Summer is high-volume, low-unit-cost season. Festivals, fairs and parades put your item in front of thousands of people who are hot, carrying things and standing in the sun, and the giveaway that fixes any of those three gets kept.

Solve heat, and it gets used on the spot

Cooling towels, hand fans, sunglasses and sport bottles are all used within about four minutes of being handed over, which is the whole point at an outdoor event — the crowd becomes the advertisement. Sunscreen packets cost pennies and get remembered out of proportion to their price.

Parades need throwables, not handouts

If the event is a parade, the item has to survive being thrown and landing on asphalt. Foam items, beads, plastic cups and flying discs work; anything with a moving part or a printed paper insert does not. Check the route rules too — a lot of municipalities have restrictions on what can be thrown from a float.

Budget for the crowd, not the booth

Summer public events draw crowds that dwarf a trade show, so the maths is different: a lot of a cheap item beats a few of an expensive one. Reserve the good drawstring bag or tumbler for people who give you contact details, and hand the low-cost items to everyone else. That way the spend follows the leads rather than the foot traffic.