OnFulfillment Blog | Event Marketing Materials

As a marketing professional, you probably don’t need to be told that branded promotional products are big business.

Companies today devote millions of their annual marketing budget to corporate-branded swag, apparel, and various other promo items for prospects, customers, partners, and employees. According to an article on LinkedIn, companies allocate 15% to 20% of their marketing budget to events, trade shows or external branding, a large portion of which is earmarked for promotional products. In the U.S. alone, that translates to between $21.2 billion and $26 billion annually, depending on the source; worldwide, that figure is far higher.

That is a lot of money. Yet shockingly, despite the huge budgets devoted to this space, many companies have no idea what promotional materials they currently have in inventory, where those items are, or how much of that inventory has actually been handed out.

It’s a new year, and that means a brand-new event season is upon us. Do you feel prepared for a successful 2025 campaign?

As you’re certainly aware, it takes more than submitting the proper paperwork by the stated deadlines, lining up booth staff, and ordering enough branded giveaways to get you through the year. Putting your best foot forward, making a good impression, and attracting the right prospects requires a more strategic approach—a blueprint that defines how you will approach the upcoming events and deliver a consistent and effective message to your target audience.

On top of all that, you’ll want to maximize your budget and spend wisely by making the most efficient use of available resources, simplify travel and accommodations, and repurpose materials as much as possible to ensure a more sustainable business model.

OnFulfillment has decades of experience planning, supporting, and managing the logistics of successful trade shows, conferences, seminars, and other events. And we’ve assembled the following tips, suggestions, and strategies that will help you ensure a successful 2025 season.

Trade show season is in full bloom.  The calendar is full of events—everything from industry-wide trade shows sponsored by corporate marketing to regional conferences and local seminars staffed by local sales teams and admins.

Lots of exposure and networking opportunities lie ahead.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is, you’ve been tasked with coordinating and overseeing these events nationwide—literally hundreds of shows coast to coast for which you must provide banners, signage, pop-up displays, collateral, and promotional materials.

Even if you were equipped to manage multiple vendors over several months and across multiple time zones to secure the necessary materials for each of these events, that’s only half the battle.  Once the deliverables have been produced, there remains the challenge of getting them all delivered where they need to be, when they need to be there.  That means boxes need to be packed, shipping labels printed, and detailed delivery instructions provided.  And since many of these items are reusable and need to be shared by several different groups, you also need to organize shipments between events and venues, often with razor-thin margins of error.

A large part of OnFulfillment’s business is producing corporate-branded promotional products for our customers. Whether these products are high-volume, cost-effective merchandise used as event giveaways or high-end brand name items given as gifts to customers or employees, corporate branded materials play a key role in establishing a business’s identity and reputation.

But wanting branded corporate merchandise is one thing. Knowing where to get it is another. There are scores of vendors out there who claim they can handle all your material needs. The truth is they often provide access to only a small part of the potential market—say the low-end, high-volume portion—requiring you to go elsewhere for brand-name items. And as anyone knows, managing multiple vendors adds complexity to any project.

A successful branded merchandise strategy means understanding what you’re looking for today—and what you might need in the future—and then finding a vendor that can satisfy all those needs. This blog will help define the various benefits of corporate branded materials and provide a roadmap for finding just the right provider.

It’s spring, which means it’s event season. Businesses across America (and around the world, for that matter) are dusting off their exhibits, unfurling their banners, erecting their pop-up signs, and preparing to hit the road.

In honor of this occasion, and to assist the novices and newcomers, we’ve assembled the following list of trade show and event terms—common phrases and labels you’re sure to hear from the various vendors and consultants you’ve enlisted to assist your efforts. Hopefully this list will prepare you for the inevitable conversations and allow you to communicate your objectives effectively.

To help organize this content, we’ve assigned the terms to six basic categories: