I became the new head mod of a website I’ve been a part of for a long time, and the major thing I’ve done is to resurrect the fic exchange. HUGELY popular. I want to do something this time that they never used to do in previous years, which is to give actual prizes to the winners (not just “yay, you won.”) I think this could really be good…
The wonderful helpful posters over at GQ gave me some great ideas for what kind of things to have… but what I’d like to get some idea of now is which prizes people might actually want. If it helps, our fandom is basically 99.9% female. The item would have customized art from the site (either we already have the rights, or I’m the one who puts it together.)
T-shirts are obvious, and it would be most cost-effective to do them at my house, but take a look at this list from Cafepress. I would never have believed that they had so many customizable things… I would only have a few of the more expensive ones, though, so I’d have to pick them carefully.
Mugs? Caps? Water bottles? Iphone and Samsung cases (yes, they are there)? Stickers? Pet bowls? Fridge magnets? What??
I’d say stuff like note cubes or magnets or waterbottles. Things that are handy. Unless your site logo is crazy cool or something. The Fella gets swag from conventions/seminars all the time, so I’m trying to think of stuff we’ve actually used. Little notebooks that have a pen holder (I didn’t see them on the link) are my favorite of the things he brings home.
Yes, useful things like water bottles, notepads, potholders, even tupperware-type items. I still love the food storage container with lid that I got from “The Little Gym” 5 years ago! Their water bottles were great, too.
They do have those. Um… the t-shirts are cheaper, though. Mugs at Vistaprint are under $10, I think. One of the old mods just let me know that apparently they have a collection of bumper stickers they MEANT to give out as prizes 3 years ago (which was the last time they had the exchange.) So we’re having those for sure.
Cafepress has a Samsung case. I might get that one just for me as a reward for losing my sanity over this exchange!!!
CafePress actually makes it very easy for people to buy anything on that list with your logo. You don’t have to stock the items with them.
But, anyway, to answer your question:
You really have to know your audience. T-shirts work in some demographics and flop in others. I was surprised when I bought promotional mugs with my company’s logo and no one cared… but when we did microfiber golf towels, we got phone calls from friends of friends who had missed the golf tournament but just had to have one of the towels. Golf towels? Seriously, who needs golf towels? (And it’s not just any golf items; tees are a flop.)
Even knowing that your demographic is female doesn’t help much. Teenagers, college students, stay-at-home moms, career women: they’re all different demographics with different interests. That’s one reason why CafePress’s one at a time option is so attractive. You can see what people want by what they actually get.
Full disclaimer mode - I was involved in a corporate gifts which is a competitor for Vista Print.
We’ve done everything from phone cases, to customised thumbdrives -
the thumbdrives are really cool, we use compressed foam to mould interesting shapes (have done teddy bears, cars, forklifts - basically whatever you can imagine)
Another option is teddy bears with customised t-shirts.
We have also done magic (rubiks) cubes with custom pictures on each face.
Something else, if your audience is into it is jigsaws made of cubes (25 cubes in a frame that could be made into 6 different pictures)
Desk toys (things like stress balls, those multi-joint stick men) can also be customised
If its rainy where you are, there are also umbrellas…
At the moment I’m especially enamoured of personalized leather luggage tags as a gift. I’m thinking of personalized with the star pattern of the constellation of birth, along with the long/latitude coordinates of birthplace. It would be very individualized, you’d always recognize your bag, but it wouldn’t carry your name/address except on the inside, so it protects your identity.
These days everybody seems into travel, everybody needs bag tags, and personalized leather tags would last a long time, I think!
Around my house, notepads and post it notes never go to waste. We also have a million pens, but sometimes none of them seem to work, so I’d be into pens and notepads. When can I expect them ?
It’s been a couple months since I’ve said this, so…
Flashlights. My company used to give away coffee cups, pens, pocket screwdrivers, letter openers, USB drives, toys, and a bunch of other junk. NOTHING got the same response as some nice AAA battery flashlights we had engraved (or printed). We literally had to start hiding them at conventions and trade shows so that only qualified visitors would get them.
I’m thinking that people already have a favorite coffee cup. You can only do so much with a screwdriver or USB drive. Other stuff just gets tossed or given to the kids. But a decent flashlight goes in a handy drawer to be used every week or so, on a key chain, or in a purse. It’s been over five years since we gave away the last ones and clients still come up to me and mention them. Most ask if they can get another one.
I know it’s a zombie thread, but I run a business that sells promotional products (“swag”) like the ones mentioned here. This was actually helpful to read; it never hurts to get an idea of what the general public’s favorite items are. If anybody is in a position to need something, drop me a PM!
I’ve never got a gift T-shirt which actually fit. Things that do not have sizes are way preferable, at least for those of us with sizing problems. Which is a lot of the female population, sadly (let’s not get started on that conversation…).
I use a travel mug I got as a gift for the gym and multiple normal gifted mugs at home. My family is always well-supplied with post-it notes and notebooks whose last page is full of tiny print about some medication or another, both courtesy of SiL-the-doctor. And I’ve had a few promotional pens which were surprisingly good: pens seem to be either real good or terribly bad.
The item would have customized art from the site (either we already have the rights, or I’m the one who puts it together.)
Mugs at Vistaprint are under $10, I think. One of the old mods just let me know that apparently they have a collection of bumper stickers they MEANT to give out as prizes 3 years ago (which was the last time they had the exchange.) So we’re having those for sure.
I might get that one just for me as a reward for losing my sanity over this exchange!!!
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