Powerful Promotions with Gifts and Bags

Modern promotions are a combination of information and hard sell. The object is to make direct contact with the target client base and provide value and create interest in the promotion. Best practice in any promotional environment is to use a combination of promotional items, information and promotional bags to provide a full package approach to these objectives.

This really is packaging, and there are some lessons to be learned from this combination of elements in promotions.

The typical promotional package includes: 

•    A strongly branded, highly visual promotional bag, tailored to take all materials 
•    Promotional gifts
•    Promotional information and call to action materials
•    In most cases, additional information about related brand products 

Obviously, there’s a lot of presentation involved in this package. The idea is to provide a positive image for the brand and provide useful sales materials.

The “efficiency factor”

Anyone familiar with the “assembly line” process of packaging promotional materials will tell you that the handling process is also a cost factor. The amount of handling involved in assembling 10 different items and sending them to customers or giving them out at promotional events is incredible. Putting these things in a bag isn’t just a packaging exercise- It’s also the most efficient way to manage the materials.

If you’re working in a mall, exhibition or other venues like a street giveaway, the bags more than pay for themselves in reduced handling. They’re extremely efficient, particularly if you’re dealing with high volumes of people and promotional materials. 

Simply transporting and distributing promotional materials in these environments is a real exercise in logistics:

·         You can’t distribute separate individual items one at a time efficiently- It simply can’t be done well, and it’s extremely inefficient in terms of distribution.

·         Onsite restocking is a real nuisance- People are away from their station in the promotion getting more promo materials, meaning reduced contact with customers and making them wait, which is usually not very popular.

·         People really don't appreciate being given lots of handouts without containers- If you’re at a major industry expo, for example, you could get a hernia with the amount of materials given out. The tendency is to dump things that can’t be easily carried. It’s also lousy presentation to give materials out without carriers, instantly devaluing the product, particularly in comparison with others.

The bags/ information/ promotional gifts combination turns the distribution process into a simple two-step process- “This is our product and here’s our information”. The promotional staff can focus on talking to customers and answering questions, not a mindless shuffling of materials.

Putting together your package

The easy way to manage assembly of promotional packages in any environment is a numbers game:

•          Number of items per bag
•          Number of units to distribute
•          Number of hours or days in the promotion
• 1     Number of people involved in distribution

For example-

•          You’ve got 5 items per package
•          You have 5000 packages to distribute in this environment
•           Your promotion runs for 3 days
•          You need 5000 bags, and have to distribute about 1700 per day.
•          You need 5-8 people for that period (preferably on a weekend to maximize exposure)

Imagine trying to do that without the packaging approach. That’s why promotional gifts and bags are so useful. 

Article written by Sachin for Creative Promotions.