It's never too early to start scheming your next client care gift. In Episode 51, Middle of Six marketing and creative strategists, Grace Takehara and Lauren Jane Peterson, share their best practices for executing a thoughtful client care gift campaign, common hurdles, and tips for choosing a gift that resonates. Through insightful anecdotes and industry experiences, Grace and Lauren Jane highlight how curated client gifts and thoughtful messaging can be a pivotal tool in personifying your firm's brand and values; critical elements of brand awareness.
Listen in as the Middle of Six team outlines key considerations when executing a client gift campaign, the power of storytelling in gift giving, and their "hot takes" for choosing items that resonate and are worth the investment.
CPSM CEU Credits: 0.5 | Domain: 5
Podcast Transcript
Welcome to The Shortlist.
We're exploring all things AEC marketing to help your firm win The Shortlist.
I'm your host, Wendy Simmons, and each episode I'll be joined by one of my team members from Middle of Six to answer your questions.
Today, we're talking with Grace Takehara and Lauren Jane Peterson to discuss all things swag, including client and employee gifts and all kinds of promotional materials.
Does it have your logo or not?
We will discuss that today.
Thanks, Grace and Lauren Jane, for being here.
Hello.
Nice to be back.
Good to have you back.
You two are so thoughtful and intentional about everything you do, every aspect of your life, your work life, your personal life, everything that I know.
So I'm really excited to have you here to talk today because I think the advice you will give or your thoughts and ideas and preferences will be based on a lot of deep felt opinions about these things.
So cannot wait to unravel this conversation.
But before we get into that, I'm going to throw out our quick fire question, which is, can either of you, both of you hopefully share a gift, I think like a corporate type gift or something that you received that was very memorable?
And that could be memorable in a good way, memorable and not as good of a way.
I don't know.
I'm curious if there's something that sticks out in your mind of something you received that left an impression for you and probably helped inform some of the gifting and promotional work that you do now.
I can start.
The first thing that came to mind was actually the sackcloth and ashes blanket that, Wendy, that you gave our team last year.
I have it on my couch and I use it every single day.
Yeah, and the reason why it stuck out is because it felt like a gift that you were giving to us because you thought we would love it, not because it had Middle of Six on it.
Right, because it's not a branded gift, right?
Correct.
It was just a literal, legitimate gift.
Yes, yep.
The blanket that I received does happen to be in alignment with Middle of Six branding colors, so that's a bonus.
But that's the first thing that I thought of.
It felt just like a really lovely, lovely gift that was for us.
Well, I'm so glad that that left a positive impression for you.
I mean, that's the intention when I'm out there looking for things, you know, for the team or for our clients, and just like, since we're gonna get into these types of tips through the episode, I wanna say that I think I was at my brother's house, very random, not related to work or anything, and he had that, a beautiful blanket on his couch, and I said, this is so nice.
Where did you get this?
And he was like, oh, my boss gave that to us, and it's really cool because when you buy a blanket, they donate a blanket to someone in need, and it just is really great, and they happen to be a realtor or something, and so they were doing it for a lot of their clients in that way, and it just stuck in my mind.
And so it maybe was 18 months later till it popped in to place for us to use at Middle of Six, and we've recommended it to other people too.
So you never know where that kind of nice idea could come from outside in the world that you can bring in on the business side too.
Absolutely.
I'm glad you enjoyed that.
That's awesome.
Yeah, thank you.
Grace, how about you?
Well, I have to say ditto to what Lauren Jane said briefly.
I enjoy it.
I use it every day.
My dog, Patsy, loves it too, so great, great gift.
But a gift that really, I think, sparked my creativity and opened my mind to what client care can look like.
And the gift form was early in my career, when I was working in an architecture firm that collaborated a lot with a particular GC, they sent a really thoughtful day pack that had their logo embroidered on it.
With a Nalgene water bottle and a Washington Trail Association's trail guide for hiking in the Cascades.
And I just thought that that was just such a, one, a very nice package, very quality gift, but also had a lot of purpose behind it and was incredibly memorable.
And years later, I still think about how cohesive that gift was, how the team member that got that at our firm went around the office and was like, look at this incredible gift I got that was so thoughtful.
And so that really opened my eyes to thinking beyond just something that has a logo on it, but thinking about what is the impression and message behind something and thinking beyond just our general industry and our professional lives.
How can this gift be used outside of our nine to five jobs?
So that left a huge impression on me.
And I think we'll compliment what Lauren and Jane and I are gonna share over this conversation.
Yeah, that is a good example and not to bring it totally back to Middle of Six.
