Free merchandise can be surprisingly expensive.
Not because of what it costs to produce.
Because of what happens next.
It gets carried around an exhibition.
Taken back to the hotel.
Stuffed into a suitcase.
Then placed in a drawer with six other tote bags, three charging cables and a stress ball shaped like something nobody can identify.
We tend to measure promotional merchandise at the point of distribution.
How many did we order?
How many did we hand out?
What was the cost per item?
But perhaps the more useful measurement begins after the event.
Did anyone wear it?
Did they use it?
Did it make it home?
Would they have chosen it if it had not been free?
That last question feels particularly revealing.
A branded T-shirt is not only competing with other promotional clothing.
It is competing with every T-shirt that person already prefers to wear.
A reusable bottle is competing with the one already sitting on their desk.
A tote bag is competing with the twenty hiding under their kitchen sink.
Giving something away does not automatically give it value.
The recipient decides whether it becomes a useful object or delayed rubbish.
Perhaps the best event merchandise is not the item that attracts the longest queue.
It is the item that earns a second life.
What is the one piece of promotional merchandise you still genuinely use?
Completely unrelated...
Sometimes it is the small, unexpected detail that makes a customer remember the entire experience.
That is the thinking behind The Unexpected Extra:
