Proudly voted Promotional Merchandise Distributor of the Year, December 2024 (Sourcing City Awards).

Revealed: the most popular promotional merchandise items

Whether you're planning your first foray into the world of promotional merchandise or are an experienced purchaser of branded items, there's one simple fact that remains the same: you want the products you pick to represent your business in the best possible light. The perfect promotional product will offer a purpose to the end user, whilst simultaneously generating awareness for your business and interest in the services your company can offer.

What are the most popular promotional merchandise items in the UK?

Of course, as trends across fashion, lifestyle and wellbeing change, so too will the popularity of certain branded items shift. However, that said, there are some items that will never fall out of favour. 

  • Printed cotton tote bags
  • Mouse mats
  • Branded Cambridge mugs
  • Flexible fridge magnets
  • Promotional T-shirts
  • Curvy ballpens
  • Message bugs
  • Oyster card travel wallets
  • Branded travel mugs
  • Budget golf umbrellas

Want further convincing that these are the best items to consider for your next promotional marketing campaign? Read on for our list of reasons why each item is worthy of your consideration! 

Printed Cotton Tote Bags

Useful for: handing out to visitors at exhibitions and trade shows. It offers the dual functionality of practicality for your customer, as well as keeping all eyes on your branding with every outing!

Our printed cotton tote bags look fantastic printed with a corporate logo, with the natural colour of the bag providing the perfect backdrop for displaying a business logo. With prices starting from just 58p per bag, they're incredibly budget-effective and offer high-impact visibility for your brand - after all, these simple bags become advertising tools the moment they're picked up by your customers!

Promotional Mouse Mat

Useful for: keeping your brand centre-stage on desks across the UK. Whether you use it as a giveaway for customers or to add a smart corporate twist to your own workspace, it's a simple yet highly effective way to keep your branding visible.

Perfect for printing with either a vibrant campaign image or a specially-designed piece of artwork that has been created purely for the purpose of your merchandise endeavours, a colourful branded mouse mat will help to keep awareness for your business high in professional - and perhaps even not-so-professional! - environments across the UK. 

Branded Cambridge Mugs

Useful for: spreading awareness for your business every time it's used. Whether incorporated into an office tea-run or used in a domestic setting, it's practical, eyecatching and perfect for sipping a cuppa from. 

Our best-selling promotional Cambridge mugs are one of our most popular items for a reason - and they can be with you in a flash, too! Simply confirm your order before 11am to benefit from our express two-working-days dispatch service.

Flexible Fridge Magnets

Useful for: keeping your brand omnipresent in kitchens across the country, and guaranteeing your contact details are always at hand, as and when your customer might need them.

Take your pick from four different sizes and submit the shape of your choice in order to create a branded fridge magnet that brilliantly represents your business. Prices start from just 10p per item for these budget-friendly promotional giveaways - fill out our Rapid Quote form now to receive your bespoke quote!

Promotional Fruit of the Loom Valueweight T-Shirts

Useful for: wearing at events where you and your colleagues are representing your business. They also make great giveaway items to hand new club sign-ups at Freshers' Fairs and fitness shows.

Take your pick from a broad range of colours with these simple-yet-striking printed T-shirts, which are ideal for printing with your company logo - guaranteeing an event presence that will really make your staff stand out among the competition!

Printed Curvy Ballpens

Useful for: our promotional Curvy ballpen combines form with function perfectly, and makes a great giveaway item at trade events, corporate conferences, consumer shows and everything in between. They're also ever-useful to have in the office for branded in-house stationery. 

Our classic curvy ballpens are a firm favourite with our clients, with the comfort grip and printed barrel combining to offer a pen as irresistible for companies as it is for their customers. 

Promotional Message Bugs

Useful for: a classic low-cost, quick-fix branded merchandise solution. And just look at that little face...!

Available in over 40 different colours, these cute promotional logo bugs are perfect for printing your message and branding on to. Prices start from just 16p each and they can be dispatched in as little as five working days. Brilliant, no?

Printed Oyster Travel Card Wallet

Useful for: taking your brand on-the-go! These ever-popular travel wallets are perfect for incorporating awareness for your business in with the daily commute. 

This branded travel wallet is available in 16 different colours, meaning there's an option to suit most corporate identities - and it will look fantastic with your corporate artwork printed onto the front. 

Branded Thermo Travel Mugs

Useful for: another on-the-move product, our ever-popular promotional Thermo Travel Mug will allow your customers and colleagues to enjoy their favourite drinks at optimal temperatures when they're out and about. 

Whether it's used on the morning commute or taken out for a session at the gym, the beauty of this branded travel mug lies in the fact it can be taken anywhere, at any time. 

Promo Budget Golf Umbrella

Useful for: keeping your customers dry - and your branding on display, whatever the weather!

Our promo budget golf umbrella can be dispatched in as little as five working days, and with prices beginning as low as £5.92 per branded brolly, it's a high-impact promotional option that will serve both your customers and colleagues well.

These are just some of our best-selling items - whether you want promotional lanyards or printed badges (or something else entirely!), we have ideas to help make your marketing endeavours that little bit more memorable.

Main image from Pixabay.com

Written by

Katie Clark | Head of Digital Marketing

With over a decade in print and digital journalism, Katie possesses a wide skill-set that incorporates everything from SEO to PR. Joining the team in early 2019, her expertise lies in writing sparkling copy about promotional merchandise and related topics, as well as managing social media activity and developing creative solutions to keep the Total Merchandise brand at the forefront of people’s minds. With a background that includes event-planning and volunteering for charitable organisations, she has a first-hand appreciation for the needs and questions a customer might have when acquiring promotional products for their organisation. In her spare time, she loves reading, going to the cinema and learning to cook.

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