But as you were saying that, we did something in the pandemic, which was giving a Northwest Discovery Pass to our clients because it was that time where people were stuck to their computers and not getting outside.
And we read some study or I think maybe just, it came up in one of our team conversations.
Did you know that if you spend two hours outside every week that it improves your quality of life by X percent, something that stood out to us and it just resonated with us as a group and said, oh my gosh, A, more people need to know about this and we would like to give people permission to get away from their desk and go outside.
So we sent those out to a group of our clients at that time and it was really well received.
And it felt good that we were doing something good with our gift too.
It felt, I mean, maybe they passed it on to someone else who could use it or maybe, I'm not sure how much they were used, but there's a little bit of faith that goes into giving something where you think we were intentional about this, we feel like it's a good match, and we really hope you can get some use out of it.
I'm glad that you had a similar experience with that kind of like get outside and it's more about the person than the company in that way.
Yeah, absolutely.
Very cool.
All right, well, before we get into your really good content that you've got to share today, I do want to throw out a quick trivia question, which is what percentage of promotional gifts are kept for more than one year?
Do either of you have a guess?
25%.
That sounds pretty good.
I want to take a risk and say lower.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
$1.
$1?
Her bid is $1.
I'm going to say, like, it's got to be different from Grace's.
Uh, 15%.
When do you factor in how many gifts may not last a day?
Or a minute?
You know?
I mean, that's, that's a big deal.
Well, I will make you both wait until the end of this episode, where we can talk about that more.
I've got some other facts related to promotional items, and I'm sure it'll be really helpful to kind of hear that summary after we go through all of your tips and thoughts on this.
So as we always do on our podcast, let's start off with, like, why is this topic important?
Why did you select it?
And what should our listeners expect to hear today?
Yeah, I feel like as marketing and communication professionals, this is a task that you are given slash gladly accept, but it's something that I think all of us navigate and grapple with, especially in the heat of Q3 and Q4.
So I think that this is a topic that most of us, if not all of us, can relate to, and really thinking about how client care can really, one, leave an impression with your client, and really being thoughtful about what that impression leaves, you know?
And also being aware that client care is an investment, both of time and money, and really being thoughtful about what is, we, you know, grapple with this word a lot, what's the ROI, and what's the level of effort in return on that that's worth the time and effort of your company.
So I think again, this is an overarching topic that can be relatable, but then also thinking about is this a worthwhile investment?
What level of investment?
All those kinds of things factor into client care.
It's a big topic.
Before, I definitely want Lauren Jane to add on there with your perspective of that, but something that popped into my mind is this term you use, client care.
We use that all the time at Middle of Six.
It's probably not that unique of a term.
Sometimes I'm not sure what we invent or what we just pick up out there in the world, and I know that this topic of gifting and promotional items and branded things even goes beyond client care.
But often for us, we're thinking about how do we want to engage with our clients through the year?
And at some point, and it can be multiple times in the year, but for us, it's usually about once a year.
There's a very deliberate time when we are giving a gift or developing something, something that's like on the level of a campaign almost, to show our appreciation and continue making a connection with our clients.
And that's sort of why we call it client care and how it is related to a gift.
And it has taken many shapes and forms throughout the seven years of Middle of Six's existence.
So just wanted to define that, but just know, we'll also be talking about gifts and swag that could be promotional for recruiting or career fairs, or when you have a new hire and you send them a gift box, that's their welcome gift or any number of things that people might pick up and associate with your brand in that way.
So there's that.
And then Lauren Jane, was there, did you want to add anything about like the why this is so important?
Yeah, I feel like promotional products or client care gifts, which could be different, really leave a taste in your mouth, either very good or very bad.
And so I feel like I'm on this campaign to, to educate and help other businesses not leave a bland or blah taste in someone's mouth with their promotional products, because there's so much opportunity.
That is so aligned with who you are as a person.
That's perfect.
You don't know Lauren Jane well.
She's going to be very thoughtful about, you know, the experience and the impression and the impact, impact beyond your own little seat, but the world and that sort of thing.
So I'm sure that will get woven in here.
All right.
Well, where would we like to start when we're talking about gifts and swag and all that good stuff?
There's a lot of different directions.
Where are we pointed?
Swag in general, you know, like that's a giant category.
It can be used.
It almost encompasses everything, right?
How will we define swag?
Does it mean stuff that has your logo on it?
I don't know.
So Grace and I, when we were chatting yesterday, we kind of said like, gifts don't have to be swag, but swag could be gifts.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
And we said that swag generally is branded, right?
