Promotional products remain one of the most effective ways for brands to create lasting impressions, drive loyalty and build awareness. In 2025, the best-performing branded items combine usefulness, sustainability and daily visibility. Whether you’re looking to enhance customer relationships, boost employee engagement or generate buzz at events, these items top the list of what buyers truly value this year.

Too often we’ve seen a promotional product fall flat. Companies have set up at a tradeshow only to take home most of what they thought would be winners with attendees.

This happens for a lot of reasons; branding is not in a place that enhances the promotional product, there isn’t any choice for the customer or simply it’s the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’.

As a marketer with more than 30 years’ experience, I love swag!  I still have sitting on my desk a Call Design phone charger from a contact centre conference I went to a few years back, a DOMO drink bottle that is always filled with hot water monitoring how much I drink in a day and umbrella’s from every brand imaginable. I even have a stockpile of mints in my top drawer which are handier than you think.