pen collectors, or freebie scavengers like I call them. And deep down inside everyone knows it. And the funny thing is that we can all be one of these scavengers, at times. But do you know when? Think about it for a minute. Let the question land... Found the answer? When we don't care about the exhibitor! When we have no intention of buying. Yep.
But because exhibitors refuse to see these swags for what they are, a false good idea, they spend tine and money on them. And what they also refuse to see, and now let's be serious for a moment. They refuse to see that their cost-per-interaction goes up, and that their conversion rate goes down. Because of these things!
Why? Because the quality visitor they came for, walked past their booth, saw the pile of branded stress balls and made an unconscious judgment about the kind of company they are. And that person kept walking. But instead, they were swarmed by the other kind of visitors... the ones who had no intention to buy. It's a psychological projection. If I have myself in high esteem, if I am a person of "value"and on shows visitors are the "persons of value" I do not fall for the cheap sales tactics that these pens are.
So here's a freebie for you my friend: think about giveaways the way you think about a window shop. A window full of promotional stickers and flashing discounts, which is what these pens and stress balls are...What does it say about who belongs inside? And who gets inside?
Why do rational exhibitors keep buying this crap?
I could have said the same reason why we eat fast food, because it’s cheap, fast, convenient, and fills a gap, but the problem digs deeper.
Ever heard of social conformity?
What do I mean by that?
I mean adhering to rules, tacit rules, even when they make NO SENSE?
Because think about it, if I’m right and most of these giveaways are totally USELESS, why do so many people use them? Am I suddenly smarter than everyone? Or can the majority be wrong?
Don’t trust my words, watch this, then read on:
There are two types of trade show giveaways, one that works, one that doesn't
Not all giveaways are "born" equal. Some will serve the exhibitor's intent, some will be counterproductive. Here's how to distinguish them.
The bait
The first type is the broadcast giveaway. This is the item sitting on the table at the front of your booth, available to anyone who walks by, requiring no conversation, no qualification, and no commitment from the visitor. The broadcast giveaway is the one that attracts the freebie hunter. It sends the wrong signals. It says I have nothing of enough to offer, I don't know how to attract you, so here's a pen: please come, take it, and tell me you love what I do. And that is exactly what visitors do. They come in, they say "oh wow, that's amazing, very interesting, I will think about it. Can I take a pen?. That is, for the polites ones.
The present
The second type is the present, or the earned giveaway. This is the item that is only given after a conversation, as a present, not a bait. These gifts, they are not visible at first glance, from the aisle. It is taken out at the right moment, for the right person, as a reinforcement of a connection that has already started. It is chosen and given because it is strenghtens a bond, a relationship that was just created. Like the present you give to your loved ones. The item might be the same. But do you see the difference? It's how the item is being used. The same branded notebook can be a broadcast giveaway that gets thrown in a conference bag and forgotten, or an earned giveaway that lands on a specific person's desk because it is kept as a good memory of something said during the conversation. One will be remembered, the other won't. Most companies use the broadcast model because they don't have a sound trade show marketing strategy and because they don't know how to engage conversations with visitors without a crutch. If you want to read more about it, you can read Why your trade show marketing feels right but keeps failing.
So if these swags might feel like a safe bet and might make you feel generous and visible, they don't stand the test when measured against what actually matters: qualified conversations and follow-ups that turn into revenue.
The cost of trade show promotional items
Let's do the math for a moment: a company orders 500 branded items at 8 euros each. That is 4,000 euros in product before shipping, storage, and transport to the show. Add to that the time spent selecting, briefing the supplier, approving the design, coordinating delivery, and managing the logistics at the booth itself.
Now let's continue the maths. If those 500 items go to 500 people over three days, and 400 of them were freebie hunters with no purchase intent, the exhibitor has spent the majority of that budget engaging with the wrong audience. And the 100 qualified visitors who received the item got the same experience as everyone else, which means the item did nothing to deepen the relationship or differentiate your company. Compare that with spending the same budget on improving the engaging skills, the social skills, the conversation skills of the team on the booth, which is about the same price, and you'll have the difference between an exhibitor who knows what works on a show, and one who doesn't. Trade shows reward companies that engage well and convert well, not companies that distribute giveaways well. That should never be part of trade show strategy.
Trade show giveaway strategy: four principles to use for your shows
Relevance over volume
A small number of well-chosen items given to qualified visitors outperforms a large number of generic items given to everyone.
The item should extend the conversation, not replace it
If your team is using a giveaway to start a conversation ("would you like a pen?"), the item has become a crutch. The conversation should start first. The item may come after, if it is relevant.
Match the item to the insight
An effective trade show giveaway is one that reflects something specific that was said during the conversation. If the company is about travels, or the visitor travels a lot, a quality travel accessory lands differently than a generic stress ball. The item says: I listened. I care about you, specifically. And since an exhibitor should know their customers. that shouldn't be too hard to think about which giveaway to buy. Of course it requires putting thought into it, but just as you put thought into any birthday gift for someone you know. Not more, not less. That is the memory you want to create.
Ask what behavior the item produces
Before ordering anything, your team should be able to answer one question: what will the person who receives this do next, and how does that help us? If the answer is "they will take it and put it in a drawer" that item does not belong in your booth.
How to build a trade show giveaway strategy around the right visitor
The M.A.G.I.C. Exhibiting™ Formula is the framework that governs everything about how a company should prepare for and perform at a trade show to be successful at it (read How to be successful at trade shows). M.A.G.I.C. is an acronym: Map a Show Strategy, Attract Right Visitors, Generate Profitable Conversations, Ignite the Game Plan, and Capitalize on Show Outcomes. The giveaway question lives inside the second and third ingredients: Attract The Right Visitors, and Generate Profitable Conversations with them.
Attract the right visitors
Attracting the right visitors is not about attracting everybody or anybody and then doing triage. It is about being visible and relevant to a specific type of visitor and invisible to everyone else. A broadcast giveaway unfortunately does the opposite: it attracts everyone. And it forces you to do triage, using up your energy and your time. And on shows time and energy are a limited supply.
Generate profitable conversations
Profitable conversations do not happen because an exhibitor gives away presents. The Beatles said it: money can’t buy you love. Pens won’t create a need. A profitable conversation is when two people benefit from it. Giveaways should answer one question”how can we show we care?”. Not the same than "what should we order from the catalog this year to attract visitors?"
The trade show giveaway that visitors actually remember
There is an art to giving something, and this art is the same at a trade show. And you already know it because you have lived it at every birthday and Christmas when you received something that showed you were loved and cared for.
Your visitors are the same. They will not remember the pen. They will remember the person who they had profitable conversations with and who then pulled out something specific and said: I got something for you.
That is the giveaway strategy worth building.
Before ordering any trade show promotional items
Before you look for a giveaway, and before you lock that budget in for your next show, I got something for you. If your team wants to build a show strategy that shows you care for your customer and that will generate you new or renewed business, watch the Exhibitor's Edge masterclass. There is a case study in it where two entrepreneurs I helped were ready to spend big on giveaways. But they did something else instead that turned their first show, into a huge success, and a stepping stone for their company.