Give-away a story to be remembered

Handing out give-aways at events and trade shows is common practice. But have you ever thought about how to make it more memorable and connect it to your company with more than just the logo?

Giving away little gifts is a popular way of creating awareness, expressing customer appreciation or simply saying thank you. We give customers and prospects something to take away that should remind them of our company, products or services when they are back in their offices. And hopefully they will remember and contact us when they need services or products that we can provide.

“I have a present for you”

When we give people a gift we often say “I have a little present for you: Here is a pen, notebook, chocolate, or …”. People like and appreciate presents, so they are happy – Good. And, sure, the present will carry our logo, so the receiver will see where it came from – Good.

But can we not make this experience even better? More exciting? More memorable?

A give-away as a means of communicating

Our company has a story and at an event we want to tell it: It is the main advantage, benefit or purpose message for our product or service. This is the key basis that we want a prospect to understand.

The trade show or event is there to deliver our company’s message or story. By including a give-away to reinforce and substantiate the story, we can achieve a traction that goes further than the event itself.

Which give-away to give

The choice of give-away is important. For example, if we give away stress balls what message are we transmitting with our company name plastered on them? So clearly some give-aways can be worse than no give-away. We need to consider what relevance to our products or services our give-away has. Give-aways often come in fads and a popular give-away will be available by others but not necessarily appropriate. Selecting carefully is the obvious first step.

Rather than going for a standard give-away we can select one that relates in some way to our business. Such as a “Record Label” giving away an MP3 player or a pair of headphones. The suitability or relevance of the give-away goes in some measure to connect later use with our event.

But we can go even further: By selecting a give-away that is suitable and tying a message or story to it, we can provide an even stronger delivery of the messaging.

Let us explore this with an example

An insurance company, the largest in the region or for a particular policy, wants to express their magnitude: how much trust their clients have in their service, or how much experience they have.

With one of these intended messages they could have a number lock as their give-away, for bicycles, suitcases or garden gates.

The story “safety in numbers” comes to mind, both in the message to the customer and the meaning of the give-away. Whilst not a story per se, it does represent the story the company wants to impart, and in this instance the connection to a phrase that is in common usage.

This means that the recipient will associate the insurance company with both the gift and the phrase whenever they are used.

So the give-away and the message should through the “story” merge to a whole. Active at the time and memorable long after the event. By making the give-away a meaningful extension of the message everything the client experiences at the event is a consistent and coherent experience.

The time we have with each visitor is often limited. By making a give-away not only bring pleasure at the time, but also continuing the message we have a greater chance of traction.

Will you be remembered?

Why not try this at your next event or trade show presence?