In the world of marketing, there are many different methods you can use to get your message out and keep your brand at the forefront of everyone's minds. Online campaigns such as email marketing, social media, and video ads are all effective in their own way. Some of the most effective promotional methods, however, are often the most simple. One example? Sticker marketing.

Stickers have been used for decades to express messages and keep people engaged with a variety of brands, and believe it or not, even in the age of social media and mobile technology, they are still a growing and hugely effective marketing tool. If you’re finding that a hard fact to get your head around, just think of a sticker as a mini-billboard; a physical reminder of your brand to all who see it that is both low cost and effective, and allows the owner of the sticker to give a word-of-mouth recommendation to anyone nearby.

When it comes to promoting hackathons, makerspaces, open source projects, or tech-related events in particular, stickers are a marketing must-have.

Why?

Stickers have naturally stuck with techies for decades. They express personality, they’re collectible, and coders, developers, and startups are often seen adorning their laptops, backpacks, and water bottles with cool-looking branded stickers representing the tech world they love.

If you’re not using stickers, you are handing over that important laptop, backpack, or water bottle real estate to a company or tech event who does.

So how should you use stickers as part of your next tech event marketing campaign? Of course, they can be a great way to create buzz prior to attending the event. But let’s look at a few more benefits and explore some ideas you can utilize to get started using stickers successfully for your hackathon, makerspace, tech event, or open source projects.

Engaging Sponsors for Your Tech Event

You undoubtedly already know how important sponsorship can be when it comes to assuring the success of an event. The right sponsors who share your target audience and goals can make a massive difference in the number of people who attend your event as well as how much exposure and budget you have to work with.

Stickers can be a big help in getting sponsors involved too. They’re a great way to give companies an opportunity to have a physical interaction and leave a mark with their target market when their company is included in a custom sticker design. You could even offer this option as a premium level sponsor benefit. The stickers are a natural way for sponsors to engage with attendees and they give an easy entry point for their brand and message.

Everyone Loves Free Stuff

There’s no better promotion than offering something completely free. Stickers are a fantastic way to do just that, and because they’re so inexpensive to produce, you can easily give them away in large volumes increasing the potential impact without breaking the bank - the more you give away, the more your attendees will be able to spread the word about your hackathon, event, maker space, or project.

Share The Love

Hackathons and makerspaces are pretty share-heavy events, and stickers can help generate excitement by allowing attendees to show off their sticker swag at the event itself AND share their love for your brand with the world when the event is over.

Stickers are also a great way to help build a sense of community by allowing people to show they’re part of the same tribe.

Get Creative

For in-person events, stickers can be handed out at registration desks, designed as part of swag bags or goodie bags given away on arrival, used as giveaways during pitches, added into raffles and contests, or included with event badges. You could even incentivize participants by offering a free sticker as a prize or reward for completing certain tasks during the hackathon.

For virtual events you can mail them before or after to leave a physical reminder of the event, and/or use some of the same ideas above but in a virtual setting.

Don’t Forget Online Marketing

Stickers can also be used as part of your online marketing efforts to promote your event and increase engagement by sharing sticker images on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Cool sticker designs have been known to go viral, so think creatively when designing your stickers and you may get noticed by more people than you expect. This can also be beneficial for a virtual event since there is no ‘Step and Repeat’ banner backdrop with logos, you can use a sticker instead.

Attendees can be incentivized with stickers for posting selfies and tagging your brand or event on their social media profiles. Sponsors will love the added online exposure when their brand appears on all those techie social media accounts!

Think Ahead & Make Them Useful

Stickers are a fantastic way to engage existing attendees, but the key to making stickers work to the max is to think ahead. Aim to get your brand noticed and create interest in future events.

Stickers are a great way to keep the momentum going after an event has ended as well as creating excitement for the next event via word of mouth marketing by those who have already attended. So, consider ways you can make your stickers more useful and longer-lasting for attendees by including important information like URLs or QR codes that lead back to your website or creating hashtags for use on social media platforms.

Hopefully, we’ve helped you see how and why stickers are a fantastic addition to any hackathon or tech event organizer's tool belt. They’re an inexpensive marketing tool that, when used correctly, offer plenty of return on investment for the savvy marketer.

Ready to get your creative juices flowing and start designing some cool-looking custom stickers for your next tech event? As a company passionate about and using the most advanced technology, automation, and AI available, we love to help the tech community thrive. Send us a message today.

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