Kiss the Cook: The Best Promotional Custom BBQ Grills

Have you got a major event coming up in the middle of BBQ season? Regardless of what regional BBQ style is your grill technique of choice, it's hard to make a bigger statement at your event than rolling in with custom BBQ grills. Of course, it's not enough to just order a personalized grill--you have to know how to design one (and choose the right accessories to go with it!) Keep reading for a complete guide to designing the custom grill that will take your promotional event from a blip on the radar to a memorable marketing statement.

Tips for Designing Custom BBQ Grills

Before we look at a few ideas to take your design to the next level, we should first address the essential components of designing custom BBQ grills. Like any promotional product, there are certain do's and don'ts that can make all the difference between a success and a flop. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Know Your Objective

Before you ever start scribbling a single design, you should know your objective for designing it in the first place. In fact, this is where many marketers fall apart--they think that wanting to sell something is enough of an objective for a marketing campaign. But it's usually more complex than that. Let's say you want to attract people to a trade show exhibition. In that environment, your goal is usually to create new sales. But not always--sometimes your goal is to show gratitude to your customers. Let's say you want to drum up attention from potential investors. In that case, your goal is to show what your company brings to the table and why you're a worthwhile investment. All three of these examples lead to a very different overall campaign, and thus a very different promotional product. It pays off to know where you fall before you place your order.

Make It Relevant

Now that you know what you're trying to accomplish with your product, it's time to ask yourself what product or products are most relevant to your business. For example, while it might seem fun to make custom soccer socks, it wouldn't make much sense to order them if your company sells gardening supplies. The same logic applies to grills. A custom grill is a fantastic statement piece--if it applies to your business and this particular promotional event.

Brainstorm

Once you know whether a custom grill and similar promotional products are the right fit for your business, it's time to get to the fun part: brainstorming your ideas. Don't be shy about brainstorming. Throw things on paper until something starts to come together. Work in a team if you can. Go to lunch and talk about it. Come back after lunch and jumble some ideas together until something sticks. Sleep on it and see what you think of it in the morning. Remember, if you want a good quality promotional item, it's worth spending the extra time to make the product you want.

Choose Good Quality

Regardless of the particular design you go with, it's important to choose a good quality item to host your customization. After all, the product you choose is a statement about your company. If you're giving potential customers cheap Bic pens with your company logo on them, you're going to look cheap, and they aren't going to want to spend money with you. In other words, take some time to investigate your retailers. What kind of products do they offer? Are they the level of quality that you want to be associated with your brand? If not, find a new supplier.

Test Your Design

It's also important to test your design before you go ahead and order the product. Think of it this way: even the highest-quality grill will look cheap if you put a lackluster design on it. Plus, bad design makes your company look lazy and uninvested--not the message you want to send to your customers. Before you put in an order, test out your design on a mock-up. Or, if all else fails, print it out to size and see what it looks like on a grill comparable to the one you plan to order. This will give you some idea of how the design will look on the finished product.

Make a Product with a Theme

Company merchandise with your company logo is one thing. But if you want to attract attention with a promotional item like a custom grill, that's another matter entirely. With an unusual item like a grill, you have a lot of space to lean into a theme and deliver a message that's fun while still being on-brand for your company. For example, if you have a company mascot, why not have some fun and show the mascot living it up in BBQ season? It's fun, it's memorable, and it's easy to tie into what your company's all about. After all, if your goal is to market your company, you want something that will stand out. A grill makes it easy--if you pair it with the right promotional image and message.

Know Your Budget

Finally, when you're designing your custom grill, it's important to keep one key component in mind: your budget. To do this, it's important to ask yourself:

• How many grills do you need?
• How much can you afford to spend?
• When do you need the grills?

More complex designs with more colors and details are generally more expensive. They also usually take longer to deliver, so you need to think about your timeline as well as your monetary budget.

Ideas for Promotional Grills and BBQ Promos

So, now you know how to make a promotional grill for your big event. If you're still shopping around for ideas, here are a few concepts to help you get started (along with some ideas for extras you can pair with your promotional grills).

The Grill

First, though, let's start with the star of the show: the grill itself. You want a design that will age well. After all, a grill sees a lot of heat and grease in its lifetime--a delicate, subtle design won't mix well. That said, you also want a design that will show up on the grill. It's a promotional item--a forgettable design simply won't do. Here are three things to test during your brainstorming session.

Go for a Theme

When in doubt, a theme for your promotional grill will always serve you well. For example, let's say your company is starting a new marketing campaign based around key goals and is using a BBQ to get employees excited for the rollout. Why not base your design around the ideas of the campaign? If your company is revamping its image, you can use a promotional grill at a BBQ as a further reinforcer of the new image. Or, if you're having an annual event with a particular focus (like bringing employees together to build community) you can make a design with those components in mind. It can also be relatively simple. Maybe you're an outdoorsy brand and you want your promotional items to capture that spirit.

Make a Statement

Let's be honest: a grill is a statement piece. It's a hardworking, portable appliance that can rack up quite a lot of mileage. Why not make a statement when you turn it into a promotional item? Maybe your company is a millennial, hip company that embraces their fun side. Why not make a promotional design that shows your mascot grilling and having a good time?

Memorialize an Occasion

Have you got a company BBQ coming up? Or maybe a company retreat with a bit of camping? If so, you can use your promotional grill to commemorate the occasion. Designs that include a reference to that particular event date are a great option here--the recipient will always remember the fun times they had. You can make it extra special by using it as a reward to honor an employee for an achievement or milestone. A tasteful prize that they can use shows that you're paying attention and that you value their contributions to your company.

The Extras

Of course, while the grill might be the centerpiece of your company BBQ, it's not the only component of the event. After all, no BBQ is complete without the pieces that accompany the grill, such as:

• A grill set
• A picnic set
• Can coolers
• Chairs

There are a lot of other items that make a successful BBQ, but if you want to complement your primary promotional piece (the grill) why not focus on the items that work together with the grill to make the day awesome? Here, we'll take a closer look at promotional ideas for these fun extras, so that you can help your customers envision a perfect BBQ--with your company as the perfect partner.

Grill Set

You can't grill without the right grill set to accompany your BBQ! Maybe you want to keep it simple with a three-piece grill set, or maybe you want a complete BBQ set. Either way, you can have all kinds of fun with your design. Anytime a customer or lucky employee breaks out their BBQ supplies during the summertime, they'll think of your company with fondness.

Picnic Set

Of course, BBQ is about more than grilling. You also have to think about the next most important part: eating all that beautiful BBQ. You can do this by offering promotional picnic supplies to accompany your customized grill. For example, if you need somewhere to eat, why not create custom beach towels to lay out on the ground to sit on? You can also go for a complete BBQ grilling set. It's all about setting the stage for your lucky recipients to envision their future adventures.

Can Coolers

Picture this: it's summertime, the perfect BBQ season. It's warm, sunny, and beautiful. What do you need? A nice, cool drink. But in order to enjoy it at peak coolness, you're going to need a can cooler to hold onto your drink. Why not provide a custom promotional can cooler? It's a small item that's relatively cheap for you to make, but it's a necessity for anyone who enjoys a nice, cold can of beer or soda when the weather gets warm.

Chairs

Finally, no BBQ would be complete without somewhere to sit and enjoy the day. You can provide that to your customers by offering them a custom chair to go with their personalized BBQ grill. The best way to go about this is with a custom folding chair that can do double duty at a BBQ and other outdoor activities, like camping or a Fourth of July parade.

Looking for Custom Grills?

Are you hankering for some BBQ yet? If so, it's about time to put in an order for your custom grills! After all, there are many benefits to promotional products, but the biggest one of all is helping customers tell a story with your brand. If you're ready to order your custom grills, we're here to help. We have all kinds of custom BBQ grills and other promotional BBQ items. The question isn't what you want, but rather, how much you can imagine. And with the right grill, your customers and employees can imagine quite a lot of BBQ in their futures.