As Marketing Week recently stated, “sustainability has fast become a deal breaker in business”, so in ensuring that your brand and message has a positive legacy with your contacts, you need tools and tactics that are aligned to this value.

Within your marketing armoury are corporate gifts, or promotional products if you prefer. They are an effective way to nurture key relationships, whether within your team or with customers and potential customers.

Let us provide an insight into sustainable corporate gifts, a subject that is close to our hearts and aligned to our industry knowledge.

It’s time to rethink what has been known as the ‘freebie’ or ‘giveaway’. What we have in mind for your organisation are targeted, bespoke, quality items that offer maximum brand impact for minimal environmental impact.

What are sustainable corporate gifts?

‘Sustainable’ isn’t a quantifiable term, yet the sentiment is generally applied to products that fall into at least one of the following categories;

• They are made from recycled or repurposed materials
• They include renewable organic materials
• They are recyclable or biodegradable at the end of their long life
• They have achieved a relevant sustainability certification
• Products are made to last and thus help to reduce the use of new materials, especially single use plastics.

Best practice for your eco promotional product campaigns

Here are the golden rules that will support the sustainability of your corporate gifting campaign, whilst maximising your marketing return on investment:

Take a targeted approach – Avoid waste and over-production by being clear about your target audience; how many individuals you want to reach and who are they. Use data to inform your decisions. An added benefit is that the more you refine your audience, the more budget you’ll have per approach, which can improve how you adhere to the following rules!

Be relevant – When you know who you are looking to engage in your brand, you can seek to identify common characteristics that will inform which sustainable corporate gift will be most relevant to them.

Focus on usability – This is the holy grail of corporate gifting and sustainability. Quality, practical items that fit around the lives of your audience, will maximise brand impressions of your gift. Help your contacts to be more sustainable, they will thank you for initiating positive change.

Ensure distribution is efficient – Planning your distribution strategy needs to be an early consideration in your brief, to ensure your project is resource and cost efficient. It is likely to inform the choice of sustainable corporate gift, whether it’s letterbox friendly, a bulkier item for maximum impact when its handed over, or an item that is easy for your audience to carry if you’re engaging with them whilst they are out and about.

We’ve given promotional products a green makeover

Forget single-use, disposable or new plastic items that are moments away from your general waste. We can do better than that, for the sake of your reputation and our values.

What sustainable gift should you choose? We can certainly make some recommendations, yet we need to know more from you first…

The market for sustainable corporate gifts is dynamic, which is good news, the world is waking up and proving how adaptable it is! Product design, materials and manufacturing techniques are evolving rapidly. There are new labels and accreditations to understand too.

Don’t worry, lean on us to match these insights and opportunities with your marketing brief and business ethics. We’ll blend design, creativity and sustainable products to develop resources that help you win business! Our advice and ideas are free and freely available, all you need to do is get in touch.