Has your logo on it or is an alignment with your brand.
It isn't necessarily sent out to the masses.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a promotional item, but there's so much opportunity for cool swag.
Obviously, even with the word swag, it's like, oh, our accessories, our vibe, who we are, you know?
Yeah, I think that you're right on, Lauren Jane, what we talked about yesterday.
I do think that swag, where you tend to see that, is at recruiting events or where you have kind of these one-off meetings potentially with a client.
They're really the on-hand, I envision, and I've seen it used, the on-hand, grab-and-go items that promote the brand, leave that impression that our one-off items that, again, can be pulled for whatever use.
So I feel like swag, it's imperative that there's flexibility in them, that it can be an item that can be used for a client meeting or for those career job fairs that you're attending that are that little sound bite or that little piece of your firm that leaves a lasting impression.
Those are kind of the instances that I've used swag or kind of more of that, not an overarching client care campaign, but yeah, just the one-offs.
I want to ask Grace what her suggestion would be for, she mentioned flexibility in swag.
Like, tell me more about that.
What do you mean flexibility in swag?
Yeah, so one component of flexibility is, you know, there are of course discounts when you order quantities and masses, but I do think you come across the marketing closet that has swag from years ago, and you're like, we still have 200 of these, let's say, whistles.
I don't know why you need whistles, but you just have kind of this stuff laying around that's not being used and likely wasn't being used because it didn't resonate.
So we recommend with swag, really considering the quantity, and even if there is a little bit of a higher cost because you're not ordering a thousand of an item, I think that that allows you to be a little bit more flexible from year to year for the needs of your clients slash when you're recruiting college students, their needs or what they're enjoying outside of their curriculum is changing all the time.
And so I think it just helps you be more on top of the trends, what's going on, and yeah, have items that don't go to waste.
So that would be an instance of flexibility, is just like in the quantity that you're ordering.
Embrace a lower quantity so you can be flexible to pick something new the next time around or mix it up, bring a variety of things or whatever it might be, just to allow yourself to pivot if you need to get the newest, greatest thing out there.
How do you go about finding what is kind of the new ideas or just confirming even if it's like a classic, you know, there are some things that are just good gifts no matter what age we're in or whatever that is.
How do you go about assessing that or even getting the ideas in the first place?
So I would say along with a low order quantity, allowing for flexibility, a low order quantity also allows for this kind of like proof of concept, right?
So if you order a low number of that swag item, at least to start, you can get feedback, right?
Get feedback and hear from people like, oh, we really like that and use that.
Or if you order a low quantity and there's like still not going and you're still not using them, then you know, like not to order more.
I feel like the discovery of swag items can be all over the place, but one big thing that I heard about recently was the opportunity of working with like a local promotions company.
And I'm kind of going to pitch this over to Grace, but Grace went to an event, which I found really interesting.
And I heard about a lot of new cool swag items from that.
And I'd love to hear a little bit about that from Grace.
Yeah.
So shout out to Brand Stratos, which is a Tacoma based promotional company.
They really help coordinate with the production, the producers of promotional items, and they're kind of the managers of a project if you have something printed, for example, on behalf of your company.
But they had a really great open house event earlier this year ahead of the heavy Q4 client care campaign time of year that really introduced a lot of great promotional products that are hot among their vendors, but then also introduced some new ideas.
And I really like their product.
I feel like I can trust their opinion in what's in, what's out.
And so they were more than willing to be collaborators in me asking them, you know, what are some items in this budget price point that you've seen that is different, that's really functional, that makes a good impression in your opinion?
And they were awesome collaborators, gave me ideas, showed me product, and have been such, again, a great resource through the process of us, you know, kind of selecting some new conference branded materials.
So I would really recommend reaching out to those local promo or print companies that you have locally and just kind of seeing what they're noticing, you know, and what stood out to them, because they see a lot, and they tend to have a good opinion or at least some sort of basis for helping kind of guide your eye in a direction.
So good local resources.
Something else to think about is essentially that question that you asked us when we first started, right?
Like, what kind of promo products have I received or gifts have I received that I still use, right?
What have I received that I didn't throw in the garbage?
That's a great place to start.
And even just asking around to other people who you work with or friends and family, what's the best client care gift that you've ever received?
Yeah, mind the people who are around you and also probably that goes to say like outside of the industry because we can be really accidentally focused on AEC stuff.
So there's the classic, you know, hats and I don't know, the swag that goes out to the teams and you know, what they need, but what about beyond our market?
