Our customers always ask us how we find the coolest items that are consistently mind-blowing year after year. The answer is simple, we invest the time and energy to travel to find the coolest items. We spend days hunting the Las Vegas PPAI show every year for the most innovative, cool, thought provoking ideas in the promotional products industry. We focus on the coolest suppliers that we trust as well, so you know that these items aren’t just cool, they are also from suppliers that use quality factories and produce in sustainable ways. The partnerships we have formed with our suppliers over 10 years in the promo industry have allowed us first access to some very cool items year after year, but this year I feel like we really blew the lid off of it.
In no particular order, here are our top 23 ideas in the promo industry for 2019.
Custom Febreze Car clips, an amazing way to pair your brand with a well-known consumer brand. Proctor and Gamble has been one of the best names in consumer household products for over a hundred years and now your brand can be front and center on your customers dash for months for only a couple bucks. Plus, you’ll make their car smell good.
Axe Heaven Miniature Guitars. Talk about a cool way to make your Rockstar employees and customers feel like rock stars! These custom miniature guitars are officially licensed by Fender and they make really cool and unique desktop items or awards, but the coolest part is that they actually work!
These Silicone pint glasses can stand up to all sorts of environments. Whether it is a souvenir glass at a rock concert or just a water glass for the office. They are dishwasher safe and good for use at a campsite for some discreet pops. Available in a wide range of colours including cool tie-dyed looking colours, these glasses can hold hot or cold liquids and are practically unbreakable. At retail they are called the Sili Pint, at promo we just call them a winner.
These bean bag wedges have been around for a few years and are a solid desktop item that has multi functions. It’s a stress relieving bean bag, it’s a microfiber cloth to clean your phone or computer screen and it’s a phone stand for holding your phone up in an eye’s up sort of role while sitting at your desk. The latest innovation incorporates a QI wireless charger right into the bean bag! So now when you use it as a phone stand, your phone will get a little extra juice at the same time.
Back Scratch Pens! Show your clients that you have their back with this multi-function pen. It’s a pen and it’s also a telescopic back scratcher. This handy piece comes in a variety of cool neon colours and is a sure winner for clients or employees that love weird or buzz worthy promo on their desks. It’s a pretty handy item and it’s likely just cool enough to stick around if you give it to someone.
The Sky Clip was something I saw at the show and almost walked right past… This little clip is designed to hold your phone to the back of the seat in front of you by clipping onto the tray table. It makes hands free movie watching on your phone or tablet super easy while on a place and is allowed for use during take-off and landing. I’m sure glad I stopped in and grabbed a sample because this little guy was super handy when flying home from Vegas.
Google Home and Amazon Alexa are allegedly taking the world by storm according to that MaCaulay Culkin commercial put out by Google this Christmas. I didn’t believe it until I got a smart switch in my kitchen, and now I use it 5 times a day. Well smart home technology is coming hard into the promo world. I saw dozens of Alexa activated speakers, chargers, buttons and more, but the coolest item is the TP-Link smart light bulbs. These bulbs work with a switch, but they are also their own switch with WIFI connectivity, no need to rewire your whole house, just replace the bulbs and activate their WIFI for full control with voice commands and more, we officially live in the future!
Innovative emergency kits. We have been selling branded emergency kits to golf tournaments (bug spray, lip balm, divot repair tool, balls and a sharpie) and late-night bar party Hangover Kits (condoms, Tylenol, a fresh t-shirt, deodorant and breath mints) for years, but these cute little emergency kits take it to another level filled to the brim with premium essentials. They have a Bottle Tag that holds electrolytes, breath strips and a facial towelette, a great pairing for a bottle of booze giveaway, or they have a Ski Bunny Kit that contains a miniature ice scraper, cuticle oil, hand lotion, lip balm and more. They have some pretty innovative little kits that can be customized for any event.
Full-colour imprinted Charge and Sync Cable. I own no less than 5 cables to charge my phone. I have 2 in my car, one on my desk, one on my nightside table one on “my chair” and those are just the ones I use daily. Phone charging strategies are a huge part of every sales person’s life, I get nervous when I get below 30% battery. With this comes opportunity, in order to become one of the coveted 5 charging cables, you just have to be nicer, newer or cooler than any of those 5. These new printed charging cables are all of the above. They are well built, and the cable is completely printed from end to end, an amazing way to become a big part of your customers daily routine.
In the last few years we have sold a tonne of simple Barrel Style Duffel Bags. Gone are the days of bags having to have a million pockets, it feels like we are moving to a simpler time again of well-built good quality material bags. This is exactly what this barrel duffel represents. It’s fashionable, simple and has a huge 23L capacity. It’s a great piece as a carry on and if you are flying a discount airline and don’t pack it full, then it could classify as a personal item instead of a carry on, so it would be free. The kicker with this bag is that it has 4 massive imprint spaces. The handles are fully custom, the shoulder strap same thing and there is a beautiful patch on one side for perfect branding. That’s not even the best part, the best part is that this custom bag can be created with a minimum of 1 piece. So, if you are trying to blow away a new employee on their first day or impress a new client with a “thanks for buying from us gift”, buy 1, buy 2 buy 3, you don’t have to buy 300 for the illusion of full custom!
Who doesn’t love building with blocks!The prominence of Lego and the partnership of OYO with the NHL has made lesser known brick manufacturers explode into more notoriety. We found a brick maker this year in Vegas who can do custom projects for as few as 1000 units. They say the average unit is 200-300 pieces and they are fully custom and come with instructions and a full custom pouch for the pieces. This is great for companies that have a strong retail presence or are targeting parents or kids. You will need about $15,000 to even think about getting one of these projects started, but if you have a creative mind, this is a project that would not be soon forgotten.
