As a corporate leader, ensuring client satisfaction is one of your top priorities. But standing out from your competition and impressing prospects often requires going the extra mile.
The best way to demonstrate a deep commitment to your client relationships is to provide memorable and meaningful tokens of gratitude, also known as corporate gifts.
Corporate gifting isn’t just useful for client engagement, though. You can also leverage corporate gifting to engage employees, motivating them to produce high-quality work and to stay with your company in the long term. Plus, it reflects well on your business and can bring more clients to your doorstep.
However, you can only access the benefits of corporate gifting if you offer desirable gifts that resonate with different audiences and use cases. In this guide, we’ll review:
- Corporate Gifting FAQs
- Our Favorite Corporate Gift Ideas
- Corporate Gift Ideas for Employee Engagement
- Corporate Gift Ideas for Client Engagement
- Corporate Gift Ideas for Event Guests
Corporate Gifting FAQs
What is corporate gifting?
Corporate gifting is a way of recognizing employees, clients, and other stakeholders by gifting them items, experiences, and more. For example, here are some of the most common types of corporate gifts:
- Vacation packages
- Donations to nonprofits
- Dining certificates
- Experiences
- Event tickets
- Digital subscriptions and downloads
These are very general corporate gift ideas to give you a sense of what a typical program might offer—we’ll get into more detailed corporate gift ideas later.
What are the benefits of corporate gifting?
Corporate gifting programs can be a significant investment, so it’s important to understand how it can pay off for your company. Here are just a few of the benefits your company can experience with corporate gifting:
- Strengthened client relationships. Providing a little something extra for valuable clients sets you apart from similar companies vying for their support, improving customer satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat business down the line.
- Future-forward client experiences. Research shows that 59% of customers believe that companies need to provide cutting-edge digital experiences to keep their business. We’ll discuss this in more detail later, but the right corporate gifting companies can provide these digital experiences.
- Employee loyalty. The average turnover cost per employee is six to nine months of their salary. Corporate gifting can boost employee loyalty to your company, meaning you can retain your skilled employees instead of worrying about hiring. Plus, a happy work environment is a healthier and more productive one.
- Brand awareness. Let’s say your company designs briefcases and you decide to provide your event speakers with one for free. Whenever they bring their briefcase to a meeting or corporate event in the future, your company gets a hit of brand recognition.
What types of audiences receive corporate gifts?
We’ll be organizing these corporate gift ideas based on their form and which audience they’re best suited to. The form category is simple enough, but let’s review the audience subcategories:
- One-to-one gifts are best for small, personal exchanges, such as between a manager and a direct report or a salesperson and their client's point of contact.
- One-to-many gifts are suited for instances when a single person or entity wants to gift to multiple people at once, such as a department head to all of their direct reports or the leadership team to the rest of the company.
- Many-to-one gifts are when a large group gives a gift to just one person, such as an entire department gifting to a single team member.
- Many-to-many gifts involve large groups exchanging gifts, such as a peer-to-peer recognition program.
Many-to-many gifts are best suited for employee engagement, so we’ll only mention them in that section. Let’s dive in!
Our Favorite Corporate Gift Ideas
- Personalized Leather Journals
- Wellness Kit + Personal Training Session
- Evening Out for Two
- Featured Speaker Spot
- One Tree Planted
- Google Play Gift Card
- Ping-Pong Table
- Tickets to a Sports Game + Team Merchandise
- Group Cooking Class
- Extra Paid Time Off (PTO) Day
- Charity on Top
- GoSkills Subscription
- Office Coffee Bar Setup
- Ultimate Themed Experience
- Vacation Package
- Appreciation Video
- GlobalGiving
- Libro.fm
- Rewards Points System
- Holiday Party
- Employee-Nominated Luncheon
- Bravo Board
- Peer-to-peer fundraiser
- Streaming Subscription
Corporate Gift Ideas for Employee Engagement
Physical Gifts
1. Plant Care Kit
Plants are an affordable gift that can be a lasting addition to your recipient’s home! Go to your local plant store and obtain succulents, potting soil, and decorative pots for your recipients. Not only will this gift brighten up a recipient’s home office, but it can also serve as a tasteful backdrop for video calls.
