10 Great Swag & Giveaway Ideas For Your Next Virtual Event

Create An Engaging Customer Experience With These Fun Swag Ideas For Your Online Event

Swag and giveaway opportunities have long driven consumer interest during in-person events. 

Attendees enjoy receiving free items and entering their names into giveaway contests with the hopes of winning an exciting prize. 

When hosting a virtual event, swag bags with high-quality giveaways are a great solution to humanize your online event and foster a tangible connection to your brand. 

The trick to choosing the right swag involves who makes up your target audience and when you decide to send the swag. 

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are ten ideas you can use to select which swag and giveaway items will make your virtual event more engaging. 

10 Amazing Swag And Giveaway Ideas For Your Upcoming Online Event 

Swag is an excellent tool to market your virtual event. It connects your brand or event with your target audience. 

Online events may seem like they have limitations as far as what swag you can offer, but they can become quite lucrative if you view them as new opportunities. 

• Attracts People To Your Session Or Virtual Booth 

• Starts Conversations That Can Open The Door For Demos Or Info Exchange 

• Increase Brand Awareness And Exposure For Future Opportunities 

Offering a free swag package will allow you to build a contact list of potential leads to use for future marketing and sales opportunities. 

Virtual swag and giveaways make good first impressions, foster engagement, and offer valuable follow-up opportunities. 

Let’s take a look at ten great ideas you can use when planning giveaways for your next virtual event. 

1. Good First Impressions: A Pre-Event Welcome Kit 

 A pre-event gift is a great way to build excitement around your event. It helps you ensure that your brand makes a killer first impression by mailing a swag bag right to the registrant’s home. 

Here are some easy-to-mail ideas but still create excitement before your event’s start time. 

• Notepad & Pen 

• Water Bottle 

• Earbuds 

• Name Tag 

• Mouse Pad 

You can choose to announce the swag in the mail or let it be a surprise. Either way, your audience will appreciate the thought you put into the swag. 

2. Self Care: A Digital Wellness Bag

Chances are your attendees have spent an excessive amount of time in front of the screen over the past couple of years. 

Show that you care about their health and well-being by sending them a digital wellness swag bag. Include blue-light glasses, screen cleaning wipes, a microfiber cloth, and do not disturb the door hanger.

Invite your attendees to bring these to your breakout sessions and show off their swag. Encourage them to continue using them in their home office to promote employee wellness. 

3. BUDGET-FRIENDLY: Offer Virtual Swag Bags 

Sometimes obtaining attendee’s mailing addresses isn’t a possibility. Or maybe your online event has thousands of registrants, putting physical swag outside of your budget. 

Virtual swag bags offer all the perks of physical ones, with the bonus of tracking how your attendees access the perks.

Virtual swag can be accessed through a link you send to a participant's email. It will bring attendees to your event landing page, where they can claim their swag. 

• Discount Codes 

• Exclusive Contests

• Free Product Or Service Offers

• Event Sponsor Special Offers

• Digital Planners Or Printable PDFs 

Event planners can decide at what point participants can access the swag and for how long.  Virtual loot will save you time and energy while still providing a personal touch to your online event. 

4. Gamification: Giveaways To Encourage Attendee Interaction

Gamification is a great way to ensure your audience is fully invested in your event. 

Offer special prizes for top-performing attendees during these games. For example, the highest scorer in your training trivia game will be sent a special branded prize, like Apple Airpods or a similarly coveted item. 

This will drive engagement and make your event memorable. 

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5. Shareable Items: Giveaways That Can Be Shared With A Team

If the purpose of your virtual event is to spread brand awareness, consider sending participants items they can share with the team members or office staff. 

This will allow your brand reach to extend past just your direct attendees. Send a bag of coffee, individually wrapped snacks, or a box of branded pens that can be shared with a group. 

This could lead to others being interested in your brand and upcoming events.  

6. Award The Winner: Use Traditional Raffles For Coveted Swag

Organize a raffle for prizes that you know will excite your audience. You can put attendees' names into a name randomizer or assign them a virtual raffle ticket number. 

Here are some items you can give away. 

• E-gift Cards 

• Themed Gift Baskets 

• Pre-Launch Product Giveaway

• Collectibles 

• Home Office Kits

You can pull together items for one big giveaway or sprinkle small raffles throughout the event to encourage participants to stay engaged throughout the whole event.  

7. Creative Connections: Use Swag For Icebreaker Fuel

If you plan on sending out swag before your online event, think about how you can use the free items to forge creative connections. 

Consider sending out a mystery item that can be revealed during the event ice breaker. Different stress balls, company keychains, or other items will encourage participants to turn on their cameras and show others what they got.  

Another idea is sending out a wristband with a coded message that will be revealed during the event. Launch a live poll to have participants guess what the news is. This will build excitement and keep your target audience talking.

8. Networking Opportunities: Give The Gift Of Time

If your event budget is tight, ask your sponsors and other stakeholders if they are willing to donate their time as a prize. This is an excellent prize for hybrid events, where some participants are in person, and others are attending online. 

CEOs and other upper-level managers can offer 30 minutes of advice or expertise as a giveaway prize. Sponsors can provide a Q&A session with their team. 

Attendees will be excited over the prospect of conversing with someone with whom they usually wouldn’t be able to interact. And your event budget will stay on track. 

9. Cultivate Unity: Create Interactive Experiences With Custom Swag

Anything you can do to humanize your virtual event and make your activities more immersive is an excellent way to keep people engaged throughout your online conference. 

Create and deliver a swag box full of items meant to make breaks and activities more engaging by appealing to attendees’ five senses. 

• A Custom Aroma Diffuser 

• Drinks And Snacks 

• Branded Coffee Mug 

• T-Shirts 

Plan your event activities around these items, and you will captivate your audience. Challenge participants to not open their packages until the big day and host a group reveals. 

10. POST-EVENT Follow Up: A Thank You Swag Kit

Another swag option is to send gift bags after the event has concluded. Send a small token of appreciation for attending your online conference. 

A branded pop-socket, phone charger, or power bank is a great way to thank attendees for engaging with your brand while offering them a valuable way to keep your company on their minds. 

Use Swag To Make Your Upcoming Virtual Event Stand Out

As you are planning your next online event, use swag to foster engagement and generate leads. 

Thoughtful gifting and interactive experience will make participants more excited about the event and more likely to engage with your brand. 

Partner with BeaconLive to plan customized, white-labeled virtual gathering experiences for your target audience. 

We focus on quality, scale, and networking capabilities throughout our high-quality platform and professional team of experts to ensure a highly engaging and professionally executed event every time.