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You either LOVE free swag, or you’re indifferent. But how many marketers enjoy buying swag and promotional items for their brand?… Not many.

Time to inject some inspo into your next swag purchases. Before we dive into the fresh ideas, let’s start with the essentials for any branded items you have.

Swag Requirements:

• Go the extra mile for branding consistency.
• It has to be useful! (With one exception – there is always an audience for stickers.)
• Above all, quality items are what matters to a user.

Purposes for Swag:

• For Employees – Use it as a warm welcome or to help enforce company values.
• For Gratitude – Use as gifts for holidays, prospects, and current clients.
• For Promotion – It gives you a chance to show your brand personality or services. And sometimes it can be used for brand awareness.

Unique Swag Ideas:

Pens are great, but is that all there is? Let’s get into the fun stuff. Here are some real brand examples we love.

• Commonsku’s Self-Promotion Packs – Promotional boxes are great in general, but Commonsku (a promotional item company) did it best by making their boxes for their “Sku Camp” conference camping gear themed.
• Sun Bum’s Team USA Gorillas – Yes, it’s so weird. But it was part of a whole guerilla campaign of theirs for the Tokyo Olympics. People loved these items.
• Panera’s “Get This Bread” Dog Bandanas – If it’s for their dogs, people eat it up. It’s just the law.
• Indeed’s Baby Swag – When one of their employees welcomed a bundle of joy, Indeed sent them a bundle of Indeed baby swag!

These were just some of our favorites. Check out the full Social Commerce blog post for dozens of examples they had.

Calling all designers and design lovers!

Design Principles is a free resource for design principles and methods. It covers all topics of design like accessibility, algorithms, and products. There are over 190 examples of ideas and companies to find your next inspiration or mantras.

We gave you some inspo and tips. But let us make it real for you.

Carney has a team of artists, designers, animators, illustrators, and creators. Our design team is not only dedicated to delivering stunning, captivating creative, but providing a sublime user experience, as well.

Tell us about your next branding and design project!

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