Key article takeaways:
🔑 Boost engagement with digital gifts: Skip the traditional swag and opt for digital gift cards. They’re practical, customizable, and effective in generating meaningful conversations with booth visitors.
🔑 Drive booth traffic: Digital gift cards attract more visitors. They help your booth stand out.
🔑 Use cost-effective & scalable giveaways: Digital gift cards are affordable and easy to scale, making them perfect for large events.
🔑 Measure ROI: Choose sales incentives that provide easy tracking, so you can measure engagement and follow-up success.
If you’re struggling to find good trade show giveaways, you’re not alone. But don't worry: we're about to walk you through a very good, very affordable, very quick-to-implement option.
Planning for trade shows can be a whirlwind. You're there to make connections, generate leads, and boost brand presence. But between juggling badge scans, booth design, and elevator pitches, there’s always one big question to answer: what should we give away?
Swag is the currency of trade shows. And it’s an arms race, too—with the shiniest, most fun booths stealing all the foot traffic.
T-shirts, pens, water bottles—every booth has some version of the same old, same old. And it’s hard to get excited for these standard (and often overpriced) giveaway items.
In this article, we’ll explore a better option: bulk digital gift cards. We’ll explain why they’re the smart, new go-to for trade show giveaways (hint: they’re more practical, more scalable, more affordable, and way more effective 🙌).
We’ll also walk through step-by-step how easy it is to start using digital trade show swag (even if your trade show is next week, or even tomorrow!⏱️)
💬 “Swag might get you a badge scan. A gift card can get you a conversation.”
—Andrew Flaro, Giftbit CX & Self Service Support Manager.
First, the basics. If it’s your first time hosting a trade show booth, you might not have put much thought into your booth giveaways. I mean, aren’t all corporate gifts the same?
In a word, no.
When someone attends a trade show, they expect to get some ‘stuff.’
The desirability and functionality of that stuff for the recipients might be up for debate (Are you really going to use that keychain? Or take that stress ball home with you?).
But for the companies that are giving those incentives away, they’re definitely hoping to make a lasting impression—with good reason. A thoughtful giveaway can attract attendees while also creating brand visibility and making a memorable connection.
And getting down to brass tax, you can also use your promotional giveaways for lead generation, whether that’s for collecting contact info, getting people to sit through a demo, or both.
Not surprisingly, studies show that well-planned giveaways can boost brand recall and improve lead generation (in other words, trade show incentives work).
For example, according to the PPAI, 72.1% of people who receive a gift at a trade show will remember the company that gave it to them.
Ultimately, giveaways are about making every encounter count—whether that’s sparking a conversation or starting a relationship that leads to direct sales.
And when you choose a giveaway that people actually want—like digital gift cards that offer choice and flexibility—it turns a simple trade show interaction into an opportunity for long-term, meaningful engagement.
Bonus: This approach cuts down on waste and helps you better track your ROI, too. 🎉
| Benefits | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Increased booth traffic | A well-promoted giveaway can double or even triple your foot traffic compared to booths without incentives. |
| Memorable brand interactions | A thoughtful giveaway creates a positive association with your brand. |
| Lead generation | Motivate attendees to share their contact information or participate in demos. |
| Competitive edge | Unique or high-perceived value incentives make your booth more appealing compared to competitors handing out traditional/boring swag. |
| Enhanced engagement | Giveaways can serve as conversation starters, leading to longer, more meaningful interactions. |
| Post-show marketing opportunities | A well-executed giveaway provides a natural segue for post-event follow-ups. |
💬 “There’s an opportunity cost to everything you do at a trade show. Make sure your swag earns its keep." —Giftbit CCO Nat Salvione.
We’ll explore the ins and outs further below, but our own trade show experiences show how well gift cards actually work. As they say, the proof is indeed in the pudding!
We’re a small team, and we’re judicious with our time and budget. When our Sales team attended the last HR Tech Conference in Toronto, we needed an easy and affordable way to stand out (especially next to the much bigger companies with much bigger booths all around us).
Our approach: offering $25 gift cards to everyone who scanned a QR code displayed on our trade booth banners.
This was a smart approach for many reasons.
We were already paying for the banners, so adding the QR code wasn’t an added cost. Zoe North (our brilliant Head of Marketing) created the QR easily in Canva.
We didn’t have to worry about having the right amount of swag at the booth, or pay for anything we didn’t use.
Each giveaway cost us exactly $25 and not a penny more, without any overhead.
It only took a few minutes for our marketing team to set this up, using a HubSpot + Zapier gift card integration.
To receive their incentive, an attendee just had to have a quick chat with Matthew Brossard (our brilliant Director of Business Development) or Sofia Baltasar (our brilliant Head of Customer Success).
Then the attendee simply used their phone to scan the QR code.
The QR code took recipients to a landing page where they could claim their reward, and then, 💥 boom:
And ... that’s it! All from a simple gift card integration through HubSpot and Zapier.
And the results?
We attracted almost 50% of all participants to our booth—not bad for few hours.
Of those leads, 25% went on to become paying customers, and many more are still in the pipeline.
And the average open rate for all our followup emails was 27.8%, indicating a strong level of continued brand engagement.
Forget the tote bags, lip balms, bottle openers, and pop sockets. The best trade show giveaway ideas are digital.
| Incentive Type | Affordable | Easy | Trackable | Sustainable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planners | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| T-shirts | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Phone Chargers | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Power Banks | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Bluetooth Speakers | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Flashlights | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Ear Buds | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Drinkware | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Tumblers | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Water Bottles | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Screen Cleaner | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Microfiber Cleaning Cloth | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Luggage Tags | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Coasters | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Koozies | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Bottle Openers | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Fidget Spinners | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |