Conference giveaways

May 19, 2005 7:52 AM

Is there some sort of rule-of-thumb for how many giveaways you bring to a conference based on number of attendees?

Is there like a magic ratio or something? 100 items for every thousand people? Assume 1/3 of folks will pick stuff up? 1/2? There's got to be a professional conference planner in this crew...

posted by tristeza to grab bag (5 comments total)

if it's anything like where I work, one for everyone. But I work with geeks, and geeks love giveaways with companies names on them. Depends on what it is, too. Travel mugs will go like hotcakes, keychains not so much.

/me looks at drawer filled with logo pens, badge clips, stress balls, and keyboard brushes and smiles.

I would say at least half, to be safe. most likely more. A lot of people will spend the time just going table to table with a bag collecting the giveaways.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:58 AM on May 19, 2005

Well, not if you saw these - they're more informational brochures about our program, not fancy pens or anything. And I'm talking a conference with about 3000 folks, mostly docs and nurses.
posted by tristeza at 8:04 AM on May 19, 2005

these are expensive items tristeza, and you want to make sure that only doctors and nurses that you WANT as clients get them.

I go to conferences fairly often, and I pick up brochures and shwag... and let me tell you, at the end of the conference, when I am packing to fly back home, some of the brochures don't make it out of my hotel room. They land in the recycling basket only because the conference booth reps have been so insistent to give me their marketing stuff.

It /is/ important to give something at the booth - studies have shown that people will stop at your booth if you are giving away something. However, you - as the trade show exhibitor - also have to contain costs. So give away something inexpensive that everyone will use, and reserve the expensive items (four-colour glossy brochures, for example) only for the people who will want to read them.

As for cheap booth attractants: breath-mint containers with your logo on them - much appreciated by conference goers (and people that they will approach). I don't work for Yahoo but I certainly appreciated these when I went to SES in NYC a few months ago:


posted by seawallrunner at 9:24 AM on May 19, 2005

as for how many- for brochures count half of the attendees, and less than half if you are going to 'prequality' a prospect before giving away a brochure.

if you are giving away candies or squeezie balls or breath mints or cute little animal keychains with your logo on them- the cuter they are, the higher the multiplier! I was working with a software product company one year - we were giving away chocolates (good chocolate) at conferences, and we had a multiplication factor of 3x.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:27 AM on May 19, 2005

It depends on the size/type of conference and what your goals are.

Since the gimme's are really there to have something in order to initiate a conversation with a, in essence, passerby, then you have to ask how many of those people coming by you'll want to engage. If your product and marketing tact = "a lot" then have lots of stuff, cheap stuff, if you're just looking for a few high-level types, then less stuff, but of a higher quality.

Just remember the purpose of the thing: To attract people to your booth so that you can engage them.

Whatever the number, be damn sure you run of of 'em before the show's over. Nothing's a bigger pain than having to pack stuff out. Hence it's better to have too little than too much. If nothing else you can order more and mail it to people who didn't get one (thereby maintaining contact).
posted by Elvis at 10:02 AM on May 24, 2005