What’s in Your Swag Bag?

Last week, iMedia Connection had an interesting article entitled, “The ROI of quality swag” by Leah Messinger.  (Here’s the link, but I’m not sure if you need to be a subscriber.)

Her premise is that “in an increasingly digital world, sometimes it takes something physically tangible to push your business goals further.”

I couldn’t agree with her more, which is why I believe we’ll be seeing a comeback - if not in out and out swag, then in dimensional mailers that put something real in a prospect or customer’s hands. But I do have some questions about the ROI in the examples she cites.

She has a couple of examples from ValueClick. In one case, salespeople in a couple of cities followed up on an email and print ad campaign featuring a birthday cupcake that celebrated their 10th anniversary in business. The sales people hit the bricks, hand delivering cupcakes to a number of important clients, which they believe lead to over $200K in business. Given that the cupcakes themselves cost about $800, and even factoring in travel costs and transit time, that’s still a pretty fair return. But would some/all of those deals have happened anyway? Certainly.

That in no way takes away the cleverness of the tactic as a way to reach out to touch a client and solidify a relationship. (Come on, who doesn’t like a cupcake?)

ValueClick also sent digital picture frames - hope they weren’t the ones sending your secret information overseas - to a number of key clients as holiday gifts, an outreach that generated a quarter-of-a-million dollars in business. Again, the value of the tactic is clear - as Tony Winders, ValueClick’s VP of Marketing said, the “main focus…is on being creative and impressing his clients.” So it’s probably a stretch to claim direct ROI credit.

Leah also mentions a trade-show promo conducted by Rove Mobile. They put a key in the show swag bag and invited folks to try the key in a safe in their booth. If the key worked, the key holder got $1,000. As a result, Rove more than tripled the number of sales leads, year over year. Hmmmmm. I wonder if what they really tripled was the number of badge swipes. I love the idea of promos and raffles at trade shows, but when we’re at trade shows, we need to keep in mind that the object is to get qualified leads, not someone who’s lurching around the show from one swag heap to another.

Earthlink started giving new hires a goodie bag, and attributes it to a sharp reduction in employee turnover. But was it the swag, or was it that the company was focusing on inboarding those newbies?

Anyway, the article is definitely worth a look - if for nothing else, to hear from a fellow at a promotional goods company who’s not directly quoted, but is said to have pointed out that ’startups need to spend their venture capital somewhere.” Bet he’ll live to regret those words.

And it’s absolutely important for marketers to keep in mind that swag can play an important role in their overall program mix. It’s a way to reach out to customers and prospects, to tell them that they’re valued, and to remind them that you exist. Come on, who among us doesn’t like swag? I’ve got a couple of backpacks, a couple of LL Bean tote-bags, and a great denim shirt that have stood the test of time.Some of my husband’s best clothing (which is not saying much) is logo-ware.  Not to mention all those pens and notepads that I’m always coming across. A lot of this stuff is, sadly, from defunct companies.

So I’m all for swag - it definitely has a place in your mix. I’d just be cautious about drawing any direct lines between swag and an increase in sales. It’s always nice to be able to demonstrate ROI, but post hoc ergo propter hoc and all that.

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For those not fortunate (or ancient) enough to have taken Latin, that’s “after this, therefore because of it.”

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