Why Gifting-as-a-Service is Good for Your B2B Brand (and the Planet)

We all have that item in the back of our closet: the worse-for-wear tote sporting a peppy corporate slogan, that extra pop-socket with your ex-employer’s logo on it. With the reopening of businesses earlier this year, corporate swag came back with a vengeance, and in new forms, including branded masks, hand sanitizers and pouches to carry your PPE.

As health care brands, it can be tempting to give in to the lure of these shiny new objects. After all, what could be a more obvious formula for brand fit than health care brand + PPE promo items?

However, as freebie masks become ubiquitous—and The New York Times heralds the demise of the cotton tote bag—it’s time for brands to rethink their swag, especially higher-end items for their B2B clients and employees.

Enter “gifting-as-a-service” or “one-to-one gifting”: digital platforms that allow organizations to give gifts that the recipients can select and redeem through online catalogs.

Billed as “personal experience platforms,” they aim to cut down on unwanted merchandise by giving customers and employees more flexibility to choose—or, yes, even forego— freebies. The trick to avoiding the former is in the range of options available, from traditional swag like apparel and accessories, to perishable items like snacks.

Some services, such as Alyce, even offer the option to donate the monetary equivalent of the gift to charity. Gifting-as-service startup Snappy, which recently raised more than $100 million in funding, serves up a variety of creative solutions to gamify the experience, including digital scratch cards.

For B2B brands, gifting-as-a-service gets around the challenge of distributing gifts to clients in a post-pandemic business environment. By transitioning to digital fulfillment, organizations can cut down on waste—but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a personal touch, such as a handwritten note with a redeemable code.

As for your employer brand, gifting-as-service is poised to be the gift that keeps on giving. Not only will it make your employees happy to receive gifts they actually want, but your brand can take credit for championing an eco-friendly option by highlighting it on social media. Because who doesn’t love an unboxing video?