Tis the season to spend the last of your annual marketing and sales budget on corporate gifts. Whether it’s to acknowledge your teammates or thank customers and prospects, a thoughtful gift is a great way to celebrate a good year and memorably welcome the next.
Some rules for corporate gifting in 2025 and beyond:
Here are our recommendations that definitely keep these rules in mind.
The time of gifts for gifts’ sake is over. Tat with your logo on it that’s just destined for a landfill is not the lasting brand association you want. It’s much better to give something memorable for its utility. Here are our top corporate gift recommendations that will be held onto for years to come:
What’s a more thoughtful gift than better drinking water without single-use plastic? Waterdrop water filters are the gold standard and make a great gift for home or office.
The Pininfarina collab with Globics hybrid and digital smartwatches combines beauty and utility, with a sweet brand reminder with every tick.
What could be better than showing someone — an employee or a loved one for that matter — that you support their business idea? Even if it’s just a side hustle. A SumUp portable card reader is a thoughtful gift to support the creators in your world. And it’s a great way to support local charities as contactless donations generate 3x more than cash collections alone.
Sick of yelling “You’re frozen” into the void? Amazon’s eero home Wi-Fi mesh is a corporate gift that’s for the whole remote team by offering a reliable connection across high throughput and low latency — whether you’re on an important work call or an important Netflix binge.
What about a gift that boosts security at the same time? GoDark Faraday bags for phones, laptops and tablets are a great way to give your team rugged physical protection and block hacking, tracking, and wireless data theft — practical security they’ll use every day.
Whatever you are giving, if it’s a physical gift, make sure it’s cute because, if they like it, it becomes a grammable moment. You want that LinkedIn post tagging your company to go viral!
We love a good murder mystery this time of year, but, while the next Richard Osman would be welcome, it might not be on brand. Our recommended reads are much more grounded in B2B strategy.
“I wrote The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers to help founders land their first customers and build a revenue team — without making all the mistakes I did,” author and host of the Predictable Revenue podcast, Collin Stewart told us.
Collin’s newest book is grounded in finding that product-market fit before trying to make your first sales. One you have that fit down, then he breaks down how to build a scalable, repeatable revenue engine.
Hans Peter Bech has spent the last 25 years consulting different companies in their global expansion. Last year, he wrote Going Global on a Shoestring to help bootstrapped startups and scaleups go abroad, even when budgets are tight.
And in case you needed another reason, I enjoyed this book so much that I wrote the forward!
And as a gift from us, here’s a freebie that’s sure to spark very valuable conversations — across all departments — our very own CMO Jennifer Riggins has her AI Strategy for the Enterprise publishing next week! Sign up to be the first to receive this priceless playbook!
Short of Oprah giving away a car, a one-off gift at the end of the year isn’t going to make a lasting impression. There’s an argument to instead plan now for a year of cultivating truly loyal customers — who can eventually become brand ambassadors.
“Festive gifts for B2B clients may say ‘thank you’ and show appreciation but be warned,” Peter Gerstle, loyalty consulting director at Collinson Group, a loyalty and customer engagement company. “Growth doesn’t come in a gift box. On the other hand, a structured B2B loyalty strategy says: Here’s how we’ll help you grow your business next year.”
With everything sales and expansion, it’s of course how you and your product or service can help grow their business.
“It’s forward-thinking, much more valuable and wraps up a partnership in a way wine and widgets just can’t match,” Peter continued. “Sure, gift the wine, chocolates, merch or gadget, but ensure it’s just the top note on a year-round strategy crafted to create the best of business health and wealth in the year ahead.”
Whatever your budget, whatever you do, do not use AI to say thank you! The message will only resonate more than the thing, if you become personal. Our French country manager Yves de Beauregard is a big fan of the hand-written note and we have to agree — snail mail that’s not bills is always welcome any time of year! But even if it’s an email, make it personal to make sure they’ll remember you in the new year.