- Best for: Recognizing individual employee contributions, such as hitting a quarterly goal or getting promoted.
- Audience: One-to-one
2. Office Coffee Bar Setup
Coffee perks your employees up and gets them ready to work, so why not add a little flair to your office setup? Reward the top-performing departments or employees with a special coffee bar in their office so they have the fuel they need to continue excelling.
- Best for: Honoring a top-performing department within a company.
- Audience: Many-to-one
3. Rewards Points System
Chances are, you’re probably a member of numerous rewards and loyalty programs in your personal life. You can bring that same strategy to your employee engagement initiatives! For instance, you can create points systems where coworkers can award each other points based on great performance. Then, once an employee has enough points saved, they can pick a prize, like a briefcase or wireless earbuds.
- Best for: Companies wanting to empower employees to uplift each other.
- Audience: Many-to-many
Combination Gifts
4. Wellness Kit + Personal Training Session
Getting healthy can be costly, so why not help your employees out with a free wellness kit?. Your wellness kit could include anything from athletic clothing to yoga mats to protein powder to power-up workouts. Get them started on the right foot by providing a free training session with a professional, too.
- Best for: Rewarding personal employee milestones and improving overall employee wellness.
- Audience: One-to-one
5. Company-Wide Virtual Dinner + Restaurant Gift Card
If your company has multiple offices and hundreds of employees, it can be challenging to organize company-wide engagement efforts. However, you can leverage digital tools to help! Allow employees to pick a restaurant gift card and host a virtual dinner so people from different branches can bond.
- Best for: Organization-wide celebrations.
- Audience: One-to-many
6. Holiday Party & Gift Exchange
Holiday parties are a classic way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. In addition to catered dinner and drinks, you can incorporate a peer-to-peer gifting element with a Secret Santa event!
- Best for: Teams who want to get to know each other personally and celebrate the year’s successes.
- Audience: Many-to-many
Experiential Gifts
7. Custom Career Development Course
Professional development allows employees to explore new skills without worrying about their budget. To acknowledge your highest-performing employees, provide a free career development course in an area of their choice.
- Best for: Rewarding individual employee achievements.
- Audience: One-to-one
8. Group Cooking Class
Another fun team-building activity that will even leave your employees with a delicious meal is a cooking class. You could even up the ante by making it a competition between different teams!
- Best for: Team building or department bonding.
- Audience: One-to-many
9. Vacation Package
Everyone deserves some time off—it even improves employee satisfaction and retention. For employees who go above and beyond, thank them with a vacation voucher for a getaway of their choice on behalf of their department or company.
- Best for: A retirement gift thanking a certain employee for their service.
- Audience: Many-to-one
10. Employee-Nominated Luncheon
Getting recognized by peers can motivate others to put in their best work and engage with their employer. Involve employees further by allowing them to nominate high-performers to attend a celebratory luncheon. For instance, if a manager sees great improvement in their direct’s performance, they can invite them to this event.
- Best for: Peer-to-peer motivational initiatives.
- Audience: Many-to-many
Non-Monetary Gifts
11. Employee of the Month
Personal recognition from leadership to a team member can improve the entire workforce’s productivity. Offer an award like Employee of the Month—the winner could just receive recognition or get an additional benefit like flexible work hours for the rest of the month.
- Best for: Highlighting individual employee accomplishments on a more visible stage.
- Audience: One-to-one
12. Extra Paid Time Off (PTO) Day
Going on a big vacation is a popular way to spend PTO, but sometimes, even just one extra day can make a big difference. Reward a team or department for stellar work by providing an extra day of paid time off.
- Best for: Rewarding teams for achieving key milestones and promoting work-life balance.
