The Guide to Good Event Merchandise

What makes good corporate event merchandise?

Nobody wants your brand merch – unless it actually means something.

Promotional items and goodie bags have long been a staple of corporate events, providing a brand touchpoint that can keep your brand top of mind post-event.

Merch is a strong marketing tool, but only if the audience chooses to use it. We all know sometimes another branded gift can be forgettable and ends up in the bin. In fact, only about 20% of branded promo items are kept post-event.

What makes these items worth holding on to?

Good corporate event merchandise is useful, well-designed and relevant to the people receiving it. The best items reflect the brand’s values, suit the event’s purpose and offer genuine value beyond the event itself.

This simple guide to good corporate gifts explores how to select merchandise intentionally in order to appeal to and resonate with your target audience, transforming forgettable merch into useful tools and part of your brand story.

How to choose merchandise that reflects your brand

Merch serves as a tangible representation of your brand, so it’s integral that the items you choose align with your identity, helping to build brand recognition. However, this doesn’t mean just adding an oversized logo to everything. Lose the shouting and opt for storytelling and sensory design.

✔ Does it feel true to your values?  For instance, a brand known for its eco-friendly messages should opt for sustainable and purposeful gifts.

✔ Invest in good quality materials. Your brand isn’t just visual – customers make associations with what they can feel.

✔ Think about premium, personalised details like embroidery and engraving.  You can offer live customisation on site to build emotional attachment.

✔ Collaborate with artists to create aesthetic, exclusive items and add your brand personality through design and subtle logo integration. 

✔ Customise popular products or partner with brands to build on existing recognition and sentiment.

✔ Does the gift align with your event theme, audience interests, or brand? When there’s a real story behind the gift, it means more to the audience. 

For ComplyAdvantage’s Catalyst Conference, attendees could choose from a selection of branded t- shirts. Instead of simply adding their logo front and centre, the t-shirts were designed with on-theme slogans like FinCrime Fight Club.

10 corporate event merchandise ideas

If it lives in a drawer it’s not merch, it’s clutter. Gift something people will actually use.

The essentials:

✔ Travel essentials like portable chargers and Airtags. 

✔ Office and work from home essentials. 

✔ Daily essentials like hand sanitiser spray.

✔ Edible items like branded Tony’s Chocolonely bars 

✔ A daily touchpoint like an espresso mug or coffee beans. 

✔ Wellness items like room spray and puzzle books. 

✔ Premium items like plants and candles.

✔ The chance to win a premium prize. 

✔ A memento such as stickers. 

✔ A wearable item attendees can bring to the next event such as a cap or duffel bag. 

How to make event merchandise part of the wider brand experience

Merchandise can extend an experience beyond the event through thoughtful gifting, useful products, personalisation and post-event engagement. It works best when the choice and presentation support the event’s wider creative idea. To enhance your brand merchandise strategy, think beyond the gift itself. This includes competitions, registration packs, interactive personalisation, on-site distribution, and post-event follow-up.

Some ways to enhance the gifting experience at events:

✔ Give attendees the chance to win tiered merch with games such as a claw machine, like the one at Alaska Airline’s launch event.  

✔ Make it interactive with a vending machine like the one at M&G Investments’ Annual Investor Forum. 

✔ Offer on-site personalisation. Broadsword have organised custom luggage tag embossing at our client events. 

WORK WITH US

Planning an event? Let’s make every touchpoint count.

If you have an impactful event to deliver, a brief that is still taking shape, or a challenge you are not yet sure how to solve, talk to us about it. Broadsword is corporate events agency who specialises in full service event management from venue finding and design to AV and technical production.

Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can help you with your next corporate event.