I received a blast from the past in Vegas when I walked past the scratch and sniff stickerprinter… I didn’t think much about it because everyone has seen a strawberry scented scratch and sniff, but then I looked closer and I saw some scents that were a little more buzz worthy. They had Race Car scented stickers, they kind of smelled like burnt rubber, perfect for a race track or auto repair or autobody shop. They had dirt scented stickers, perfect for a farmer or food manufacturer. Cotton Candy which would be great for carnivals, circuses, any event with kids. They had literally hundreds of unique scents that would catch the attention of the person being given the stickers, and because they are stickers, the costs are quite low.
This product is affectionately called the Redneck Repair Kit. I thought about giving it a different name on here, but I honestly couldn’t come up with anything better. It features a 3 oz handy can of WD-40 and a 6-yard roll of duct tape, both conveniently packaged together in a cute little giveaway, designed to be a fix-all for any challenge. If it can’t be fixed with WD-40 and duct tape, is it even worth fixing? This product will get things moving that are supposed to and make things stop moving that aren’t supposed to; sounds to me like it can do anything.
Giant ice cubes are really popular for people that drink lowball whiskey or bourbon drinks. You can get silicone molds to make giant balls or bricks of ice, but new this year at the show was ice ball moulds that can make Baseballs and Basketballs and Golf balls out of the ice. This is a cool way to re-imagine a product that has been around for a few years and make it a little bit better.
Guaranteed to sell out early for Christmas 2019, Custom Chocolate Advent Calendars. These custom boxes with custom chocolates are made of a high end Belgian chocolate and are fully customized underneath a custom window box with 24 pieces revealed daily. This unique piece can be used to count down to Christmas, but it could also be used as a countdown to company trips, special events or sales, don’t just limit yourself to the holidays for this unique giveaway, guaranteed to bring someone back to their childhood.
This collapsible water bottle is perfect for sports or travel, it collapses to be quite small for packing into a gym or travel bag and then expands to be much bigger for holding enough water to quench even the strongest desert like thirst. This bottle is 100% plastic free, it is made from food grade silicone and stainless steel, good for you and the environment!
TikiTunes Wireless Speaker. This cool light up Bluetooth speaker is sure to set the mood at your next backyard party. The false flame on the inside provides a cool mood light, while the build in Bluetooth speaker can jam your backyard tunes well into the night…. The only thing that would make this better is if it sprayed for mosquitos while it played… maybe next year.
The Creek Kooler is a miniature kayak cooler designer to keep your drinks cold while out on the lake or river. The unique shape can be towed behind any stand up paddle board or raft down white water right behind you. This USA made cooler is also easier to tow through the sand on your way to the beach than a clunky box cooler. So, whether you are an avid paddler or a casual floater, this cooler is sure to make your brand stand out in a fun way.
Frank Green Reusable Cup. They sure know how to do it down under! It’s hard to impress a company that sells thousands of coffee cups per year with a coffee cup, but this amazingly tough and fashionable cup that is made in Australia really turned us upside down! Available in 2 sizes as either a bottle (20 oz) or a cup (10 oz) these vessels can be purchased with extra lids and in a variety of mix and match colours. Designed to last a lifetime but also recyclable, these cups are sure to bring joy to everyone that touches one.
Custom sublimated hair scrunchies. Anybody that has daughters knows that they love scrunchies, easy to tie back hair and fashionable. Now your pony tails, French braids and piggy’s as my girls call them can feature fun branding from their favourite companies. A definite hit at golf tournaments or company BBQ’s.
Last year we saw the rise and fall of the cinema light box. They came out as desktop items and keychains and they were popular for a bit, but this year the Cipher Wood Frame with plastic messages has more staying power. It’s like the cinema light box because you can put your own messages on there, but its classier and the letters are smaller so you can put more messages on there. Great for people who sit at the front.
This whimsical and elegant wine glass has a great hand feel and doesn’t taint the wine by being made of plastic or silicone on the inside. It is completely dishwasher safe and is sure to bring joy to even the non-wine drinker. Imagine everyone tipping one of these back on a Friday afternoon instead of their normal stemless glassware.
This is item number 23, but maybe it should have been item 0… You be the judge. This year I saw on Facebook no less than 4 friends that were doing a juice cleanse. More were doing other forms of fitness or healthy eating or whatever, and good for them for finding a way to be healthier than they were over Christmas. But this item takes the whole fad dieting idea to a whole new level… Introducing, the gummy bear diet. Seriously. These delicious gummies are made up of Apple, Lemon, Ginger and Green Juices and are packed full of vitamins. I don’t know if you would want to eat nothing but these for 7 days, but I’m not going to stop you. This giveaway is sure to grab the attention of people that are putting health at the forefront, even for a short while.
We dug through thousands of cool items to narrow down this list, so if you don’t see what you want to on here, shoot us an email to see if we can find that next cool item for you. [email protected]
The Holiday Season is upon us!
• DEC 4, 2018 PROMO-ADMIN
Please send us pictures of the best Christmas giveaways you receive this year! Bonus points if it comes from someone other than us (but our giveaway is awesome)
Standing out at Christmas is HARD! Have you thought of doing a Valentines giveaway? We do one every year and it’s always a hit! Take a look at what we did last year and let us know if you missed out and need to be on the list for 2019.
41 days until we head to Vegas for the largest promo show in North America! Check out some of the past top ideas we had in previous years here: 20182017
