We had a great time at PubCon and I got several great gems and tips for SEO and SEO tools. Many of you conference goers know there is always lots of swag (freebies, promos, giveaways) given out at these shows, so it is good to have a backpack or bag. I thought it would be fun to show off the best swag from this year. I made sure to hit every booth and grab some swag if they had it.
Here it is, the best PubCon swag, in order of how much I liked it (not necessarily the overall swag score I give):
Digital Dice: I believe this came from a Public Relations company’s booth, but I am not sure. It has MSNBC.com on it, nothing else, and I’m pretty sure MSNBC.com didn’t have a booth at PubCon. 🙂 I had never seen digital dice before, but it is pretty cool. Now I only wish I had one more for games that require two die.
Practical – 8 (we all play some sort of game requiring dice)
Easy to Carry – 10
Branding – 4 (dice aren’t used every day)
Overall Swag Score: 7.3/10
The Tangler: This one at first seems pretty gimmicky, but Bruce Clay’s Tangler swag is pretty fun (Great to finally meet you Lisa!). I have to admit the Tangler went straight to my kids, but I did play with it quite a bit before I passed it along. It moves every which way and you can have it turn in on itself and come out just fine.
Practical – 5 (great for getting your mind off of a long blog post)
Easy to Carry – 10
Branding – 6 (if you keep it around your desk as a de-stresser)
Overall Swag Score: 7/10
Yo-Yo: Google was giving away Yo-Yos that light up (kind of) when you play with them. Very traditional swag, but they did well finding a decent quality Yo-Yo (it actually works more than once). I again admit, this went to the kids after a few minutes of playing with it.
Practical – 8 (great fun)
Easy to Carry – 8 (doesn’t quite fit in your pocket)
Branding – 5 (probably won’t get a ton of use).
Overall Swag Score: 7/10
Mouse Pad: Another traditional swag item, from UserPlane.com, but done better than any other mouse pad design and quality I’ve seen. I only use laptops and the built-in mouse, but for those who like the external mouse, you’ll love this swag item.
Practical – 8
Easy to Carry – 7 (thin, but obviously still wide, can’t roll up)
Branding – 9 (always in front of you while you work)
Overall Swag Score: 8/10
Glowing Dome: This item from Internet Marketing Ninjas is very cute and a bit mesmerizing. If I worked in a dark office I might have put this on my desk. It went to my little girl instead, and she’s been carrying it around all morning and yelling “PINK!” when it gets to the pink color.
Practical – 6
Easy to Carry – 7
Branding – 6
Overall Swag Score: 6.3/10
Many of you hopefully found us at PubCon and got some free swag. If not, I’m still not going to tell you what it is because we decided to bring it to SMX West too because of how much everyone loved it. I may be biased, but I would honestly give our swag an overall swag score of 10/10. Many people said, “sweet, this is exactly what I’ve been needing!” and other similar comments. See you at SMX West!
