3D printing or a traditional promotional gadget – which to choose?

When planning promotional gadgets with your logo for an event, a trade fair or your clients, you usually face a choice: go for a proven catalogue product and add your logo, or create something nobody else has? Both approaches make sense, it all depends on your goal and the effect you want to achieve.

A traditional promotional gadget

A ready-made item is a pen, a mug, a bag or a notebook with your brand’s logo applied to it. It is familiar to recipients and often associated with a corporate gift. Its advantages include:

• a familiar, predictable product – you know exactly what it will look like and what it’s for,
• a wide choice of models – thousands of ready-made products in catalogues,
• useful every day – ideal when you need a simple, practical item with your logo.

However, it comes with one limitation – the shape is the same for everyone. Your logo goes on the same pen that clients of many other companies receive. It also often has a set branding area, a limited space where a slogan, artwork or logo can be applied.

A 3D-printed gadget

Here, personalisation starts with your brand, not a gadget catalogue. The product can take any colour and shape that relates to your industry, product or service. In practice, this means:

• orders from just 100 pcs – enough for an event or gifts for clients, with no need to store large quantities of product,
• no moulds or cutting dies – so even a small run can take any shape,
• full personalisation – shape, colour, branding and detail: textures, layers, raised elements and finishes such as matt or gloss,
• a prototype before production – you see the result before the whole run starts,
• material matched to the job – PLA, durable PET-G or glow-in-the-dark FLUO.

The only limit for a made-to-order 3D product is your imagination!

Which product to choose, and when?

Each option has its pros and cons, and both can work well in different situations. Below we describe what should help you decide.

A traditional gadget works well when:

• you need a simple, everyday item with your logo,
• a classic form matters more than standing out with a shape.

Choose a personalised 3D-printed gadget when:

• you want the product to be instantly associated with your brand through its shape, not just the logo,
• you are organising an event, a trade fair or a campaign and want recipients to take the gadget home and talk about it,
• you need a short run or several designs in one order,
• you have an idea for a completely new product that can’t be bought off the shelf.

An example of a 3D product in use? For Festiwal Marketingu we created a rainbow-coloured star in different forms – beads, pins and keychains. A raised texture on the product’s surface is something ordinary printing simply can’t achieve.

Or maybe both?

With us, you don’t have to choose. We combine dothat products with gadgets from trusted manufacturers and distributors into coherent sets, tailored to your project, occasion or campaign. We develop the whole project together with packaging that matches your brand identity. See how we work.

See 3D products →