I already bored you all to death with my opinions of nearly every company that presented on days 2 and 3. So this time, I’ll talk about swag.
Swag is not actually stuff we all get. It’s stuff we get if we make it to a company’s table before all the small shirts run out, or the cold sodas are gone. It’s free crap that pretty much only college students or broke entrepreneurs want (works for me, it lessens the competition).
T-shirts
To whomever is in charge of swag creation: please innovate! Your company is doing it, so why isn’t your branded stuff representative of that? I have 11 black shirts. A lot of them have really cool designs, but they do not stand out from the rest simply because of that overpopular background color. Sorry designers, unfortunately everyone thinks it looks cool, just like you do.
Kronomy has a white shirt. Not that long ago, everyone had a white shirt. Now only Kronomy does, so it will stand out at least to me in my vast sea of swag. Whether it will ever see daylight is debatable. But it’s got a head start.
Everyone’s shirts are American Apparel. This is fine; in fact it’s a standard. If your shirt is not American Apparel, you are cheap. Of course since you’re a startup, that’s cool. Everyone knows you’re broke.
Women and shirts need to be taken into consideration. The typical boxy tee is going to make its way straight to the back of the closet, where it may occasionally surface as a nightshirt. Being a small person myself, I usually spring for the largest size they’ve got when smalls aren’t available. An XL goes down past my knees and I could probably fit my roommates in it with me. Perfect for sleeping in. If i wanted to be really nerdy, I could make a dress out of it. I’d never get around to it, though. Also noteworthy: the women at these conferences are (surprisingly) fashionable. Lots of them are Booth Babes, Marketing/PR chicks, whatever. They won’t pick up your large shapeless shirts and actually wear them in public.
I realize there aren’t enough women around to make this much of a consideration, but think about this. If you’ve got something written across the chest, it’s got a much better chance of being noticed on a woman.
Other types of swag
Forget shirts. If you want to stand out, offer something different. It’s got the advantage of being a conversation piece just by virtue of it not being a shirt.
“What’ve you got there?” “Oh, that’s an energy drink from Zong. They do mobile micropayments.”
“Why is Divvy giving out stuffed dogs?” “Why not?” (Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m paraphrasing here).
An idea
How about swag that’s got at least a tangential relationship to your product? For example, I think Zivity should have given out underwear. Lacy underwear. That would stand out.