- Audience: One-to-many
13. Exclusive Access to Leadership Q&A Session
If your company is large, there’s a good chance your C-suite doesn’t interface with lower-ranked employees regularly. However, you can facilitate a valuable learning opportunity by inviting high-performing employees to a Q&A session with leadership. This not only allows employees to learn career insights from the C-suite but also shows them which employees are the most promising.
- Best for: Department or team development.
- Audience: Many-to-one
14. Bravo Board
Your employees interact with each other every day, meaning they see some of their coworkers’ best work firsthand. Empower your employees to uplift and motivate each other with a Bravo Board, a public-facing forum where coworkers can congratulate each other on jobs well done. You can even up the ante with a points-based element.
- Best for: Improving employee relationships and motivation.
- Audience: Many-to-many
Donation Gifts
15. Charity on Top
The most meaningful charitable gifting initiatives allow people to donate to causes that matter most to them. Charity on Top makes this possible with a convenient charity gift card setup.
- Best for: Large employee bases with a variety of charitable giving preferences.
- Audience: One-to-many
16. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Drive
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to get more attention for your cause. Host a peer-to-peer fundraiser where employees can start campaigns for charities they care about and donate to each other. As an extra incentive, consider matching whatever’s raised at the end!
- Best for: Employee bases who want to impact causes important to them and their coworkers.
- Audience: Many-to-many
Digital Gifts
17. GoSkills
Research shows that professional development opportunities can improve employee engagement. Empower your employees to learn skills like project management, finance, and Microsoft Suite with a GoSkills credit.
- Best for: Employee bases who want to develop their skills and connect with their work.
- Audience: One-to-many
18. DoYogaWithMe
Promoting wellness both within and outside of the workplace is crucial for maintaining employee satisfaction. DoYogaWithMe allows employees to explore new facets of wellness and healthily unwind outside of work.
- Best for: Employee bases who want to get active and healthily cope with daily stressors.
- Audience: One-to-many
Corporate Gift Ideas for Client Engagement
Physical Gifts
19. Personalized Desk Accessories
Personalizing your workspace can help clients feel more professional and connected to their workplace. To reward their loyalty, give them items like nameplates and folios.
- Best for: Thanking high-value clients or partners.
- Audience: One-to-one
20. Ping-Pong Table
A ping-pong table for the office helps employees get to know each other with an element of friendly competition. Gift loyal clients with a ping pong table to help them engage their own employees.
- Best for: Loyal clients with an in-office space.
- Audience: One-to-many
Combination Gifts
21. Tickets to a Sports Game + Team Merchandise
Sports games are a fun way to interact with your city, and you can elevate the experience by reserving clients a box for their employees. As a cherry on top, offer team merchandise, like a T-shirt or baseball cap.
- Best for: Larger client bases or event-wide gifting.
- Audience: One-to-many
22. Induction into Client Hall of Fame + Dinner Reception
Your clients directly determine your company’s success, so consider commemorating a few of your most impactful clients with a special ceremony. Add an extra touch by engraving their name on a “Wall of Fame.”
- Best for: Rewarding key client loyalty.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Experiential Gifts
23. Evening Out for Two
Hitting the town with a loved one is a fun activity all year round. Make a client’s weekend by treating them and a special guest to dinner and a theatre performance, for example.
- Best for: High-profile clients or executives.
- Audience: One-to-one
24. Group Wine Tasting + Glassware
Elevate your clients’ palettes by gifting them a group wine tasting on behalf of your company. Provide custom glassware for them to take home to commemorate the experience!
- Best for: A broad client group.
- Audience: One-to-many
25. Executive Golf Day
Golf is an enjoyable yet slow-paced sport that allows players to talk easily throughout the game. This makes it a great way to conduct business meetings in an inviting setting. Book a golf day for client executives on behalf of your company and treat them to a meal and free drinks from the club.
- Best for: A client’s leadership team.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Non-Monetary Gifts
26. Personalized Recognition on Social Media
As previously mentioned, public acknowledgment of clients shows their entire network how much you appreciate them. Just make sure to get their permission beforehand, and don’t share private information on these posts.
- Best for: Newer clients with interesting stories to tell on social media.
