Merchandise can serve many different purposes for your association: a token of appreciation for members, an incentive to boost event attendance, and a powerful marketing tool. When used for an event—whether the event is in person, fully virtual, or hybrid—custom event merchandise can play a key role in its success. In this guide, we’ll explore three strategies to effectively leverage custom event merchandise as marketing collateral.

Offer Appealing Items

Choosing the right items for your branded merchandise is crucial to members actually wearing or using it—and promoting your association in the process. Make your event merchandise appealing to members by:

• Seeking input from your members. Collect important insights straight from the source. Use a survey to ask your members what they would like to receive for merchandise and choose the most popular recurring answers.
• Creating urgency and exclusivity. These two concepts intertwine to encourage members to get their hands on merchandise as soon as possible. For example, you might create a merchandise line that’s limited to event attendees who sign up by a certain date.

Let’s say your association hosts a golf tournament fundraiser to secure nondues revenue. Before the event, consider sending a survey asking what type of merchandise attendees would prefer—e.g., a branded polo shirt, hat, water bottle. Use that feedback to determine which item or items would be the most well-received and brand them with a custom logo for the golf tournament. Add urgency by requiring members to RSVP for the event by a certain date to receive exclusive items.

Whatever you choose, ensure the items will be created and distributed to members well in advance of the event so you can reap the marketing benefits before, during, and after the tournament. Also, encourage your members to wear event merchandise to important functions, such as conferences, so your branding gets maximum exposure.

Create a Social Media Challenge

Social media is a tool that can broaden the reach of your merchandise more than members simply wearing the items out and about. Your association likely already uses social media to engage members—take it a step further by including the merchandise in a social media marketing campaign. Here are a few ideas you can try:

• Themed challenge. Create a challenge for members to win a prize. Continuing with the golf tournament example (because that’s my wheelhouse), you might challenge members to wear their new merchandise while playing a round of golf or mini-golf. Ask members to tag you in their posts to be considered for a prize, which could be an additional item of merchandise.
• Use current trends. Put your own twist on a current social media trend. For instance, ask members to participate in the #ThrowbackThursday trend, where they post pictures from past events along with a picture of themselves wearing current event merchandise.
• Work with influencers. If there are influencers related to your association’s work or industry, consider sending them merchandise for free and asking them to share a post while wearing it to promote your upcoming association event.
• Use a hashtag. Create a memorable, snappy hashtag that’s specific to the event, making it easier for people to find similar posts and important information about the event, and for you to see which members are using the merchandise to market your event.

No matter which social media challenge you implement, it’s a good idea to offer a reward to incentivize participation, like offering a gift card to a local restaurant or store to the member who gets the most likes, comments, or shares.

Leverage Partnerships To Co-Brand Merchandise

Leaning on your partners or event sponsors is another way to market your association’s event lineup. Partnerships with well-known, reputable local businesses or companies can encourage your members to wear association merchandise out and about.

In the case of something like a golf tournament, you could work with a local sporting goods store to sponsor your tournament by providing co-branded merchandise for participants. They get the brand recognition, and your members get high-quality, relevant merchandise that features both of your brand identities.

Final Thoughts

Your events are a crucial part of your operations. Merchandise can play an important role in helping members and participants feel appreciated and connected to the association’s work—while also serving as a way to raise the event’s profile.