And maybe that also goes to Grace's point of using a local vendor or I've used national vendors, but had a relationship with a project manager who started to get to know the firms I was actually at at that time, right?
So she would have this whole library of things we had done in the past and would start to know like or spot things when she would go to a big trade show and come back and say, oh, I found these five ideas that might be good for your company in the future.
So you kind of like earmark those.
So you end up having someone who could be proactively out there looking again beyond AEC.
So whether it's like close trusted personal friends that you know or a vendor project manager to help keep their eyes open that allows you to be a little bit more on the forefront of those ideas instead of at the very end.
Like, oh, I didn't even know these existed.
Whatever, fill in the blank thing is.
What about the process of either restocking the marketing closet or thinking about that year-end gift?
Do you have suggestions or anecdotes for capturing ideas and sort of developing them into something that's going to become part of a larger effort?
Well, regarding swag, an area that I've found a lot of success for internal swag, so that's polos, hats for the team, was developing kind of a choose-your-own-adventure sort of store, online store.
So that was really helpful.
Kind of felt like we were almost like our own little, I don't know, clothing store.
We got to see what items sold more, what items were not popular with our staff.
And I thought that that was a really helpful tool for us to be aware of what items people were actually wearing and wanting outside of work, and were being used and represented outside and in the community, which is the goal of these items.
So I think that that can be a helpful tool for if you're in charge of your internal work wear, for example, like that can be a really helpful tool as you're developing inventory, what the next year looks like for what you're offering and refining from there.
How was your store, in your experience, how was that managed?
Was that an outside vendor that created it and brought it in to like a SharePoint or to an internal intranet?
There's lots of ways to do it, and I've worked in a few, but I'm just curious what your experience was.
Yes, so we worked with an awesome local printer, Print Northwest, which is familiar with many of our team members in Western Washington, but they have a service where they can set up an online store, a website, a webpage for your company, and have mockups of all the items that you've selected.
And then they fulfill it.
So it's kind of, they provide you a report of what was the most popular items, what was the least popular, but they really manage the process.
So essentially we provided the input of which items, kind of the nitty gritty of logistics, but they were the ones that really executed it.
And it was really nice to get that off our kind of workload.
So that was a great resource and tool for us.
At my old firm, or one of my old firms, we had the same setup and every new employee, or when you started, you got a certain allotment to spend in the store, which felt pretty cool.
Like, oh, I have an agency over this thing and it's a gift.
And it's like fun to go see all the different options.
So that's another little extra layer of including that in the onboarding process.
And it could be just as easily included in a yearly gift for your internal team, et cetera.
And sometimes those, I'd say that almost all of the time, those services come with a little bit of an added cost to it, whether they're, it's because they're managing it and setting it up.
And, you know, there's, it's technically a middleman, you know, they need to make a little bit of profit on that too.
But in today's day and age, there, I guess there could be some savings because to Grace's earlier point of like not ordering a thousand when 200 is probably all your team's going to need, a lot of those services are on demand.
So they don't have a warehouse full of your mugs ready because they can digitally print things.
They can do a lot of things as needed.
So, I mean, that's an improvement in technology over the years, right?
It's not sitting in boxes in your marketing space, taking up room and then not getting used.
And you only buy what you need, but that's being managed by someone.
So it's sort of a $10 mug, who knows?
Maybe it's a $15 mug.
And hopefully, I like to think that it equals out in the end because you're only buying what you can use and nothing is going from the marketing storeroom to the dumpster when you clean out the offices or whatever.
Well, that's a good tip.
And then, is there other general kind of best practices you want to share on the swag, swag topic, because there's so many things, like we already mentioned, recruiting, golf tournaments.
How do you pick the right stuff for that?
Or decide not to pick anything?
We kind of just lightly hit on the fact that with the college students, their needs are changing all of the time.
How do you find the thing that's going to connect with them?
And I don't know, I guess I'm putting golfers in that same category.
Our producer Kyle should chime in here because it's like, how many golf balls do you need?
Or will you always take Titleist?
Yes, he's shaking his head, yes, he'll take, what is it, Pro V9?
I don't know, Pro V1.
There's only one number one ball in golf.
Okay, well, I will just say that Kyle has advised us that as long as it's a quality golf ball, not the cheapest one, you don't want the discount.
Don't go for the discount when it comes to branded golf balls, especially because your logo is going to be on there.
And people can see exactly how much you're willing to spend on that golf ball.
So upgrade in that area, but it turns out, I guess golfers will always want a Titleist Pro V1 sleeve in their golf bag.
So that one continues to go on forever.