- Audience: One-to-one
27. Company Field Day
Want a low-cost, high-action bonding event to gift clients? Organize a laid-back field day for your client’s company, complete with classic events like tug-of-war. You could even incorporate your own company to add some friendly competition.
- Best for: Clients with large companies.
- Audience: One-to-many
28. VIP Access to Company Events
Your company likely hosts valuable networking or educational events that clients would like to attend. Give them a VIP pass as your company’s guest and let them attend special events that interest them.
- Best for: Clients interested in networking and outreach.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Donation Gifts
29. GlobalGiving
Want to influence grassroots movements and local projects worldwide? GlobalGiving allows your client bases to support the causes that they care about, even if they’re across the globe. You could make this a many-to-one gift by providing a large donation on behalf of your company to an important client point of contact.
- Best for: Clients with large employee bases (especially those spread across many locations).
- Audience: Many-to-one
30. One Tree Planted
Trees are crucial to the planet’s health, but ten million hectares of forest are cut down each year. Fortunately, reforestation offsets half of these efforts—and your clients can be part of this movement with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit dedicated to planting trees around the world.
- Best for: Clients with sustainability initiatives or that have environmentally-minded leadership teams.
- Audience: One-to-one
Digital Gifts
31. Streaming Subscription
This crowd-pleasing idea is perfect for helping your clients drive their own employee engagement initiatives. For example, you could gift them 20 streaming service gift cards, which they can then use as a peer-to-peer recognition award for great performance.
- Best for: Clients who want to improve employee engagement.
- Audience: Many-to-many
32. Google Play Store Gift Card
Your clients are always on the go, which makes their phones critical tools for staying connected. Allow a member of their executive team or their point of contact to expand their phone’s potential—or even just splurge on a fun mobile game—with a Google Play Store gift card.
- Best for: Thanking a particular client point of contact for their loyalty.
- Audience: One-to-one
Corporate Gift Ideas for Event Guests
Physical Gifts
33. Personalized Leather Journals
Classic branded merchandise, such as t-shirts and hats, are easy to distribute to your event guests. However, if you have a VIP guest, you can show your immense gratitude through a higher-quality gift, such as a leather journal with the recipient’s name engraved on it.
- Best for: VIP attendees or keynote speakers.
- Audience: One-to-one
34. Custom Tumbler Sets
Tumblers are a useful yet stylish gift that you can use to thank event guests for attending. Don’t forget to include your branding so your attendees have a physical memento of the event!
- Best for: General conference attendees or event participants.
- Audience: One-to-many
Combination Gifts
35. Mixer + Gift Basket
As much as these events are about business, they’re also a place to make friends in your sector. As a thank-you to your event guests, throw a themed mixer complete with food, drinks, dancing, and a gift basket. For instance, if you throw a mixer themed to the event’s host city, you could include merchandise related to the city’s landmarks and sports teams.
- Best for: Event attendees or company-wide client groups.
- Audience: One-to-many
36. Ultimate Themed Experience
Your company conducts in-depth research before selecting a keynote speaker, so you probably have a good idea of their interests. Offer them a custom-themed experience package from your company to show your appreciation for their time. For instance, if they love art, your company could get them tickets to a behind-the-scenes gallery tour and painting class.
- Best for: A small group of speakers and other important guests.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Experiential Gifts
37. Private Dinner with CEO
It’s not often that event attendees get one-on-one time with your company’s leadership. A private dinner with the CEO is a great opportunity to make valuable connections and learn tips from thought leaders in the industry.
- Best for: Prospective clients, important guests, or potential event sponsors.
- Audience: One-to-one
38. Gift Cards to Experiences
This tried-and-true gift idea gives your recipients the freedom to choose what they want from their favorite businesses. Whether it’s a local restaurant, an event venue, or a theme park, your event attendees will love the chance to pick their prize. If you want to be socially responsible, you could even offer donations to nonprofits as gift card substitutes.
- Best for: General event attendees.
