What Promotional Items Can You Offer for Outdoor Events?

Trade shows are usually held indoors, where the elements can't disrupt carefully planned booths, where wi-fi is plentiful, and where there are no noisy generators or tripping-hazard cords stretched across the ground.

Outdoor events are a whole different beast. Maybe you have to rely on a generator for power or run a cord from a nearby light pole or other supplied source. Maybe you have to worry about wind, rain, or just the heavy sun beating down on both your staff and your attendees. Maybe all you get is an open-sided tent or canopy, a table, and your own ingenuity.

Regardless of the circumstances, any event you attend is an event where you can hand out swag, goodies, and promotional items. Whether it's a career fair where your goodie bags include job applications, a demo space where you can show off the latest in product developments, or a vendor fair where you try to sell to an eclectic audience, having something to give away can be an incredible opportunity.

The question is, what promotional items do best for outdoor events? Let's talk about it!

How to Make Your Promotional Items Stand Out

Before getting into specific ideas, let's talk about what you need to consider and implement in the items you bring to an outdoor event.

The biggest, number one consideration is items that are useful to your audience. We're not talking about something they can bring home and use someday, eventually, maybe. We're talking about items they'll be excited to use in the moment. Think about things that suit the weather conditions that your average visitor might have forgotten to bring, or that might make their experience at your event more pleasant.

Another consideration is items that are compact, lightweight, or generally easy to manage. You don't want to burden your attendees with heavy or bulky items; either they'll turn it down, or they'll need to leave to store it in their vehicle, or they'll be struggling to handle it all day. That can build resentment, and they'll associate your brand with the hassle, even if the item is worth it.

Finally, keep value in mind. A bag full of cheap items can be fine, but the more value you can pack into your promotional swag bag, the more visitors will appreciate you – and the more word of mouth will send people to you, if for no other reason than to claim their own. Just don't go too crazy, or you'll lose a lot of money; really valuable items can be raffle prizes, door prizes, and other one-off giveaways instead.

The Best Promotional Items for Outdoor Events

Now, let's give some recommendations for good promotional items you can give away at outdoor events. Keep in mind that you want to make sure your items are branded in some way, even the use-and-discard items; you want your brand to be front and center when people use the item because awareness is important.

Branded Tote Bags

One of the best items you can give is the item that stores other items: a promotional tote bag. For one thing, a tote bag can be filled with other swag you want to hand out. Moreover, it can be used by your attendees to store things they get from other booths and brands at the event. Totes are great because they're durable, reusable, and useful, so not only will many of the people attending your event have your bag on display, but they will percolate throughout the city and can be seen all over the place.

We recommend a good canvas tote with a brand mark printed on it. These can be made with eco-friendly materials and printing methods, and can be a lot more durable – not to mention ethical – than your average mass-produced tote made using synthetic plastics and exploitative labor. Want to learn more? We're more than happy to talk about it.

Reusable Water Bottles

A good water bottle can be extremely handy for an outdoor event, especially if refreshments aren't readily available or they're expensive. Offering a reusable branded water bottle – with a double bonus if it's already full of crisp, cold water – can be a huge source of revitalized energy on a hot summer day. And really, people will definitely appreciate an option that isn't spending $4 at a food truck or heading outside of the event to a store for their beverage needs.

If possible, having a refill station so people come back and top up their water bottles is great, too. Unfortunately, it's not always readily available, so if you don't have access to good plumbing, don't try to carry a thousand gallons of additional water with you.

Insulated Beverage Bottles

An alternative to the reusable water bottle is an insulated travel beverage container. While there are a bunch of brands of these that go viral from time to time, you don't need to go with the highest of the high end; you just need something functional and branded. Preferably something made of eco-friendly and recycled materials.

The main reason we list this one as a good alternative is because they can be very useful on both cold days and hot days. Filling an insulated travel mug with cold water will keep it cold during a hot summer day; meanwhile, filling one with a hot beverage like coffee can be very handy for those cold weather events.

Customized Sunglasses

Sunglasses can be a pretty hit-or-miss option as a branded item. If they're well-made, comfortable, and stylish (in that order), they can be long-lived and very useful for your attendees, especially if you encounter people who have lost, broken, forgotten, or otherwise not thought to bring their own sunglasses.

On the other hand, it's easy to buy into branded sunglasses and end up with cheap, barely functional sunglasses that break in a matter of months, or that feel cheap, or that don't really share the eyes. Plus, you have to think about the people who wear normal glasses and the people who already have their own sunglasses. So, while sunglasses can be a good option, it might be valuable to not include them in an overall swag bag where they'll go unused or let people return pairs they don't want or need.

