Promo items - what works and what do people want?!

[NemoTeamo]

My boss has asked me to promote the company using a smallish budget of a couple of hundred quid. She wants promo type items but not very specific about WHAT. Im keen to avoid plastic rubbish that will be binned, but cant blow the budget on three nicely embroidered bags.
What do people like? Pens? Coasters? I ideally need to get company name and contact as well as a picture (not really a logo) on it. Any thoughts anyone?

Oh, I should say that we use the mugs in work, not too sure how people would feel trotting into Waitrose with one

I love a spork! You can get decent reusable cups with kids that are recycled. A colleague came back from a conference with one.

Lids not kids. My phone keeps changing words!

Seed bombs or packets of wildflower seeds with your branding. They can literally throw them away.

Was coming on to say seed bombs too But your give away does depend on your business type and USP.

Actually the best pack I got from an agency included-emery board, mints, post its, a micro fibre screen cloth, mini packs of fancy paper clips, push pins, pencil toppers ( school, so kids loved them) a tin of nice tea bags, some filter coffee, Branded tea spoons( like gold dust in the staff room)pop out hair brush,Hand cream and sanitizer. I was very popular.

I am really fussy about pens so use very few of the freeby pens I have been given. Mainly I find them too chunky or the nib/line is too wide for my liking.

I am always short of USB sticks though so would appreciate one of those.

We got a couple of metal coasters from someone today. Thinking about getting some made.

Mugs are used a lot.

Mouse mats generally crap

Thanks everyone so much!
So much food for thought; shortlisting options this morning (I like coasters/USB sticks and mints but we'll see!)

So much food for thought; shortlisting options this morning (I like coasters/USB sticks and mints but we'll see!)

Don't forget it also has to have some relevance to your business or it's just for the sake of it and that misses the point entirely.

A water company giving out reusable water bottles and other water-saving devices is an obvious connection.

But it can be more subtle - recruitment firms often give out stationery items so their name is always there when you make a note of something. One near me also went through a phase of bringing branded cakes round, which was nice, but our HR was exclusively dealt with by a completely different office!

Just not totally disconnected, like, say, a phone company giving out seed bombs (made up example!)

Hand gel - you will be a hero!