Are Corporate Gifts in Trade Shows Justified?

Corporate Gifts in Trade Shows

It is common for businesses to plan for corporate giveaways/gifts to business visitors in a tradeshow. These are commonly:

• Office supplies: pens, calendars, clocks, mouse pads, mugs, etc.
• Apparel: T-shirts, caps, etc.
• Fun stuff: toys, games, gag gifts, electronics, etc.
• Perishables: cookies, mints, food and beverage, etc.

All these giveaways are planned with the intent of lead generation / or with the hope of brand recall when he plans for his next purchase. However what typically happens is that most of the freebies are distributed to the family (kids and wife) or a stored for later use. As such the brand name doesn’t get the right exposure or disappears from the targeted buyer which was not the original marketing intention.

Also, there are people who will do whatever it takes to get a specific giveaway. Like engaging in a conversation with a sales representative although there is no interest or no project in his company. Not exactly the best spending of marketing money and time of the sales team.

In almost all cases, there is no feedback mechanism attached with freebies. The stall representatives usually give away the freebies in exchange of the business card and the time spent by the customer on the stall. The visitor doesn’t need to take any action.

Wouldn’t it be better if there is a call of action associated with your Corporate giveaways? Like a lead qualification survey where the customer is not aware of a freebie being given away or in possibly exciting take away gifts, using the information to probe more information from the potential customer. Though this would increase the cost of giveaways marginally with the addition of shipping costs, it actually earmarks your base and the cost might actually get saved in terms of the number of giveaways distributed. Also you ensure that the giveaway reaches the corporate address of the customer, and the possibility of generating interest within colleagues is also increased.

How effective are your freebies or giveaways for lead generation? Do you follow processes in place to calculate ROI of giveaways? We would like to hear your thoughts.

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