What To Do with Promotional Products You Haven't Used in a While

Even when you invest in great on-brand promotional products, there are several reasons you might find yourself sitting on a surplus of outdated and/or unused items.

Sometimes you find that cache of misplaced items, years after they disappeared. Sometimes trade shows disappoint and you come back with boxes of carefully customized swag. Sometimes it’s still a perfectly useful item, but you’ve got to make room for the latest design.

What’s a space-strapped marketer to do with those surplus and one-off items that don’t match their current messaging?
Here are four creative ideas (and one piece of solid storage advice) from your friendly team at Second Story Promotions.

Create a new marketing opportunity

• A retro-themed box of old t-shirts, mugs or sunglasses for the corporate collectors.
• An “Ages of [Brand]” collection bundling an old product with its brand new iteration—say an older plastic bottle with a cool new Basecamp or H2go model (complete with your flashiest brand look).
• A “Sustainable Office Supply” pack of recycled old pens, pencils and BIC stickies.

Giveaways

Higher value items, even if they’re a bit outdated, can still excite customers as giveaway items. That could be at a community event, as part of a social media campaign or as a donated prize for local fundraisers. Examples of products that work well for giveaways include:

• Apparel: Fleece goods, polo shirts, sunglasses and scarves
• Tech: Bluetooth speakers, headphones, power banks and phone accessories
• Outdoors: Umbrellas, multitools, camp chairs and cushions, coolers, tumblers
• Sporting goods: Golf balls and tees, frisbees and duffel bags

Donate to a local school, nonprofit or shelter

Donations of functional items like pens, markers and notepads are always welcomed by organizations working on tight budgets, like schools, nonprofits and shelters. Use your best judgment in deciding what to donate; bright markers and pens might work for your local elementary school, but that nonprofit clinic would probably prefer pens or notepads.
Get one last impression from your products by taking a photo of your employees dropping off boxes of supplies. Post it on social media and encourage your followers to donate their own supplies, money or time to the cause.

Reuse and recycle

This is typically a last resort, since you made an investment in your promotional products, but sometimes you just need to clear some room. Fortunately, most promotional products are easily recycled or upcycled into new things.

Find others who might want to take the products off your hands for free on sites like Craigslist or Freecycle.org. You could also put your summer interns to work harvesting and recycling the plastic and metal parts making up many popular items.

A note on storage
One last thing: If you want your promotional products to remain usable until you can get rid of all of them, make sure you’re storing them properly. Pack products in climate-controlled environments and avoid moisture by keeping them off the floor. Avoid stacking heavy boxes on top of each other.

With a little creative thinking, you can put those surplus and outdated items to good use and stretch your promotional products budget even further. And when you’re ready to start shopping again, reach out to the friendly team at Second Story Promotions!