GIFTING EXPERIENCES
The Meetings & Incentive industry is now focusing on more meaningful gifts at their events. There has always been a budget, but in the past it was spent on logo’d flip flops, beach towels, T-shirts, baseball caps, coozies, etc. “Swag” has always a part of these events, but there has been a definitive trend over the past few years for meeting planners to aggregate that budget into something meaningful that the recipient will use every day. The goal is to have the attendee have fond memories of how they “earned” their possession after the event and recall back to it.
There are several ways in which branded merchandise can be used to enhance an incentive or event.
• Pillow Gifts: While all the attendees are out at an evening event, a gift to surprise and delight them will be waiting when they come back.
• President’s Club Gifts: Often times these incentive trips have two levels of participation; one for all attendees, and one for attendees who have excelled in some fashion-perhaps exceeding the sales goals. These individuals get special treatment at a VIP only event.
• Key Account or Holiday Gifts
• Sales Incentives
• Pre-Trip giveaways: It is not uncommon to send a package of material in advance of the trip. Often their itinerary is included in this, and in recent years, a gift of value, specifically something that they will use on their upcoming trip.
• On site gifting experiences: This, of course, is the program that trumps all the above.
Meeting planners recognize the Gifting Suite as an intrinsic part of their event. Boiled down to its most basic element, to create a memorable event for attendees. As a prospective attendee, if you weren’t invited, you would work hard to get there next year. If you were invited, you work hard so you don’t ever miss it! What is the meeting planer providing if not an experience that the attendees will remember for a long time? The gifting suite is an experience!
THE GIFTING EXPERIENCE
If you’ve ever been to one of these or perhaps executed one it’s something to behold. These are typically done on the front end of an event to build excitement. It’s the kind of experience that gets an event off to a great start and the attendee remembers for years to come. These events can be single gift opportunities or, as is a trend that’s been on the upswing for the past couple of years multi-gift.
Eventus will work with you to establish needs and desires. We explore an understanding of the demographics of the attendees and their budget. Male versus female, age, occupation, these are all things that are taken into consideration. We then construct a tight assortment of products that your attendees will love. Eventus has something for every price point and we will execute these events flawlessly. Our line-up of popular name brands will allow you to choose from a wide variety of items for your gifting suites.
