Top 6 Promotional Product Trends to Keep Your Brand Current

Looking to promote a special event, marketing campaign, fundraiser, or new store opening? Keep these promotional product trends in mind to maximize visibility for your small business brand.  

Consider Cultural Trends When Picking Your Promo Products

Unique promotional items get you noticed, and when you marry that with trending products for 2023, you’re set up for second glances by the masses. Following are our top six tips for picking promotional items for your small business that keep your giveaways contemporary.  

1. Sustainable Is Stylish

Look for marketing promotional items that features a material or trim that’s recycled, sustainable, or responsibly sourced.  The good news for smaller businesses or tighter budgets is that products made with bamboo or recycled plastic can be as affordable as they are appealing.  

Budget Shopper RPET Tote: The latest colors and the most feel-good material—this tote’s made of recycled water bottles.  

5.5”x 3.5” Serena RPET Notebook & Pen Set: Recycled materials: Check. Pen barrel made from biodegradable plastic: Got it. Stylish monochromatic pen and notebook cover colors? Yup!  

2. The Outdoors Are Calling

Your best list of trending items for 2023 will include customized gifts that celebration the great outdoors. From a baseball cap to a bike bottle, getting outside makes recipients feel better, and your brand look as cool and can be.  

16 oz. Ree Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Tumbler: They can take this tumbler (and your brand) for a road trip or a picnic in the park.  

Everyday Commuter Drawstring Backpack: Farmers market, soccer sidelines, or wilderness walk, your brand gets exposure when your customer gets a breath of fresh air.  

3. Tech’s the Trend That Won’t Slow Down

Fastest way to make a friend? Charging cord. You heard it here first, folks, but it’s a universal truth. Add a customized tech accessory to your giveaway game (especially at trade shows and employee orientations), and give yourself a promotional pat on the back.  

Charging Cable & Screen Cleaner Keychain: For Apple or Android, and easy to attach to a bag or beltloop.  

4. Going Glam Is Still in Style

Pick a promotional product with a hint of bling. These products draw the eye and give your recipient a little something extra: 

Mineral Alpha Soft Touch Pen with Rose Gold Trim: The debonair is in the details, including compelling mineral colors and rose gold trim.  

Bright Soft Touch Diamond Stylus Gel Pen: This stylus pen features diamond etching for a flawless grip and vivid colors for an upbeat presentation.  

Engraved Aria Gel Pen with Rose Gold Trim: Streamlined, monochrome, trimmed in rose gold, and engraved with your brand. Sophisticated dazzle!   

5. Home Office Is Here to Stay

Less of a trend and more of a complete paradigm shift, working from home is a style built to last. Corporate office buildings are being converted in response to a workforce working from the kitchen table (or the pull-out couch). Just because your team is remote, doesn’t mean they don’t need desk accessories and coffee break accommodations. Consider these:  

Mineral Alpha Soft Touch Pen with Rose Gold Trim: As au courant as your fifth Zoomer of the day, this contemporary pen adds professionalism to any workday, anywhere.  

Design Wrap 11 oz. Ceramic Mug : Budget-friendly and ultra customizable as well, this mug reminds remote workers they’re part of your team.  

Full Color Bright Soft Touch Hughes Gel Pen: Your full color logo’s always the main attraction on this appealing pen.  

Bright Soft Touch Diamond Stylus Gel Pen: Smooth-flowing gel ink, a textured grip, and a trendy monochrome design encourage comfortable notetaking and team spirit, as well.  

6. Self-Care All the Way

An important trend in 2023 that applies to trending promotional products as well, is an emphasis on health, wellness, and satisfaction among employees and customers. Offer items that show you care about their overall well-being. The idea is that rest is not a recovery solution—a response to a problem—but a preventative measure to be taken at the peak of productivity, not at the trough. 

• Get Ahead of It: Encourage gym customers and healthcare clients to rest before they’re tired, de-stress before they’re stressed out, and communicate before there’s a problem.
• No Yawns: Reduce customer phone calls and employee meetings before you sense ennui.
• Figure Out What’s Fun: Ask employees and customers how they best communicate, how they best recharge, rather than asking them to fit into a pre-defined mold. Maybe a two-hour in-person client meeting including catered lunch works for one client, while a 30-minute, cameras-off video call works for another.
• Connections Are Key: Customize connections based upon customer and employee preference. Some might opt for the whimsy and fun of a happy hour whereas others might appreciate a lunch and learn. Allow choice and offer different options.

When you give a unique promotional product that communicates your support for self-care, you can give your words more weight (in the form of a water bottle? See below!).   

26 oz. Iva Stainless Steel Water Bottle: Your customized water bottle can include your logo and also a “take a break” message so your team and customers have a visible reminder that you prioritize wellness, not just work.  

Medium Galina Cotton Tote Bag: Hit the road, hit the beach, have a picnic, or join a book club. This cotton tote advertises your brand with a natural look and feel that says “slow down”.   

Promotional Product Trends Tip: Follow Cultural Trends

Choose customized gifts that reflect what you’re seeing and hearing among customers, clients, students, and employees. Give your marketing promotional items with your values in mind and you’re sure to make a lasting impression.  

Sources:  

https://hbr.org/2023/01/9-trends-that-will-shape-work-in-2023-and-beyond

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/1-03-23-gartner-identifies-top-nine-workplace-predictions-for-chros-in-2023