Useful Consumables

Consumables can be very handy for an event.

Think of items that can be useful to people who might not be used to spending hours out in the sun or who might have forgotten their own versions of the items.

• Sunblock bottles that are good for a couple of uses.
• Lip balm to prevent chapped lips, especially on dry or windy days.
• Hand sanitizer, particularly if the event is rather crowded.
• Disposable masks for those who are most interested in air safety.
• Single-dose packets of Tylenol or Aleve for the people who get headaches in the sun.
• Granola bars or other snacks to keep energy levels up through the event.
• Hand warmers for cooler or cold event days.

Ideally, the consumables you use can be in branded containers, but sometimes, just packing them all in a branded tote can be good enough.

Branded T-Shirts

Who doesn't love a good, ethically-produced, well-made t-shirt?

The only downside is that they won't necessarily be used during the event, so people aren't as likely to be representing your brand by using the item you're handing out. Still, a good shirt can be a primary piece of your promotional package, with other useful items alongside it.

Emergency Ponchos

An emergency poncho can be a great item to keep in a car or backpack, especially for people who like more outdoor activities. They can also be handy if your outdoor event is generally clear but threatens rain unexpectedly.

It depends a lot on the typical weather where you set up, of course, but they can be a good backup item.

Sun-Blocking Umbrellas

Umbrellas are typically thought of as tools to keep the rain off your head, but they can also be good during the hot, clear summer days as a portable source of shade.

The idea of a parasol has gone out of fashion, but by offering a lightweight, branded umbrella for shade on a hot day, you can get a lot of representation.

Battery-Powered Fans

There is a huge array of different kinds of cooling fans available, which can be printed with branding quite easily.

Fans with rechargeable USB batteries are the best. Some can also have a water spray attached for additional cooling on a hot, dry day. They're great options!

Giveaway, Raffle, and Door Prizes

While the above items are all generally inexpensive and common enough to give away to everyone who attends your event booth, there are plenty of other items you might want to give away but which are generally larger, more expensive, or less broadly useful to everyone.

These kinds of items are great for raffles and other giveaways. You don't need to burden everyone with them (or worry about carrying around dozens of them), but they can be very attractive to the right people.

One of the best parts of high-value items used in giveaways is the way you can give them away. Recording the information – name, email address, and possibly even something like a phone number – can give you contact information to use in future marketing efforts. You can then mail the item to the winner later while keeping everyone who signs up on a mailing list, at least until they opt out.

Beach or Travel Chairs

A good collapsible chair can be useful for years, but they're bulky and difficult to carry around, so they don't make good swag to give to everyone.

Instead, make them door prizes, raffle prizes, or rewards for participation in a game or other event.

Coolers

Coolers can be very handy and can keep various items protected from the weather, including snacks and beverages.

You can also use a cooler in a similar way that you would a tote; they're bulkier and less convenient but can still store a variety of other promotional items if you want.

Tents

A whole tent can be a very compelling item for someone to win from a raffle, and you might be surprised at the number of people who would sign up to win one.

Just make sure it's a good, useful, high-quality tent rather than the cheapest option you can buy and brand.

Multi-Purpose Lanterns

One interesting possibility is a combination lantern/light and speaker. These are handy items for the outdoorsy types who still want to jam to some tunes while they're setting up camp or hanging out on a beach in the evening.

They're of limited use for people who don't live that kind of lifestyle, though, so make sure they're aligned with the kind of audience you want to attract.

Backpacks

While it might seem like backpacks play the same role as a tote, the reality is that they're larger, harder to store in bulk, and are a lot more durable and broadly useful.

A good, high-quality backpack, especially one designed for hiking or another activity, can be a very valuable prize, and you can get a lot of attention – and newsletter sign-ups – by offering one as a prize.

Trips and Tickets

Sometimes, the best promotional item isn't an item at all but an experience. Whether it's tickets to a concert, nights at a hotel, or admission to an event elsewhere, people will be happy to enter to win them and even happier to enjoy them knowing that your brand paid for them.

Regardless of the kinds of items you offer, we always recommend that you seek out the most ethically produced and eco-friendly way to get them. Any brand can buy the cheapest drop-shipped items from Alibaba that they can find, so you need to set yourself apart in terms of quality and ethics. Here at Ethix, we pride ourselves on providing the most eco-friendly, ethically produced, and/or union-made items, and each one of them has a full recording of what goes into its make and manufacture. We're always happy to tell you anything you'd want to know about them as well, so just reach out and ask if you have any questions!