Yeah, and then another thing to add, going back to recruiting at college fairs, at universities or technical colleges, a big movement that we're seeing holistically as a culture, especially among younger people, is really the awareness of sustainability.
And not even just thinking about, oh, what are these students going to use, but what are the values that are instilled in this product?
If you can tell that this is just a throwaway item, that there's just like excess plastic, for example, packaging, I feel like that's just going to kind of be like a turnoff or a lack of awareness of the values of people.
And so gifts, they can instill a lot.
They can pack a punch.
And so thinking beyond, okay, the usage, but what is behind this?
What values does this instill?
I think can really, again, provide alignment with your brand with these audiences.
So I would challenge our listeners to be thoughtful in that regard.
And remember, if you're spending a little bit more money, it might be okay because the return that you're getting back could be higher, right?
If that product is in alignment with your values, right?
Maybe it's a recycled gift or maybe the actual product selection is reflective of who you are as a company, like Grace was saying, the outdoors items.
But the potential of the higher quality item to not be thrown away and to be actually used and to be seen, in my opinion, is worth it.
It's worth spending the extra money and the extra thought.
Yeah, I would agree 100% with both of those points that you made.
And I would also say that as a business owner, I'm like, I am voting with my dollars.
And I use it as an opportunity to decide who can I support with this.
And sometimes it doesn't happen to be a local company.
That's because this is what we can get, and it's very unique and special in another way.
But, you know, whenever possible, if those t-shirts can be printed by the screen printer up the street from us, I would love to support that business.
And it can go on and on from there, you know.
And sometimes you just do need to buy the boxes from Amazon because that is the right thing.
And you give yourself a little bit of a break because you made lots of other good decisions around that, you know.
So thinking about the whole thing very holistically, as we mentioned, is important.
And whether you buy something inexpensive or expensive, or, you know, how you kind of package it, it is going to send a message.
A message will be sent.
So be thinking about that and not just kind of going for the quick, easy selection off the internet and having it shipped overnight type of thing.
So that intentionality means a lot.
And it's amplified when we get to the client gift side because typically bigger dollars there and much more kind of hands on with the client, whether it's how you're delivering it or the timing or the messaging around it.
Can we spend just a few minutes talking about client care gifts?
You know, how do you start planning for something like that, budgeting and creating the concept around it and thoughts on that piece?
Oh, there's so much.
I would probably start by talking about timing with client care.
Start way earlier than you think that you need to.
If you're going for a Q4 gift, I would start at the end of the summer.
You know, that seems so excessive, but it's really not.
There's so much that goes into it, particularly if you're at a bigger company and you need lots of levels of approval, depending on where you're going to source your product.
And then when we move into Q4, everything kind of slows down because of shipping and everybody else trying to get all their stuff out the door.
Right?
We would love to get that gift all done and have extra time to really think about maybe mailing or, you know, signing cards.
There's so many elements that go into end-of-year gifts.
So start really early, you know.
In August, mid-August, really start thinking about your end-of-year gift if you're going to be trying to send it out around December, January.
Yes, 100%.
Start early.
And I mean, this is...
I think marketing can control this a little bit.
I don't know.
I mean, I've always been in groups where marketing had a lot of say as how early we're starting, because a lot of times it doesn't impact other people until later in the process anyway.
So that ideation, getting creative as a team, going out and looking at things, creating a one-note or a mural or something where you can start to see all the ideas come together and understand if there's connections and connections to your messaging or what the firm thinks is important.
If you were celebrating an anniversary, you might be thinking about this gift two years ahead of time, right?
You're like, great, we've got the 50th coming up.
You know, you don't want to think about it two months before you're ready to implement that.
So yeah, start early because you can use it that time, the early time as the marketing team, and then you are really set up well for when it actually comes to like the execution of it.
Grace, what about the coordination of, you know, the quantities, getting the like client list together, getting people aligned on who is giving what to whom, you know, all of that stuff.
That feels like a major effort.
Do you have any tips on that?
Yes.
So I think that before you get to the tiers of people, who's giving what, I think that developing a budget and working back is a helpful first step.
And what I mean by that is develop a budget for your hard costs, and that is for the overall client gift effort.
And then from there, it's like, all right, what do we want to do within this budget?
You know, if we want to provide a high quality gift for a certain X amount of clients, then we work backwards and then we develop these tiers.
And we highly recommend a tier system because then you can have more high quality gifts.
We'll call it that, a higher price point gift, then some lower tiers that are maybe some medium cost gifts, and then something that goes out to the masses, which is probably the lowest cost gift.
