My agency prides itself on coming up with cool gifts to send out to our network: friends, family, and clients. Sure, a lot of companies have swag, but we try to make ours just a little bit different. For example, one year we designed a Mekanism hoodie that had the company name silkscreened in the same typeface as the Metallica logo. One year we chose a custom‑designed box of cereal with hidden toy surprises inside. Another year we sent out a hollowed‑out fake inspirational book with a branded corkscrew hidden inside. We want to get people wearing the brand or keeping the brand on their desks or offices.
In fact, it was a hooded sweatshirt that helped us land one of our oldest clients, Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I had met a representative of the brand, Jay Curley, at a conference I attended, and we got to talking. I'm a huge Ben & Jerry's lover, so I was just happy to meet someone from the organization and exchange information. I immediately added him to our agency's mailing list for free stuff like newsletters, conference invites, articles — and, of course, our Mekanism hoodies.
As luck might have it, about 10 months later Jay called to say that Ben & Jerry's was in the market for a new agency. He probably wouldn't have remembered our agency were it not for the fact that, he told me, he loved our Mekanism hoodie and wore it. We were invited to pitch the business, which we ultimately won. At the time of this writing, we've been their agency for six years. That 20‑something‑dollar sweatshirt rewarded us with a great client and millions and millions of dollars in revenue. Was I trying to land a bank shot that turned a free hoodie into a major company success? Nah. I was just trying to give cool merchandise away to a cool person that I met. And as it turns out, putting awesome stuff out into the world is a habit that pays unexpected dividends.
Excerpt from "The Soulful Art of Persuasion" by Jason Harris. Copyright © 2019 by Jason Harris.