Best Summer Promo Merch & Giveaways [2022]

With festival season kicking off, the summer is right around the corner. Summer is the busiest time for most brands and businesses as the sunshine brings people out and it’s the best time for branded merch and merch giveaways. Your merch should coincide with the season, so we will take you through the most popular merch items for summer.

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Best Summer Swag Ideas

Summer swag should be fun, colorful, and useful for that specific event or festival. Creating a design that is specific to the event is the best way to get your started on the merch printing process.

Check Out What is Brand Merchandising

Bucket Hats

The 90’s are officially back! The bucket hat is an iconic apparel accessory that has made it’s way back into popular fashion. Hats are a great canvas for custom designs that can be either embroidered or printed on, or you can even use a stamp and patches.

Tote Bags

Bags are the basic merch to have at events, especially if it’s an event with a lot of different vendors. One way to step up your game and compete with other booths, offer a customized option with an on-site screen printing option with various designs or a DTG station with a way for the event goer to pick and choose the graphics for the bag.

Check Out 5 Reasons Why Custom Tote Bags Are Awesome Promotional Products

Can Coolers

A can cooler is the modern day koozie and they are especially a good merch item because they make a great canvas for your branding!

This item is a step up from the traditional koozie and will last for summer after summer, being used at sporting events or lazing by a swimming pool, so it’s perfectly versatile too.

Depending on the event, it may be the best merch item if there will be alcoholic drinks such as beer, and seltzers. There are a few different size can coolers, make sure you get the best size for the event.

Towels & Blankets

Towels and blankets are another example of great useful merch that is best for festivals or pool parties. Blankets and towels make a great surface for branding and allow for a more creative design to be executed as oppose to smaller items. Additionally, it can be very useful at the right event - Always be strategic about the type of merch you produce according to the event.

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How To Make Fun

Promo Merch

Don’t be afraid to change things up and get more creative with your setup and your merch. Live event customizations can be a great way to involve event goers in the printing process and allow for a more interesting experience.

Check Out Custom Merchandise – The Perfect Branding Opportunity

Live T-Shirt Printing

Live screen printing is a great example of a fun way to present your merch, especially if it includes apparel. Merch agencies such as Family Industries can make this process stress-free by providing the equipment, materials, and staff to execute the best prints.

Live Embroidery

On-Site event embroidery is typically done with accessories such as hats, bags, and bandanas. Integrating a customization option can set you apart as a vendor in a busy festival where it’s highly likely that other booths will have similar accessory options.

Embroidery can also be extra specially because you’re able to embroidery names and initials, which can be great for people looking to purchase something as a gift or souvenir.

Decorations & Prize Wheels

Make your booth interesting by dressing it up to attract eyes, especially at a crowded festival. In addition, using games such as a prize wheel can also bring more interest in what you are offering.

Take into consideration the theme of the event or other characteristics of the demographic attending the event.

Customizing Tips

1. You don’t want to pick out great swag and then blow it with your branding customization. No matter how great the swag, large logos might get it relegated to the back of the closet or, worse, the trash. A less obvious logo may result in the items getting more use and therefore providing more advertising for your brand as a result.
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2. Make sure your logo or slogan art is crisp and professional. Poor quality in this department will cheapen the look of your summer promotional products no matter how expensive and well-made they are.
   

3. Make sure you choose a customizing company who does quality work or you could end up with expensive swag that looks depressingly cheap. Check out our blog with design tips for making stylish swag.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

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Best Eco-Friendly Branded Merch

Modern society has become accustomed to consuming without awareness, however, in the recent decade, environmental causes have come front and center of the global conversation. More and more brands are moving towards a more sustainable way of conducting business, that be with their product packaging or their product sourcing. In this article, we’ll suggest some of the most popular eco-friendly products you can offer promotional merch for events or special giveaways.

What Makes a Product Sustainable?

The sustainability of a product is not only defined by the capability for repeated use or recyclability, it’s also defined by the materials used to make the item and the source from which those materials were procured.

For a product to be sustainable, it must be possible to produce and/or consume it in a way that doesn’t result in harm or destruction. If the production of a product requires nonrenewable resources, damages the environment, or results in harm to individuals or society, it is unlikely to be considered sustainable.

Sustainable Processes vs. Actions

Through process and resource optimization, some companies choose vendors, materials, production methods, hiring options, and make other business decisions specifically because they lend themselves to sustainability. This often requires extensive due diligence and may result in higher initial production costs.

Companies may also strive to improve their sustainability through actions that are separate from the manufacture of their product or the delivery of their service.

Why choose an eco-friendly product?

• Price - In many cases, eco-friendly items are no more expensive than their non-eco-friendly counterparts, so why not?

• Branding - If you're trying to send a message to your customers that your company cares about the environment, this is a great way to reinforce that message.

• Doing Good - When you give away items that can be reused (like the water bottles and totes below), you're helping to make a difference.

Swag Made From Renewable Materials

Natural materials that can replenish themselves after use are called renewable resources. To avoid company swag that is not eco-friendly, you should avoid buying merchandise made from plastic. Plastic is made of oil, coal, and gas, which are all non-renewable sources. It means that many types of very popular branded merch is not eco-friendly — plastic pens, water bottles, PopSockets, etc.

Read 5 Ways Plastic Harms The Environment

Cork - Is harvested from the bark of cork oak trees and can be re-harvested over and over again.

Bamboo - is a great alternative to plastic and is considered a highly sustainable material. Bamboo is grass and not a tree; it’s fast-growing and self-regenerates from its own roots. It doesn’t require large amounts of water, pesticides, or labor.

