6 Things to Know About Swag Bags

Swag bags are customized gifts that are packaged together. You can hand them out in a variety of situations. For example, you might give them to people at a party or wedding, attendees at a trade show or event, to your clients, or you could make them for your customers to celebrate a grand opening. 

Swag is a technical acronym for “stuff we all get.” If you’ve ever watched the show “The Office,” Michael Scott confirmed this acronym in an episode where he went to a trade show and walked away with a  bag of swag. 

These bags can be passed out at the beginning of an event as a welcome, or they can be something you give to people at the end of the event, like a party favor. 

When you’re putting them together, you have to be mindful of your budget, but even inexpensive items can be meaningful and make an impression. The following are six things to know about creative swag bag ideas, especially if you’re considering using them as a marketing tool. 

1. The Benefits

When you’re handing out swag bags, you’re giving people a constant reminder of your brand or event, or maybe even a special occasion. You can add things to it that are individually memorable in and of themselves, but these can be budget-friendly marketing tools. 

Brand recall is a major reason to consider handing out swag bags as part of your marketing. It’s tough to forget a brand that gives you gifts. According to a report from the Advertising Specialty Institute, around 85% of people say they can recall a company’s name when they give them free items. 

Using swag bags can be cheaper than traditional advertising, and you can really target your specific audience. You can think from the perspective of the people you want to target as you’re choosing items that are going to be most appealing or useful to them. 

You’re pursuing a long-term marketing strategy with swag bags since you’re giving them potentially sustainable items that will last a long time, and when there’s brand recall, you can also encourage brand loyalty. You’ll come to mind first, and people will associate positive thoughts with your brand, motivating them to do business with you again. 

2. Deciding on a Budget

If you decide a swag bag is right for your business or event, you’ll have to decide on a budget. Budget ranges can vary quite a bit. A swag bag can be small and inexpensive, or it can be something totally over the top, like we see at the Oscars and other star-studded events every year. Your budget might be somewhere in between. 

You don’t want to try and undertake a financial obligation that you can’t realistically afford, so make sure you know what you want to spend per bag and also in total for your swag bag project. 

3. Choose Beautiful Packaging

We often think long and hard about the items that will include inside a swag bug but are just as important as the packaging. In fact, in some ways, it can be the most important thing. You want the packaging to showcase your brand, but it needs to be aesthetically appealing. Suppose you can make the packaging something that people can reuse, even better. For example, your packaging could be a versatile tote bag. 

Keep the design fairly simple because this is going to appeal to most people. Plus, if you try to print bags with a lot of colors and complex designs, they’ll be more expensive. 

It’s better to keep the design simple, but if you’re going to splurge anywhere, do it on the materials used to make the packaging, especially if it’s something you want people to be able to use in their everyday lives. 

4. Keep the Items Useful

You don’t just want the packaging or bag to be useful to the people you give it to—you also want the items inside of it to be relevant and useful to them. A swag bag won’t have much value if people throw everything that’s in it or they put it in a drawer and forget about it.

Think about things that your audience would really find useful in their daily lives. Not only will they appreciate receiving these items, but when they’re regularly using branded products you put into your swag bags, they see your brand every time they do so. The people around them are getting exposure to your brand too. 

Items that are fun and useful to put in a swag bag can include:

• Professional notebooks
• Moleskin journals
• T-shirts
• Reusable water bottles
• Food
• Coffee mugs
• Sunglasses 
• USB chargers
• Health products
• Beauty products

Along with being useful, good swag bag items should be durable. They need to last a long time and keep people talking and thinking about them. 

5. Have An Anchor Item

It can be a good idea to choose a theme for your swag bags that’ll guide the products you include in them. With that in mind, you can have one anchor item that’s the focal point and is really going to be a standout. If you splurge on any one item as far as your price, you might make it this one. Then, you can build other smaller, less expensive items around your anchor, keeping them all in line with the same theme. 

6. Showcase Your Values

Consumers have increasingly shown they want to do business with brands they feel reflect their values. That’s why it’s important to let people know what you’re all about, and a swag bag is a great way to do this. 

For example, if your business is focused on being eco-friendly and sustainable, highlight this in the theme and products in your swag bag. Maybe you only include sustainable and recycled items as an example. 

You’re showcasing your business values, you’re giving your customers something that’s going to show their values, and you’re also creating a marketing opportunity. It’s a win-win.