What’s Currently Trending in the Field of Promotional Gifts?

Everyone knows about the benefits of promotional gifts, and everyone loves to receive them. But what exactly is it that makes this type of promotion so popular and effective? Is it its price? Quality? So, the question stands – why use promotional gifts to promote your brand? Here are just a few reasons and statistics on why investing in promotional gifts or business gifts always pays off.

• Business gifts are the only advertising medium with which you can target all five senses of consumers: sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste.
• Research done by Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) shows that 83% of people will remember the company from which they received a gift. By comparison, only 7% of people remember a company whose ad they saw on television.
• Survey data shows that as many as 91% of people have at least one promotional product in their kitchen, while 74% of people have at least one promotional product in their office.
• The PPAI also investigated the effect of branded cup promotion compared to a radio or television advertisement: 57% of people remembered the advertiser on the cup, while only 32% of respondents remembered the advertiser on the radio and 28% remembered the advertisement on television.
• The most popular promotional gift is still business textiles, which cover more than half of the entire spectrum of business gifts. Textiles are followed by technical products and office supplies.
• According to the PPAI research, the most influential business gift is power banks. As many as 87% of the recipients have said they would keep the power bank for themselves.

If you are convinced by the data and statistics, we’re sure you will definitely include business and promotional gifts in your future marketing activities. But you will only be able to achieve the set goals with good business gifts, which should be of high quality, have a long lifespan and are useful.

FACT: The usefulness of a gift itself has been proven to be one of the most important aspects of a promotional gift.

Of course, trends in business and promotional gifts change from year to year. So, what’s trending in 2022?

Trend number 1: More emphasis on quality, less on price

In the past, the best-selling gifts were the ones with the lowest price since there was not much emphasis put on the quality of the products – the recipients were happy with everything they received for free. But this is no longer the case today. Consumers appreciate gifts that are quality and useful. With low-quality, useless and unoriginal gifts, you give the impression that you did not devote much effort to coming up with ideas for the gifts. This can lead the consumers to associate the bad qualities of a gift with your products, services, and brand.

Despite the fact that the new trend also means a greater investment for companies, the results certainly justify this investment. Excellent results of quality business gifts are manifested in two forms: higher revenues and better perception of your products, services, and brands.

Trend number 2: The ideal time for a promotional gift is… always.

Gifting trends are also changing in terms of gifting time. In the past, most promotional and business gifts were given out during the winter holidays. However, nowadays, more and more companies decide to surprise their customers, potential customers and business partners at different times during the year.

Promotional gifts are given out to gain contacts with potential customers, to promote purchases, to nurture contact with existing customers, to nurture relationships with business partners, employees, and so on. And what better time to do that than all year round?

Trend number 3: Increasing number of technological products

Technological products are the fastest growing category in the business gift industry. The reasons for their rapid growth are to be found in their usefulness. Like mentioned earlier, usability is one of the top criteria for a good gift.

Their growth is also related to the growing percentage of people who use smart devices on a daily basis (e.g. activity trackers, smart water bottles, power banks…). Some of the exceptionally popular technology gifts are also USB sticks and Bluetooth speakers.

Trend number 4: Promotional apparel should be wearable and fun

The trend in promotional textiles is mainly in the branding of T-shirts, so that people will be happy to wear them on all occasions. In addition to your company’s logo, you can also decorate the T-shirt or hoodie with a fun illustration, slogan, etc.

Interesting prints should prevail and, where possible, be in the forefront, sometimes even outshining the logo itself. There is also an even greater emphasis on quality in the promotional textile category.

Trend number 5: Ecological gifts are becoming more and more popular

Eco business gifts made of nature-friendly materials are becoming increasingly popular each and every day. The recipients see the company that gives them an eco gift as more environmentally friendly and responsible, which makes them want to do business with them.

FACT: According to a PPAI survey, 40% of people who receive an eco-friendly gift improve their opinion of the brand.

So don’t leave the choice of suitable business and promotional gifts to chance. Promotional products should be carefully and thoughtfully selected. No less important is the gift supplier.

But just giving away promotional products is not enough. In order for promotional products to achieve the desired effects, it is extremely important that they are appropriately and qualitatively branded. It is branding that will keep your brand in the minds of your consumers.