Swag Rules: Mix(taping) It Up
Intro
Swag is a momentum strategy and it starts with three elements:
Alignment — your swag strategy is an extension of your mission, vision and values (not your logo).
Approach — an impactful swag strategy means taking a relationship approach (think holiday gifting for your close family) instead of company-first.
Consistency — if you ideate about content weekly, ideate about swag weekly. Swag deserves as much time, care and cadence as anything else you do.
The Mixtape
A few weeks ago, we sent out our quarterly Employee Box and the biggest hit was the smallest item — a mixtape Bluetooth speaker with a personalized Spotify playlist.
So, how did this swag idea happen?
For that, I am bringing in my friend and swag expert, Cassie LeBlanc.
About Cassie
I collaborate with trailblazers in the financial services industry to tell exciting stories and thrive in fast-paced environments with people who like to think outside of the box and get sh!t done.
Putting Swag Rules Into Action
I’m one of those people with 367 tabs open on my browser at any given time and I can quickly fall into a rabbit hole where I find myself in weird territory like debating if the Dancing Donnie Bluetooth speaker is “the one.”
Spoiler alert — it wasn’t.
But it did spark an idea that lead us from Dancing Donnie to our beloved retro mixed tape speaker….here’s how it happened.
Using a Swag Rules lens, our first goal was to align by starting with what we knew for sure:
- it was important to stick to the retro summer vibe theme we created (support the story)
- the item needed to be affordable plus easy to replicate if it caught on (start small)
Then, we got super specific in researching what we are looking for, from the search terms we used (retro speaker) to the avenues we purchased from (our goal is always a small business or Etsy maker).
This is where the Swag Rules approach came in based on the items we’ve found — how could we take a relationship approach to ensure the receiver felt like they have been gifted something of value? Something special?
Finally, we narrowed it down- 👋 Dancing Donnie.
Then came time to execute and for that, we called our friend Sangita Verma, the force behind GiftSuite.
Sangita keeps us grounded while also leaning into our love for the art of the possible. We sent her our final selections and she helped us understand what will work best based on inventory, deadlines, and desired level of branding.
Sangita gave us the thumbs up on the mixtape speaker, and the rest is history. (SIKE!)
She told us we’d also need a full-color wrap design with detailed specs and a scannable playlist. 😬
Enter Matt Bacon, our Creative Director at Nymbus. He immediately began crafting a unique mix-tape design inspired our retro summer logo.
As for the playlist- a dim-lit bar, several rum cocktails and a few hours later, we had the makings of a playlist second to none.
Like back in the day when I’d sit down with an actual mixed tape, memories flooded my mind as I thought about all of the good times with my fellow Nymbus team members.
Tunes from a recent game we played during an All Company meeting (I see you, Industry Baby 👀), songs that forged unbreakable bonds as our group strengthened our leadership skills in the mountains of SoCal and even Frank Sinatra drifting through the speakers in a favorite local restaurant collaborating with the Locality Bank team; all of this became part of the playlist and fully aligned with our company (and my) “why.”
And (all of) this is how the Swag Rules work!
Update!
We’re super excited to release our latest mix-tape, inspired by a recent post from our friend, Sam Kilmer of Cornerstone Advisors, where he talked about his Mr. & Mrs. Kilmer & B-Sider’s Blues. What struck me about the overall reception to the mix-tapes (ours or Sam’s) is that brand can and should use all of our senses and that nostalgia isn’t about old things, it’s about new connections.
