Need corporate gift ideas? Fair focuses on the local and personal

BALLPENS AND UMBRELLAS  may be the usual giveaways at seminars or corporate parties, but what’s in nowadays is giving something more personal, perhaps more useful, and definitely more thought about — like homemade biscuits.

The annual Corporate Give Giveaways Buyer’s Show, now on its 29^th year, will be held on June 21 to 23 at the SMX Convention, SM Mall of Asia. It is a showcase of corporate product giveaway ideas that range from goodies and sweets to gadget accessories — and all are locally made.

According to Bogee Romero, the event’s marketing services manager, the annual show tried to open the gathering to international presenters for a while, but realized it was only killing local entrepreneurs. So they stopped. In the last 29 years, she said the fair has upped its game by encouraging exhibitors to come up with unique, even personalized, gift ideas, as much as possible.

In the 1980s, she said, most loot bags contained pens, office solutions like calendars and notebooks, and umbrellas. (These are still perennial gifts, she said.) In the 1990s, “quirky gifts” were all the rage, like colorful pens for pharmaceutical companies. Ms. Romero said that the main giveaway trend since the early 2000s has been gadget-centered with popular items like power banks, micro USBs, and headsets.

“Companies usually beg off [from getting] products that are similar to last year or something that looks like their competitor’s,” she said.   

One of this year’s unique presenters is the Russian Cookie House.

The name doesn’t ring a bell, and its owner, Gina M. Dejoras, said she’s happy when nobody knows it. “I like it when one is not familiar. If it’s all over the place, nobody will be that interested anymore,” she told ����ý at a press launch on June 10.

Russian Cookie House started selling home-baked cookies online in 2008. Ms. Dejoras said she’s been baking since 1992 and specializes in Russian and European cookies like shortbread. She said she tasted her first Russian cookie at the age of 12 and was inspired to make her own. Russian cookies are butterballs covered with confectioner’s sugar.   

The packaging is made to look “classy and imported,” said Ms. Dejoras, who buys all her ingredients and packaging materials in local markets. Her boxes, ribbons, and accents are all bought in Divisoria.

Unlike other brands that display their logo prominently, hers is intentionally camouflaged.

“Hidden logos are part of the marketing strategy. Makikita mo lang siya kapag hinanap mo talaga. (You’ll only see it if you really look at it.) And when you look for it, it means you’re genuinely interested,” she said, smiling.

Her cookies sell from P60 per two piece set to P5,000 for a double-decker hamper with matching tea set.

“It’s practical and not mass produced,” she said of her products.

And this is what gift givers and receivers are after. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman