Whenever I attend conferences, conventions, or festivals, I do my best to avoid the loot bag. You know, the “free” plastic or canvas bag filled with S.W.A.G. (stuff we all get).
Get something for free? How often do you look for the nearest garbage bin?
Now, it’s an important reminder that I’m the type of person that returns wire hangers to the dry cleaner and I will also politely decline the student giving away free samples and coupons to pedestrians at busy intersections. That said, I view these types of handouts in the same category as pop-up ads on websites: a waste.
When was the last time you found anything useful in those handouts?
Alternatively, assuming you found something useful, did it motivate a purchase? Of any kind? Or did you use the item as it was intended without a second thought to the logo on its side?
My guess is that an overwhelming majority of the branded trinkets “we all get” went directly into the trash the moment they became the slightest bit burdensome.
Now, aside from it being common practice, I get how enticing an opportunity this can be for organizations...
The challenge for brands is that everyone’s a potential customer and we’re all relentlessly inundated with ads and marketing messages that we’re (slowly) getting better and better at avoiding them.
We’re also, at least in this part of the world, conditioned to look for the freebies. And it starts young. My kids ask “Will I get a loot bag?” as I’m driving them to a friend’s birthday party, so it’s natural for that bit of childhood wonder to linger in many of us.
Add the two instances together in the context of a conference, event, or festival and I can see how appealing it can be to have your logo get some attention - however fleeting - as people dig through the brightly-coloured bag of freebies they were just handed.
Of course, by virtue of the “free” nature of the items, this is not a big part of a marketing budget; it can be a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. However, I would submit that giving a branded item that will spend most of its time in a refuse bin is not a good use of funds, however limited said funds may be.
So, next time, ask some questions:
Ask your events team how they could improve the activation at the event.
Ask your customer relations team where the money could do the most good.
Or, (somewhat self-serving statement alert) ask your communications team what that part of the budget could do for the organization.
If you don’t like any of those answers, donate the funds to a charity that could really use the support. Then we can all limit the concept of loot bags to children’s birthday parties.
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