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Contact: Kathleen L. S. Booth
Office: 866-788-3226, Ext. 7
Mobile: 410-271-6394
Email: kathleen@quintainmarketing.com

Experiential Gifts are The Latest Trend in Holiday Giving

Annapolis, MD - December 1, 2006

In the corporate world, companies are willing to pay top dollar to show clients a good time. Today, that means valuable business partners might be presented with a catered speed-boat ride on the Chesapeake Bay or a bi-plane flight outside of Washington, D.C., instead of a pen and pencil set or a bottle of wine.

Experiential gifts — the gift of interactive experiences like travel, home-catered meals and extreme adventures — are the latest trend in gift-giving. "It's about creating a memorable experience," said John A. Booth III, President of Quintain marketing, an Annapolis-based company that helps its clients pick the perfect holiday and thank you gifts.

Experiential gifts are a $282 billion industry, or almost 10 percent of the $2.8 trillion annual retail market, according to a recent report by Unity Marketing Research, a Pennsylvania consulting firm that specializes in consumer insights for marketers and retailers that sell luxury goods and experiences.

"If you’re going to give a gift, it's better to give something more unique, and of a higher quality, that will stand out," Booth said. Experiential gifts are for the person who can already buy whatever they want, like CEOs and presidents of companies, he said. These distinctive gifts tend to be popular in higher income households and with individuals ages 18 to 44.

While experiential gifts have been popular in Europe for a while, the concept is relatively new in the United States. Gifts range from $75 for a photo safari around Washington, D.C's monuments or a guided Segway tour in Baltimore, to about $1,000 for a ride in a real military fighter jet or to drive a Formula 2000 race car around the track for a day. The most popular gifts tend to be those that involve racing cars, but exclusive winery experiences are a close second.

While the gift of an activity might be perfect for friends and family, it's also a way for clients to show "their uniqueness and appreciation" for customers, said Booth. "The challenge is, we don’t do enough for our top one percent of customers and they have a disproportionate effect on revenue,” he said. "For $100 to $150 a nice experience can be provided."

The holiday season is a popular time for testing out these novelty gifts. Last year, 30 percent of holiday shoppers gave experiential gifts, according to an American Express gift card study.

About Quintain Marketing

Quintain Marketing is a regional promotional marketing firm with offices in Annapolis, MD and Philadelphia, PA. They offer unique, creative and high quality branded products, dimensional marketing, and web-based employee and customer gifting and incentive programs. The company's unique "purpose focused" approach ensures that their customer's promotional marketing solutions are in alignment with their overall marketing strategy.