So I would definitely encourage teams to think about not everybody has to get the same gift, and then you can give a gift or outreach to more of your client base that is thoughtfully done.
Regarding coordination, that is a huge effort.
You know, coordinating multiple principles and assigning who's delivering what or who this gift is coming from definitely takes some time.
So I think that setting up those tiers according to those price points that, you know, were established early on for the budget is key for assigning out those who's assigned to who, which client.
Recommendations for coordination there.
We love a good old Excel spreadsheet that has callouts, and calling that out early on in the process, I think, is helpful.
They get the team all on the same page as which clients are going to be reached out to at which level, because that can be something at the end that I've experienced that there can be some coordination involved that is a little unnecessary.
So again, establishing that early on in the process would be a recommendation for me.
It's a lot to coordinate, and it's nice to have a point person for managing that, those conversations with your leadership's team who's adding to that list or going to be in charge of delivering to their clients.
Luckily, we live in a time where we can have these shared spreadsheets, and people can see things in real time.
I am pretty sure that I used to have to have print out weekly or daily updates on gift lists at one point in my career.
That doesn't happen anymore.
We all can see that live up to date and see who's behind schedule on delivering their gifts.
So there are some efficiencies that way, but I would recommend having a main point of person responsible for that communication and working with people who are going to be delivering the gifts and getting those, and even just adding to that gift list.
Here's one thing that we learn every time is like, holy cow, hand wrapping tying bows on 250 things takes way longer than like 250 minutes.
You know, this is gonna, it's exponential.
And then you realize like, and that needs to be put in a bag, and then it gets stuffing in it, you know, all of these things.
So I'm sure there are other considerations related to production, but need a lot of hands for that part.
I think that this episode, who knows what it's really going to be titled in the end, but at one point it was like swag, hot or not, right?
Which is pretty great.
Probably use that.
But I feel like we should do the little hot or not conversation.
It almost feels like it might even be a nice summary, right, of what we've talked about here.
So it'll serve in that way.
So who wants to start with the what's hot?
I'll go.
Go.
What's hot?
Align quality, a quality product with your core values.
That's hot.
Giving a gift without your logo.
Snaps.
That is so controversial, but I love it.
I know.
Hot takes.
Hot takes at Middle of Six.
But be bold.
Give a gift without your logo.
That's hot.
And thinking about the product that you're giving as a gift.
You know, and this goes back to the quality, but give a gift that is a joy to use.
So I think about something as simple as a pen.
And we keep using anecdotes of Middle of Six because we're thoughtful.
But we have a pen at Middle of Six that truly every time I use it, I'm like, this pen just writes so wonderfully and is a difference maker.
And so I think that really reflect on is this gift sparking joy?
Well, we'll go to Marie Kondo.
And then another kind of finally to surmise our hot is locally produced goods and partnerships.
And so an anecdote that I have to share there is there is a wonderful candle maker in Tacoma, Defiant Candle Company, and they did a partnership with South Sound Scooters, and they developed a scent with South Sound Scooters and like a personalized label for their end of year customer appreciation gift.
And I thought that that was so thoughtful and also so smart.
It involves the senses, like associating your brand with a scent that's not horrible is so smart.
So I just thought that that was just like such a triumph of a gift.
And I didn't get one of those awesome candles, but I saw it and it stuck with me.
So look at that proof is in the pudding.
I love that real world example.
That's great.
I literally didn't even listen.
Hear your question.
It's so hot.
Yeah, partnerships, they may not be super obvious at the start.
So that's why early planning and bouncing things off of your team or even people around you can help generate those cool connections that may be not super obvious to you at the start.
OK, so then what about the not list?
What's not hot?
Which is obviously subjective, but any kind of cheaper products that you will likely throw in the garbage, any like, I would say, entertainment gift, like a fidget spinner.
Yes.
Thank you for giving a real example there.
Or like the little poppy, I don't know, those like silicone pop toy, like kid toy type gifts.
Okay, what do you think about pop sockets, branded pop sockets?
Well, as a millennial, I love a pop socket.
Do you feel like though that it's sort of fashion and you want to select it?
Yeah, I feel like if you do a pop socket, I don't want like the brand on it.
Like maybe your brand colors or like a brand pattern, but I don't really want to rep a brand on the back of my phone every day.
Some people might feel different from that, but I think you could do it.
You could, you know, brand the card that the pop socket sits on nicely.
You know, you don't have to brand the item itself, which is interesting segue because the next thing I was going to say is not hot is any kind of tech gift, which I don't think a pop socket is a tech gift.
