Sadly, for many years now the standard freebies of stress balls and notepads just haven’t cut it for events. Replacing this has been the rise of the personalised bag, a great marketing tool. A useful, attractive and good at advertising product that essentially, is wanted a lot more by the public than the standard pen. Unfortunately, this revolutionary information is known by many companies. Many events are now filled with companies giving away these freebies, with the crowd looking more like a canvas makers party. However, this is no need to get about the tote. The tote bag can still work as an incredibly marketing tool, essentially, it’s just important to know how to use it correctly and how to make it stand out. Here, we present out top tips on how to make your personalised tote bag the hottest piece of merch at the event.
DOUBLE SIDED PRINTING:
One of the reasons tote bags work so well as a marketing product is the fact that when being used, the provide constant advertisement wherever they go. Think about it, whether it’s at the gym, the supermarket or work, wherever the tote bag goes your company logo goes to. The fact totes are worn on the outside of any clothing means your company is constantly visible. This is a great and cheap means of getting your company name out there, reaching a huge number of people. However, a simple mistake can prevent this, the simple idea of forgetting to include print on both sides. Essentially, when we’re in a rush, our top priority is not to ensure that our tote bag is facing the right way. This means that those hours spent on logo design and personalised clothing printing can go to waste. Ultimately, the public sees a plain white piece of canvas. Luckily this can be easily avoided by printing on both sides of the tote bag. This ensures constant public viewing and generally doesn’t cost that much more.
COLOURS, COLOURS, COLOURS:
With tote bags becoming increasing more popular as giveaway items at events, your tote bag can easily get lost inside a sea of canvas. Usually, these tote bags are very hard to differentiate, with the huge white canvas presence making it hard for your company’s tote to stand out. With this in mind, it’s important to think about what you can do to make your tote stand out from the crowd, Here it’s important to think about colour. Of course, a fluorescent neon yellow bag with glittery features is going to stand out in an event crowd. However, it might just be me, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be seen sporting that…Furthering this, if your company is in, let’s say, the funeral planning field, this certainly isn’t appropriate. Essentially, when considering colour choice, a number of things should be thought of. Firstly, make sure it stands out. Stay away from the standard white and black basic tote and don’t be afraid to venture into more vibrant colours. However, always keep in mind what your company represents, take the logo colour scheme into account for example. Lastly, make sure the colour choices you pick are going to be universally popular. Think about your audience, the people who will be at the event and try predicting what colours they will see favourably to ensure the tote bag is used more than once. You might like the colours pink with yellow spots but realistically, an event would have to have a pretty unique set of guests to make this bag popular…Click here for more information
THE LOGO:
Let’s face it, companies don’t give out free merch just to be nice and friendly. Christmas may be coming up but realistically, giving out a free tote bag isn’t used because it’s the time of giving generously. Basically, free merch is used to get advertisement and publicity. So of course, the inclusion of your company logo on the bag is incredibly important. That’s what gets your company’s name out there and how tote bags provide cost beneficial marketing. Every company knows this, and it would be hard to find a tote bag where a company has forgotten to include this oh so important detail. So how do you make your logo stand out from the crowd of other logos? Make it bold. The big canvas space of a tote means it’s perfect for printing a substantially large logo on. You could say, it’s a blank canvas, ha. it’s important to make sure that your logo is large enough to be visible to other people. Avoid the minimalist designs, whilst fashionable these simply aren’t easily visible and are a waste of time in terms of advertising. For some upcoming companies, it’s also to include bold text of the company name. Whilst your logo may be beautiful, the public may simply not know what the logo represents. Imagine your company is a star, how is the public going to recognise what this represents? Is it representing fame, space or the Jewish religion? Ultimately, the logo on the bag is most important part so make sure that it stands out, looks appealing and also shows people who your company are.
THE DESIGN:
Now, whilst it’s important for the tote bag to display your company’s details, it’s also important to make it aesthetically pleasing. Part of the magic of tote bags as marketing merchandise materials is the fact that they can be used outside of the event, providing advertisement for your company in a lot of places. Now, here it is important to highlight the words ‘CAN BE’. With tote bags being given away left, right and centre at many events, it’s important to make your tote bag popular. People may love what your company stands for but they’re not going to use your custom tote bag in their daily lives if they don’t think it looks good. This can be a difficult task, trying to incorporate a fashionable design that appeals to everyone. With this in mind, why not create a variety of logos? This can increase your tote bags popularity, make people spend more time at your stall and also think of your tote as not just merchandise but a fashion accessory. When thinking of the design itself, one suggestion could be to think of the location of the event. If it’s in, let’s say, Barcelona, why not have something important that shows the public it was in Barcelona? A picture of a famous landmark, an illustration by a local artist or simply a picture of the venue.
FILL THAT BAG:
Lastly, it’s important to look outside of the box and think inside the bag. You may think this goes against everything previously written about making it visible to the public but stay with me here. We’re not talking about making the tote bag reversible (although this could be a great idea!) or including fancy colours on the inside. One sure fire way to make your tote bag popular at an event is to include some branded merchandise inside it. A good idea is for the merchandise inside of the bag to only be available if the person takes the bag. This makes people who want the free merch have to take your bag and avoid taking a tote bag from another stand. So, what is best to giveaway? One example is kid friendly stuff. For those of you who have children, many of you will relate to coming back from a business trip and having your child ask you where their present is. Whether it’s a trip abroad, an overnight conference or simply a meeting in the local supermarket café, a present is generally expected. So, make your tote more desirable by putting something inside it for children. A toy, some sweets or a cuddly animal for example. An alternative idea could be to include something that is useful and wanted by the majority of people. Think about where your event is and who is attending. If a lot of people are coming from abroad, why not include a phone charger that fits the sockets available in the country of the event? Headphones is another great idea, they are used regularly when travelling and, if you’re like me, are usually an item that you forget.
