Time to Start Thinking About Your Holiday Promotional Gifts. No, it’s Not Too Early!

It’s August. It’s hot outside, the days are long, and the beaches are packed. Though most of us are still happily reaching for our swimsuits, flip-flops, and sunblock, we also need to start setting our sights on the upcoming holiday season.

The holidays are a time for showing appreciation, celebrating accomplishments, and looking optimistically at the year ahead—and that generally means gift-giving. As a business community, we need to plan for this now. Not next month. Not after Halloween. Now.

Last year, we saw a significant crunch and long delays with holiday promotional gifts—and we expect more of the same this year. With the very uncertain future given the continued spread of COVID-19, we continue to be plagued with pandemic-related challenges. Companies up and down the supply chain don’t have enough employees to get back to full capacity. From the creative pros who design the products and the customer service reps who enter the orders to the dock workers who unload them and the truck drivers who deliver them, there simply aren’t enough workers.

At the same time, demand is up—which, on the one hand, is great. Trade shows are coming back in full force, in-person team-building events are resuming, and client meetings are no longer relegated only to the computer screen. But with the continued uncertainty and supply that can’t keep up…prices are rising—and they will continue to do so at a rapid pace.

What does that have to do with you today, on this hot summer day?

The longer you wait to start your holiday planning, the more you’ll pay and the greater chance of experiencing delays, which could reflect poorly on you in the eyes of employees, customers, and partners.

While you don’t need to define your entire strategy right now, you should be thinking through the what, the where, and the when, so you can get ahead of the holiday rush:

·      What: Now is the ideal time to come up with gift ideas. With enough lead-time to brainstorm, you afford yourself the opportunity to get creative. For example, instead of the standard blanket—which was incredibly popular last year—kick around some ideas that will differentiate your brand. Think: customization. Think: timely. Think: curated.

What’s hot right now for your audience? Don’t be afraid to niche out your gifts to speak to the needs and wants of different segments of that audience. You might even tier your client gifts based on revenue. The sky is the limit when it comes to a customized approach to promotional gift-giving—as long as you start early!

·      Where: This is big in 2021. Where are you sending your gifts? Two years ago, this question wasn’t much of a consideration. Corporate gifts were sent to the office. Last year threw everybody for a loop. Nobody was in the office, which proved a logistical nightmare for many (tracking down addresses, shipping individually, etc.). This year, we’ll likely see a combination of the two.

Give yourself enough time to figure out where you’re sending your gifts and gather mailing addresses—and give your vendor enough time to produce and individually package and ship the gifts.

·      When: While we can’t predict exactly what the holiday season will bring, we can almost guarantee there will be chaos—between a lack of resources on the vendor side, confusion over where to send gifts, tracking down mailing addresses, and more. Think carefully about when you want to deliver or distribute your gifts; get the wheels in motion now.

Whether you’re planning on handing out gifts at an in-person event, like a holiday party, or shipping them out individually just before Christmas, get on your vendor’s radar early to secure your “spot in line,” so to speak. Better yet, buck the trend and consider doing something for Thanksgiving. It’s unexpected, it makes a statement, and it puts you way ahead of the holiday rush. Or jump right over the holidays altogether and plan something for the start of the new year. There are options when it comes to the timing of your holiday gift-giving. Regardless of which path you choose, don’t wait!

When planning your promotional gifts strategy, there’s a lot to think about, particularly as world events continue to keep us on our toes. At Clearly Branded, we’ve seen a lot, and we’ve done a lot. We know how to think on our feet and push outside the box to respond to market shifts and evolving customer expectations. Even pre-pandemic, this was our strong suit—and we continue to push the creative bounds amid the COVID chaos.

There’s no time but the present. The minute you see the first holiday decoration, you will already be behind the eight-ball!

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered. Contact us here to get the ball rolling, brainstorm ideas, and put a plan in place.