But typically the reason why I put tech gifts on the not list is because the price point for quality tech gifts is quite high.
So what ends up happening is the tech gifts that are able to be chosen based on the budgets are typically quite low quality.
So what ends up happening is like if you get a little mini speaker, like I was given a little mini speaker from somebody else, and it's just like kind of low quality and I won't ever reach for it and I won't use it.
And then it also feels weird to throw something like that away because I feel weird throwing electronics away.
So then it's like, oh, I guess this is going to get given a goodwill.
I don't know.
So any kind of tech gift, unless the tech gift is for the tier one clients that are receiving the biggest gift, and it is a very high quality gift that you know will be used, avoid a tech gift.
I think that's good advice.
Sure.
We all have too many little cords and funky battery packs that maybe don't work anymore.
And you're right.
That quality can be hit or miss at that low production level, right?
All right.
What else is on the not list?
My potentially controversial item to put on the not list is booze, alcohol.
There is a huge NA revolution or like NA movement happening right now.
And that is definitely reflective of what's going on in people's minds and in the culture.
But also beyond maybe people being dry or like not wanting booze, people have really specific preferences on what they want.
So that also can be making a lot of assumptions.
And or maybe the booze won't even be consumed if you give it as a gift.
Consumable gifts are so tempting, right?
I mean, I love a consumable gift for myself, like to receive that gift because I think, oh, I can eat this or I can share this.
I can take it to a party.
And I have heard some people who are giving wine, they'll say, and feel free to hand this off to someone else if you don't drink wine or whatever that is.
So I think people are becoming aware that these might be re-gifted or just put out at the, I don't know, Thanksgiving table.
Yep, drink this company wine we got.
Because usually it's actually pretty good quality, I've noticed, or at least the things I've received.
So that's positive.
But maybe as we evolve and kind of are responding to people's preferences here, we'll have more flexibility in our giving where we've received or helped others do this where there's multiple choice.
Pick your gift.
Which gift do you want?
You know, they're all good.
Is it sweet?
Is it savory?
Is it wine?
Is it something, an experience thing?
So, I mean, there can be options out there, but I think it's smart to be realizing that not everyone wants alcohol.
And for some people, it's actually kind of problematic, and so we should be aware about that.
Again, this ties back to the theme of this conversation, which is just being really thoughtful in the gifts that or swag that you're producing that has your brand associated with it.
You know, I think that if your consumable gift has a story to tell related to, oh, we worked with this local candy maker based out of Seattle, for example, and developed this really great chocolate, just thinking about the story that you're telling, that's going to leave a bigger impact versus, oh, I got this bottle of wine, and it's sitting out on Thanksgiving, to your point, Wendy, like that just that's a bummer because you do buy quality wine and it's maybe $40 a bottle.
And to have that association with your gift of just like, it's out for anybody to grab is, I don't know if that's making the impact that you want it to.
So just being really critical of the investment that you're making and is that a tired investment?
We didn't really go into this level, and we certainly could, especially if we did a year-end gifting or a client care gift specific podcast.
But I was going to say that, I don't know, half of the impact is the personal delivery or connection or communication or handwritten note.
I mean, there's so many ways it can be done, but that part and the conversation back and forth that you have with someone is just as important as the gift itself.
The gift is an entryway to show appreciation and just be connected with them.
So I agree with your point for sure.
Is that the kind of impression you want to make?
And by the way, it's not just about dropping off cases of wine all over the city.
You know, there's more to it for sure.
So Lauren Jane, thank you for putting that controversial one on the list.
It's a good conversation to have and just bring some awareness for those who maybe aren't thinking about it in that way.
Or if their company has been giving wine for a hundred years, it's hard to break those traditions, right?
So you need some additional thinkers in the room to give options and that sort of thing.
Anything else on the hot or not list?
We had a lukewarm, one lukewarm item.
Tap it.
Moderately warm.
Which was charitable giving because it's quite safe and neutral and won't offend anybody and might give you some points with people, but it's very safe.
I think the messaging that goes along with the charitable giving is also really important and obviously changes the entire gift.
So who are you giving to?
What's the messaging around it?
Is it the only gift that you're giving?
Are you giving an accompanying item?
But charitable giving is right in that neutral zone for me.
Yeah, it has to make sense for your company, whether it's something an organization you always have always supported or there's some connection to the community that feels right.
Wouldn't want it to come across as like the easy choice or that we're just doing this because it's a lot easier than hand wrapping, you know, 40 billion packages delivering them.
I mean, that's not the intention.
I don't think that's where it started.
But as you see more and more of it, you just want to, if you're going to go through that effort, how do you make it meaningful to everyone who's receiving it and the people who you're donating on behalf of?
That's tricky, worth a conversation for sure.
And we've seen it done well.
Sometimes it can be that there's multiple options, you know, that letting your clients choose where their gift dollars go that makes them feel a little bit more invested in it, or there's lots of ways to make it a more meaningful way to do it.
And it's worthwhile because that's a lot of corporate giving that can go to some great organizations.
So I like that it's in the lukewarm.
It didn't fall all the way off the list.
That's a good summary of a bunch of tips and ideas and our own personal experience with client and corporate gifts.
Appreciate you both sharing all of those ideas.
And I do want to get back to our trivia question, I guess it's what it is, which was, what percentage of gifts last more than a year?
I don't know if that's how I phrased it, because it's not last, but you know, that's somewhat, the person who receives it keeps it for more than a year.
And according to a 2019 global ad impression study, which was the most recent data I could find, also found something from 2018, but that was going in the wrong direction.
Basically, about 21% of branded and promotional items are kept for, quote, any length of time, which was defined as more than a year, and usually the limit is about four years.
So-
Ooh, data.
21.
There you go.
Interesting, interesting.
It's not huge, especially because we know that most gifts that you give, unless it is a consumable item, probably could last, I mean, a lifetime.
You get a mug.
I don't know.
Does that have a 15-year lifespan?
But things maybe are not being kept as long as we would like them to be.
Well, Lauren Jane, we're both in the range.
Right there, 15 to 25 percent.
I know, I was tempted to say 20 percent, but it needed to be different enough from your...
Out of the 20s.
Well, you are all spot on, and I'm sure it's from your own experience of receiving things or looking at things and being critical about, do I want that?
It's so cute or charming or adorable or clever, but do I really want to keep it, is the question?
You know, something to think through, and we touched on that earlier, where it's like, is this something that you would want or what have other people liked?
I'm going to be like the Debbie Downer here and also give you the other sad part of this news.
I don't think it comes to any surprise from a marketer's perspective, but basically somewhere between 50% and 60% of promotional items are actually just discarded immediately.
So...
Ooh, mm-hmm.
No, that's good.
I mean, the data, that doesn't lie.
Mm-hmm.
So that's good.
And you know, it's less likely to happen if you use the online store for your employees where they get to pick what they want and the size is their comfort level of size of what they want.
There are lots of steps that you can take to make sure that what you're giving is going to work well for that person.
But if you think about all of the trade shows and career fairs and golf tournaments and things that people just come and take...
I heard one tip is don't give out a bag so that people are tempted to then just fill the bag with things at all of the boosts or whatever, which is like, ooh, that's a smart tip, right?
We don't want to contribute to the just, I don't know, gamification of grabbing all the things and then dumping them out on your hotel room bed and seeing like, ooh, now what is all this stuff that I got, by the way, I'm only taking 21% of it home with me.
And then the other kind of number that is like disheartening here is that basically there's like $70 million, sorry, $70 billion worth of promotional swag produced every year.
And so then if we just take that 20, 21 to 25% of it, it's like 15% of it or $15 billion being kept, the rest may be being given away to Goodwill or a friend or in the garbage.
So huge numbers there, billions, billions of dollars.
Yeah, $69 billion worth of promotional swag, but we're only keeping 21% of that for a year.
So if you can go without or just be very intentional, that's the theme of this podcast today, be intentional.
Well, on that happy note, we will wrap this up, but just keep in mind, there are ways to do gifting and swag really well.
We started off with a few very memorable personal experiences there, so it can be done.
We see it.
We've received gifts that we really love.
I mean, don't rule it out, but definitely take the time and focus your dollars on things that are gonna make a positive impact to the receivers and a positive reflection on your brand, and you'll do well in that way.
All right, well, that's our episode for today, Lauren Jane, Grace, thank you for the good ideas and for sticking your neck out there with some controversial suggestions.
Well, thanks for having me, in my opinion.
Absolutely, great to talk to you both.
Have a good one.
Bye-bye.
The Shortlist is presented by Middle of Six and hosted by me, Wendy Simmons, Principal Marketing Strategist.
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The Shortlist is a podcast that explores all things AEC marketing. Hosted by Middle of Six Principal, Wendy Simmons, each episode features members of the MOS team, where we take a deep dive on a wide range of topics related to AEC marketing including: proposal development, strategy, team building, business development, branding, digital marketing, and more. You can listen to our full archive of episodes here.
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