AIBU to be fed up of promotional items being shit?

[sunstrokecity]

We are looking to order some promotional items for our customers for Christmas gifts.
Looking online it's always the same tat. Pens, mugs etc.
AIBU to ask what your favourite promotional gift is you've received or heard of someone receiving.

We own our own company in the engineering industry and really want to give our customers something that's actually useful and not just going to be thrown away. We actually really like all of the people we do business with and would rather spend more money if it means they will receive something they enjoy. Preferably something we can put our logo on.

Surprised at all the recommendations for usb sticks, thought they were at least 5 years past their sell by date.

Insulated water bottle has been my best freebie, closely followed by stress ball type things.

Trolley tokens I still use. USB sticks have got shoved in a drawer. Any food item is always hugely well received in our office! Power bank is a great idea, I’d keep that. I often keep gimiky toys for a bit, but I’m in marketing so not your target market. They do eventually get chucked though.

I still use a torch I was given many years ago. I’d also like a travel mug or a tape measure. Or wine.

jollyjester the mini spirit level I was given was from the engineering department of a university I was visiting.

Looks a bit like this

I got a penknife years ago when I went to a conference and it still gets used a lot. Very handy to have on my desk and for opening parcels etc.

Actually, I’ve got a few different pens recently that I quite like. One has about 10 different colours in a single pen and the others are normal pens but with something else on the other end (highlighter / touch screen stylus).

Yes to the trolley tokens - my O2 is on my car keys & gets frequent use. I haven't become an o2 customer though

The last car I bought came with a keyring for each key with a trolley token. We’re still using them two years later.

A pen is always shoved in a draw and used at some point so you can’t really go wrong with a good quality pen. When we remortgaged a while back we received a chocolate hamper that went down very well in our house!

Water bottles, chargers and powerbanks are great. They can be cheap as long as quality.

Best thing I received recently was a travel adaptor with a discreet logo

What do your customers do/need? It makes a big difference to what they'd appreciate and use.

You don't say what type of engineering you do but would a decent torch or special high vis vest or other safety equipment be any good? Or document holders, especially if your clients have to deal with unusual shaped paper or equipment. Can you get branded batteries? People always need batteries!

If in doubt though, food! A food basket with ginger bread cut into relevent shapes or chocolate building blocks or draft punny food like a little bottle of "cog-niac" (cogs for engineering?).

In all honestly though, a half decent pen and a donation to a relevent charity instead of more corporate tat would impress me the most and encourage me to work with you.

Whater you do though, don't send a basket filled with £50 of pound shop stuff. I still don't understand the logic behind sending a basket with shower gel, miniture nail polishes and socks to a corporate client.

A KeepCup is the best thing I've ever received. I got it at a conference and more than three years on I'm still using it.

Another vote for trolly tokens!

Haven't RTFT so it might have already been mentioned, but keepcup do reusable coffee cups with your design on them.
uk.keepcup.com/branded-keepcups/

Insulated mag or decent water bottle. Something that encourages reuse rather than adds to the pile of crap that no one wants/uses.

Unless you're ordering for dozens and dozens/hundreds of people, I try to keep it a bit personal though, to be honest.

Decent wine and chocolates is never a bad thing. Bottles of fizz with your own label?

Promo stuff I use
Deskpads
Travel mugs
Wall calendar (if week starts on Monday)
USB sticks - added bonus I use them to send info to other companies
Notepads - as long as more room for writing notes than corporate branding
Trolly token

Do I use these companies in preference to others?
No, they are just useful freebies form existing suppliers

Everyone at work (also engineering) is after the decent reusable cups and coffee mugs. Glasses /screen cloth, quality keyring, decent nice pen or squared notebook.

If someone did a small fold up Skype compatible headset everyone would love you.

A nice shopping bag that folds up into a little ball that I keep in my handbag.

Powerbank or decent reusable travel mug/water bottle. They’re the things that get used a lot and a spare is never a bad thing.

Company I used to work for gave umbrellas, good quality golf type ones but I think small foldable ones would work as well. They were very popular and people were always asking for them, even though they were heavily logo'ed and garish.

Our car company leaves a tin of travel sweets in the glovebox after service. That's nice.
Champagne-that was even better.

DH organises items for his company. This year they are sending out mini Amazon Echos (about £40)

In the past they've had good feed back from chocolate balls filled with gin (I think they were called Jingle balls). Also little tins labelled 'hangover kit' which contained a tiny bottle of jaeger mister marked 'hair of the dog', plus other bits and bobs. Also powerbanks.

Used to work in an engineering setting. The engineers I worked with once received a scale rule type thing but with a rotating scale (not technical myself as you can probably tell!)

Similar to photo but not exactly. They loved them.

Small screwdriver/socket sets. Some are pen shaped. Very handy to leave in a kitchen drawer.