Felt - This is a biodegradable by-product of the textile industry. Its raw material is wool and it is renewable.

Upcycled Materials - This is the use of existing materials that would otherwise be discarded or used inefficiently. Such products use less energy and have a smaller environmental impact than products made from raw materials.

Read A Guide To The Most Eco-Friendly Materials

Packaging

In order to offer a fully eco-friendly product, ensuring that the packaging is recyclable materials. it’s a good idea to make sure the product you buy isn’t using an excessive amount of packaging, and the packaging it uses favors paper and cardboard over plastic or foam plastic.

Check Out Guide To Product Packaging and Labeling

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Top Eco-Friendly Merch

As a brand, you may be looking into offering branded merch or promotional items with your logo for events or as gifts for clients. We’ll list the top best-selling eco-friendly merch for any occasion or brand.

Canvas Tote Bag

Tote bags are reusable and purposeful, a canvas material can be recycled but there are also other options such as hemp, which can also be printed on using the screen printing technique.

Reusable Metal Straw Kit

This is a popular product because metal straws take the place of plastic straws, which are made with the worst form of plastic: single-use plastic. Single-use plastics have a short lifespan and are usually used once before being disposed of.

Sustainable Fabric T-Shirts

Ethically made fabrics are becoming more widely available with brands such as The Classic T-Shirt Company which manufactures soft simple tees ethically manufactured in California that guarantee fair wages, reasonable hours, and excellent working conditions. The Good Tee is another brand whose B-Corp certification and fairtrade certification elevates the brand to the top popular eco-friendly apparel companies.

Aluminum Reusable Water Bottle

Reusable water bottles are perhaps the most common eco-friendly promotional product. The popularity of aluminum bottles has increased in recent years as more and more of us move towards more sustainable ways to consume water. Reusable bottles appeal to all audiences and it makes for a great canvas for a company logo.

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Increase the chances for the swag to be used

Ending up in the trash too quickly is probably the biggest problem with branded merch today. To maximize the chances for your product to be used, gift something everybody needs regardless of their design preferences, gender, age, etc.

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Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

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Do Trade Show Swag Giveaways Boost Brand Awareness?

Promoting your brand at an event such as a tradeshow or a festival is a must. Giveaways is a good way to engage with the event goers and boost brand awareness.

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Trade show Giveaways

Tradeshows can be great exposure for brands in the service industry and giveaways or promotional items can aid other marketing efforts. Whether you call them promotional items, tchotchkes or swag, exhibitors at every trade show hand out countless trade show giveaways to attract and encourage attendees to enter their space.

Check Out 6 PR Tips To Gain Exposure At Trade Shows

The right trade show giveaways can help generate leads and support integrated marketing messages that will prompt attendees to tie that message back to your company long after the show has ended.

What’s The Right Trade Show Promotional Item?

The perfect trade show giveaway items communicate a company’s brand strategy and messaging to attendees. Before selecting a trade show giveaway item, first consider weather or not they support your corporate or brand image and campaign theme.

Check Out How To Build an Effective Tradeshow Marketing Strategy

Brand Alignment

• Ensuring your branded merch has your company logo printed, etched, or chiseled on it. It does not matter how cool the giveaway is, you will lose out on business and exposure if the item cannot be linked back to your brand.

• Your giveaway items need to in some way tie-in to your brand and most importantly, your industry. This will help the attendee connect the dots between the physical merch item to your service or business.

• If you’re attending a themed trade show, select an item that goes with the theme to further strengthen your brand messaging.

Pro Tip: Once you’ve chosen the right merch for your trade show booth, the way you display your items and present your brand is just as important as the items being displayed. Approaching your display as another tool for marketing is a good way to ensure a successful way to show the value in your business.

Check Out Trade show booth design is a key element to engaging with attendees.

What Is A Valuable Trade Show Giveaway?

The most important function of a tradeshow giveaway is the ability for that item to resonate with your clients and prospects. While unique and fun giveaways are always a good way to generate overall interest in your brand, practical merch items can present more value to a trade show guest.

• Think of a trade show giveaway item as something an event goer can immediately find useful such as tote bags, water bottles, sanitizer, or a backpack.

• Some of the most valuable giveaways are the ones that will be used frequently like a cool keychain, wireless phone charger, or a phone case / phone wallet.

• Apparel such as t-shirts are always attractive for people and it’s an overall low-cost product and the perfect canvas for your logo.

Budgeting For Trade Show Giveaways

Like exhibits, trade show budgets vary in size from exhibitor to exhibitor. You should be conscious of the costs associated with your trade show giveaway regardless of your marketing budget. A good rule of thumb is to use 10% of your profit towards marketing, out of the 10% allocate a certain amount to your promotional merch as needed. This will vary depending on your business model.

Check Out How Can Branding Costs Be Capitalized

Tips To Cut Giveaway Costs

• Making sure you get the most bang for your buck, may mean that you will have to get a little more creative or find inexpensive alternatives.

• Shipping can add up and can sometimes be an afterthought that puts you over your budget. Think ahead and use a local merch agency so as to be able to pick up your merch instead of paying for shipping and handling.

• Having the right staff to represent you on site can be a way to ensure your promotional items are being handed out to every person and nothing goes to waste.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

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Looking for The Best Promotional Merch printer?

send us an e-mail at quotes@familyindustriesla.com, or give us a call at 323.227.1547 and we'd be happy to help.

Our showroom at 2755 Fruitdale Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039 is open by appointment only from 10 am - 4 pm Monday through Friday.

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