- Audience: One-to-many
39. Meet and Greet with Keynote Speaker
Event attendees come from far and wide to hear your keynote speaker present. Offer a guest the opportunity to participate in a meet and greet with the speaker. You could choose them based on a raffle to encourage more people to attend.
- Best for: Getting new people to attend your event.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Non-Monetary Gifts
40. Featured Speaker Spot
Speaking at an event helps spread your name and message to new audiences. Offer this coveted position to a valued guest as a token of your gratitude.
- Best for: VIP event attendees, clients, or potential sponsors.
- Audience: One-to-one
41. Custom Event Shoutouts
Do you have a certain group of attendees or special supporters who you want to recognize publicly? Shout them out by putting their name in a program, mentioning them at the opening ceremony, or including their name and photo on a poster.
- Best for: Multiple attendees or sponsors.
- Audience: One-to-many
42. Appreciation Video
Videos help your company convey complex emotions and messages to your audience. If you have clients or sponsors who made your event possible, make a video commemorating the event and their support. Include event footage and testimonials to make the message more compelling, and play it at the closing ceremony.
- Best for: Entire client teams.
- Audience: Many-to-many or many-to-one
Donation Gifts
43. SeaTrees
Chances are, your event likely uses a significant amount of energy to operate. Give back to your event attendees while offsetting your carbon footprint with a donation to SeaTrees, a nonprofit that empowers local communities to rejuvenate coastal ecosystems.
- Best for: Guests at events that use a lot of power or who have a vested interest in environmentalism.
- Audience: One-to-many
44. Second Harvest
With over 50 million tons of food going to waste each year in Canada alone, food security initiatives impact every community. Second Harvest redistributes perishable food, mitigating food waste across Canada.
- Best for: Event attendees who are passionate about mitigating food waste.
- Audience: Many-to-one
Digital Gifts
45. Libro.fm
Your event attendees are likely inherently curious about learning about new topics. Audiobooks allow them to do so while complementing an on-the-go lifestyle. Make this a many-to-one gift by awarding a keynote speaker a year’s worth of audiobooks via Libro.fm.
- Best for: Expressing gratitude to keynote speakers at events.
- Audience: Many-to-one
46. Goodable
Do you event attendees want short-form content over an audiobook? Goodable motivates and inspires users with short feel-good stories and mindfulness metrics every day. Thank event attendees by offering them a subscription to the platform, or use the subscription as a raffle prize to encourage signups.
- Best for: Showing appreciation to all event attendees or to use as a raffle prize.
- Audience: One-to-many
How to start a corporate gifting program successfully
Putting together a corporate gifting program can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. You can launch a corporate gifting program in just a few steps by:
- Setting objectives and goals. Start by breaking down what you want to accomplish via your corporate gifting program. Be specific when setting your goals. For instance, perhaps you want to improve client retention by 30% or reduce employee turnover by 25% within a year of rolling out your program. Ensure you get leadership buy-in during this stage and brief everyone so you’re on the same page.
- Collaborating with a corporate gifting company. Running a robust corporate gifting program takes significant time and effort—maybe even too much for your company to afford right now. Fortunately, you can work with a corporate gifting company like Unwrapit to alleviate these concerns. Unwrapit will provide your company with access to quality corporate gifts and a digital platform for recipients to choose what resonates most with them so you can focus on critical business activities.
- Promoting the program. Your corporate gifting program will only be beneficial if your recipients actually leverage it. Promote your new initiative in company-wide meetings, one-on-one talks, and emails. Also, provide helpful resources like a how-to handbook or a training meeting so your recipients can learn program guidelines and how to request gifts.
- Measuring outcomes. Consistently collect data from your program, such as your claim rate and types of gifts claimed. After your program has been live for a few months, you should look for trends in your data. These insights can show you what you need to improve and what’s already going well so you can fine-tune your program.
As you get your program up and running, remember to always listen to feedback from your recipients. They can provide ideas for new gifts to offer and which ones should be phased out. You can collect qualitative data via surveys or interviews and analyze it alongside quantitative data to determine important insights.
