Last week, I saw our gardener wearing a brand-new t-shirt of a Top Tier Consulting firm! Curious, I asked him where he got it from. Said it was given to him by one of the other households where he worked. This is the fate of many of the office Swag T-shirts that are given away during team building off-sites. So how do we give out memorabilia that people will cherish? Here are some ideas that we have seen that work.

Caricatures

Receiving personalized caricatures is usually something that team members appreciate. You could take it one step further and customise it with messages from the team.
We had recently done a team meet where people received caricatures with messages from other team members on what they really liked about that individual.

Theme Based Souvenirs

If your annual team building program has a theme, then you could look at customised souvenirs around the theme too. We have seen many creative ideas in this space including a sand clock to showcase execution skills, a model F1 car to showcase speed etc.

The surprise element works wonders too. In a recent team event, we had a souvenir around the theme which was delivered to each participant’s room by the housekeeping staff during the day that created an extra Wow.

Stationery

Old is gold! People still love getting good stationery as a gift.
Moleskine is a brand with a beautiful legacy behind it. Customised dairies are our favourite, especially brands like Moleskine. You could choose a theme that is linked to either the team member or the theme of the event.

Personalized Gifts

Personalising gifts still remain one of the best possible ways to recognise the team. This usually requires a bit more effort to know your team members’ likes and dislikes and getting them something that they would enjoy. We have seen gifts ranging from makeup and travel vouchers to biking accessories given out as part of this.

Fitness Accessories

Considering the buzz around health and fitness, accessories could be a great gift idea to encourage your team to take up fitness initiatives. We have seen portable travel exercise kits to fitness club membership vouchers being used in this context.

Customized playing cards

This option is good if you can get a good quality set with branding done either around the core theme of the event or for that of the team. And yes, it is likely to be used in the future too!

Gift Cards

With Ecommerce becoming more popular, there are good gift options available from leading E Commerce sites including Amazon and the likes. You could also personalize this depending on the preferences of your team members.

Chocolates

No one minds getting chocolates! This can again be customised with branding.  We recently saw a chocolate box in the shape of a company logo which created a Wow for the participants.

So next time you plan a team event, do spend time to think through the gifts/memorabilia too. It will be worth it.