Everyone hates crappy giveaways. They do nothing for your event or conference and make people laugh behind your back. Especially those little string backpacks. What are those anyway?
I was at the Lincoln Park Zoo last weekend, and Sobe, the drink company, was working a little experiential action and had a street team set up to engage the zoo crowds. These nice young folks talked you up and gave you a taste of the new Sobe flavor; you used your mobile to check into the event location on Facebook, and BAM gave you a little something for your effort.
In this case, you got to pick from a few things (including the silly string backpack). I let my son pick. He is 7, and this would be the highlight of our zoo excursion. He went all in and picked these…..
Speakers in a folded-down box.

Now, you may say to yourself (as I did)…. ugg, how dumb. But…… wait for it………
They actually work and have been sitting on my desk. I am using them even though I have bomb-diggity speakers. Frankly, these are just more fun. And they are in a cardboard box… kinda like take-out speakers.

This would be a case of winning with swag.
I checked in, got the thing, brought it home, assembled it, and now I am using it…. AND…. an industry colleague came by today and was checking them out and we had a whole conversation about the giveaway and the brand.