High impact swag with low environmental impact

Published: March 2023

Swag works. 85% of consumers remember brands that give them takeaway goodies, keeping them for a whole year on average. However, swag mass-produced without consideration of the environmental impact can be detrimental.

The goal of good swag is business gain, brand awareness and creating a crucial space for community connection. With 75% of adults in Great Britain wanting to make lifestyle changes to help tackle climate change, how can we make sure we’re taking the most environmentally conscious approach to swag without losing brand reach?

To get to the bottom of the issue, we’re going to discuss the use and impact of swag, followed by some proven, practical changes to help guide a more sustainable approach to takeaway goods. We’ll round off with our opinions on the future of swag in the events world. Buckle up.

Why do we use swag - why is it impactful to brands & events?

We’ve mentioned raising brand awareness already, but how does it actually work? Branded swag is like giving out business cards on turbo drive, targeted goods allow brands to reach a specific audience and fulfil a broader objective, whilst reducing the likelihood of a grab and chuck (as we’ve all done with business cards at one point) therefore building brand loyalty with targeted consumers.

As well as making consumers feel important, swag can also be a key driver for lead generation, like pulling a top trump card on competitors. A whopping 79% of consumers feel 'appreciated' when they receive a piece of promotional merchandise and 47% report feeling ‘very happy'. There’s no doubt that utilising swag can appropriately showcase your brand or event in a powerful, unique way.

Here comes the big however.

However, these benefits get entirely lost when brands produce merchandise that tries to reach as many people as possible within a fixed budget, resulting in low-priced, low-quality bulk-produced swag items. These goods specifically require mass-manufacturing and extracting raw materials, ergo more greenhouse gasses into the environment. Since most of these items cannot be recycled, they will ultimately end up in landfills. One statistic revealed up to 23% of swag gets thrown away after each event. This should not be ‘the norm’ under any circumstance.

Swag has to change. We have to remove this mass-produced element entirely. We have to look at producing swag as an opportunity to showcase brands as eco-conscious hubs and demonstrate desirable business morals to our targeted audiences.

Easier said than done though, right?

Well, no, not really…

How to reuse, recycle and reduce swag

There are many ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle your swag, with more ingenious and inventive incentives popping up every day. We’ve compiled these big three ‘R’s to help get your creative juices flowing – who knows, one of these could be the perfect fit for your next brand experience...

1. Reduce: Make your impact matter

A fantastic way to reduce the impact of swag waste is by moving away from physical products. Utilise charitable donations as a takeaway, with the aim to give recipients an opportunity to donate instead of receiving a material item. Why not give delegates the option to donate on your behalf to one of your company's charities? Not only will this highlight your brand values and the good work you do, but the delegate feels good for gifting to a cause they also feel passionate about. This works particularly well with Gen Z and Millennial audiences who place sustainability as one of their top concerns.

2. Reuse: Share swag that will be kept long-term

A fundamental problem with mass-produced swag is that the end consumer doesn’t actually choose the product, which is why in many cases products go to waste and aren’t re-used long-term. As 73% of delegates prefer brands that personalise their experience, for high-spend events, why not give delegates the option to choose which swag items they prefer either at the experience or in a follow-up email? A good example of utilising this is through personalised ‘digital swag bags’. This added layer of personalisation will guarantee increased consumer loyalty, not to mention the longevity of said swag.

3. Recycle: Start how you mean to go on

Due to the anticipated cost implications, it can feel scary to tackle recycling as a key driver. Whilst switching to virgin materials (made from natural products) may cost slightly more, you’ll reap the ROI in other ways. Use pens as an example, a pen made from recycled cardboard or bamboo is not just more friendly for the environment, but it's certain to stand out in comparison to the other hundreds of plastic pens people already have at home, and your consumer is much more likely to keep it or gift it – a win, win scenario!

We understand that (particularly in the current economic climate) many brands are trying to cut costs where they can. If this is the case for your business, instead of investing in more eco-friendly packaging, why not change your giveaway swag to items that support sustainable and eco-friendly behaviour, like reusable lunch boxes? This way you can price compare the spend on products, but on an item that will have prolonged benefit to your consumers.

Another great way to recycle swag can be from your own office space. Place large bins with labels asking employees to donate their unused, unwanted items so they can be passed onto homeless shelters or companies such as Event Cycle, who Audience partners with across all of our experiences. This is more focused towards brands who receive lots of swag as opposed to giving it out, but in the experience world even those brands delivering events still end up with lots of merch themselves!

What’s the future of swag?

The challenge here isn’t to get rid of swag altogether. The challenge is about finding swag that is long-term (reuse), utilises non-physical forms (reduce) and is produced using more sustainable methods (recycle) that suit your audience’s needs.

To do so effectively, brands need to shift their perspective to focus on low-impact, highly ethical and relevant swag. This means sourcing quality, ethically produced and covetable products targeted to specific audience needs. It means strategically considering the reusability, recyclability, and reduction at each stage of the production cycle. It means investing in items that are good quality, well-designed and not producing ‘for the sake of it’.

As we use more and more technology to analyse data metrics for audience profiles and targeted brand experiences, the swag world should follow closely. We can use these digital methods to get the most out of our swag - like implementing digital swag bags, donating to charities, or using data metrics to pinpoint more receptive swag merch. As the methods of gathering data get more sophisticated, our swag game has the potential to improve too.

It’s time to say goodbye to reaching mass audiences with low-priced, low-quality bulk-bought options and move towards giving more thoughtful items (for our consumers) and using more thoughtful procedures (in production and environmental terms). Getting the most out of our swag isn’t as hard as it seems, we just have to go forward with a strategic, determined and focused mindset. By doing so, whatever your budget, you’ll impress with your next swag drop.

We’ve run out of excuses: go for green, fair, strategic, branded swag. Promote your brand and be kind to our planet at the same time. You’ll be surprised by how receptive your audience will be to it.

Nick Bennett & Emily Furlow