What is trending for trade show swag right now!

Getting your business or event logo in front of as many people for the lowest cost per view is the key to getting the best value for your trade show marketing efforts.

There are a few products that over the past 3-4 years have risen significantly in our intelligence index. The II (Intelligence Index) is our proprietary software and personel program that identifies rising and falling trends.

Falling Trends.

For instance on our falling trend indicators we are seeing serious declines in promotional products such as pens/writing instruments, ceramic coffee cups and post-it notes. The reasons for this may seem obvious but when we dig deeper into the data  we see a much clearer picture.

Pens and Writing Instruments

These items, pens, ballpoint pens and pencils with a logo (promotional products) are all on the massive decline in popularity. The reasons for this decline are as follows

1. The cancellation of cursive writing lessons at schools throughout America.
2. The nearly 100% adoption rate of digital work in schools and businesses.
3. The perception of a disposable pen being bad for the environment.

All of the above have shown that the pen and nearly all writing instruments are on the serious decline for use as an effective trade show giveaway and B2b promotional product.

The only pen going against this grain is high end pens such as Cross, Watermark etc. These high end pens all run at $10 or more each and are seen by todays promotional product recipient as being a retro premium.

Ceramic Coffee Cups

Ceramic coffee cups are declining at a slower rate. They are declining rapidly however, when compared to a whole new category, Folding collapsible silicone coffee cups. The ceramic cup stats are slowly declining however the silicone cup is doubling in popularity every 5 months.

Post-it Notes

As pen and ink decline so goes the popularity of the post-it notes.

Rising Trends

Our rising trend indicator shows some expected and unexpected promotional products on the rise.

Pop Sockets and their kin.

Pop socket sales have taken a huge increase at the end of 2019 and into 2020. This is likely due to the actual Pop Socket company losing key parts of their patent. Our research shows that there are several pop socket-like products on the market now. Their price seems to be better in line with a high volume trade show giveaway.

Folding Silicone Coffee Cups.

Rocketing up on our II (Intelligence Indicator) is the silicone folding coffee cup. Originally launched and popularized by companies like Stojo the folding silicone coffee cup has had increases in popularity by up to nearly 350% year over year.

Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Blue Light Blocking Glasses are new to the list but show an amazing increase in their popularity. We predict these will be huge at B2b marketing and trade show giveaways.