What’s in your swag bag?

A swag bag is an essential element of any event; most often of business events, but also any other type like a birthday party or sports event. Today we are discussing why it is so important to think over what to put in a swag bag and what the trends for that are.

Swag bag, or event gift bag, is truly a multi-functional tool. First, because it caters and provides opportunities for all event stakeholders at once: organisers, sponsors, speakers, attendees/guests etc); and second, it solves several issues:

• provides information
• provides for increased brand visibility and markets services/products
• addresses the emotional aspect

Quite for long a conference or seminar’s attendees used to bring heavy bags with a sponsor’s logo full of leaflets, pens, notebooks and keychains. Again, with logos and names.

But the times have changes. Pens, notebooks and even more advanced options – USB-drive or T-shirt – are NOT what you want in your swag bag.  While making the wonderful and trendy swag bag, remember about these three things:

• an event audience is much more demanding now than ever before
• creativity is required in everything and even (and all the more so!) when making a swag bag
• a swag bag is some sort of post-event message to the participants which they take away. What would you like to tell them about? 

 

Now, how to put together the proper swag bag?  We’ve made a list of most interesting trends and examples of those items you can put into your swag bag. 

1. The first one is the most trending option at present. 

It is really getting popular and will definitely make your guests feel you are at the cutting edge in  doing your job. But it is not a bag at all. At least, not in its physical state. No surprise: digital age – digital swag bag!  

Instead of a tote bag full of useful things like umbrellas or re-usable bottles, event participants receive a digital swag bag full of great offers from various brands. These may vary from discount or test coupons to gift cards to learning materials, E-books and the like. Huge field for experiments and getting creative, indeed.

A digital swag bag is a great option which

• reflects the latest developments in the industry and thus suggests you are at the cutting edge and are eager to implement the most fresh ideas 
• corresponds to the ever wide usage of mobile phone
• provides an opportunity to implement the most creative ideas to make your sponsors happy
• is no paper weight and this is a huge advantage – remember those trash cans full of leaflets and papers never seen by the participants 
• budget-friendly
• eco-friendly

There are companies providing solutions for making a digital swag bag, to event planners. We like Zoliro most: 

If for whatever reason you are not ready to go for a digital swag bag, you can still have a trendy bag, in a traditional format. For instance, 

2. “Tailored” swag bags

We divide these into two categories:

А) the items in the bag constitute so called an event kit – that is they might be helpful to your guests depending on the nature of the event. or example, if this is a sport event the swag bag can contain an umbrella and/or a hat.

B) the items in the bag reflect the topic or the aim of an event. For example, if this is an international event, it would be a good idea to put the local SIM card into the bag. If this is a child’s birthday party , their guests can find a small toy in the bag. (especially if it somehow corresponds to the party’s theme).

Such tailored swag bag is a sign of a caring event organiser, and your participants will be very pleased to feel that. 

3. Traditional popular options

Here we just list a couple of other options which are very interesting and non trivial: 

• unusual food. Forget bite-sized chocolate and pack of mints. Find unusual food item (there are plenty of them now, for example: Coffee Cereal) that matches your case, and do not forget the packing which can even reflect your event’s philosophy.

• mobile charger

You know, the world has gone mobile. A smartphone is a device #1. A mobile charger is a device #1.1/2 If your guests find it in their bags they will love you, for sure.

Well, we all know we love presents. We hope this article will help you create a useful, memorable and eventful swag bag 🙂 

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