How do you think about brand risk when distributing branded 'swag' at B2B conferences? Some of our overseas group companies are asking for permission from our brand management team to distribute branded items. For things like notepads, pens, coffee mugs, etc this is fine with as long as they follow the brand guidelines. However, we are wondering how to judge the brand risk when distributing wearable items that might mislead people into thinking the person wearing it is one of our employees. Worst case scenario would be a non-employee in a branded baseball cap or vest does something naughty that goes viral on social or traditional media; people assume they work for us and it damages our brand. Can those of you on the frontlines of conference swag please let us know what's the norm in terms of distributing branded clothes/hats and how you manage brand risk?

We’ve stopped, not because of the risk but due to the CSR/Green initiatives. Besides retail front-liners the staff don’t have anything wearable that’s branded. Diaries and pens are distributed yearly but not at conferences. I’ve seen a pivot to “happy hours” to get people to the booth to engage etc owns and hats and lanyards are brining some risk as you said but we’ve stopped that a while back.

We just don't give out wearables with our own brand. We sell wearables of the brands we sell, but not our own brand. Also, I don't think anyone in the real world is going to be like, "oh, let me wear that hat from that one conference in public because it's so cool." I have b2b branded clothing, and I wear it at home because they're shirts I don't care about and wear them when painting or house work etc. I'm not going to wear that in the actual outside world because I'll look like a goofball. Just my 2 cents. Kind of think it's a waste to give out merch like clothing just because nobody sane will actually wear it in public, it'll either get tossed out, donated, or stuck in bottom of a drawer, or worn during painting , like me.

B2B companies have to careful in terms of what they give out at events as every small thing can build/break their brand value, especially in this era of social media where smallest of the things get highlighted. Brands can stick to clean gifts -- sustainable gifting such as plants, jute bags, etc. These create positive brand image and the possibility of anyone using them to hurt brand image is minimal.