Swag Best Practices
What is Swag?
Swag is everything branded that runners take home from your race. This can include your giveaway shirts, premium swag you sell and rewards you give for meeting referral or team thresholds.
Why is Swag a Marketing Strategy?
Marketing is about telling the world what makes your race special and unique. You've learned about some channels for sharing that unique message with the world - through referral rewards, teams, and drip email campaigns. Now you just need some Swag worthy of all that sharing!
Swag Best Practices:
- Offer swag that people want to wear
- Make it unique each year
- Have continuity with your branding logo and design - but shake up the specifics each year
- Use premium swag as a reward
- If you push referral rewards, present the top 5 referrers with premuim swag (like a branded track jacket)
- If you focus on building teams, give the largest team cheaper, but still exclusive, swag (like custom socks)
- If the priority of your race is fundraising, award the top 5 fundraisers with swag (like a branded hoodie)
Swag Success Story - Race to Robie Creek
"We have a different theme each year, and everything from the start, to shirts and prizes, to finish line food, all wraps around the theme. People have a lot of options for things to do - you need to stand out. Our surprise theme and the way we execute it makes us unique. We sell out every year.”
Brian Rencher, Race to Robie Creek
