The Return of PopSockets: What to Learn for Your Promotional Products

Our promotional product team at Standard Press is always keeping an eye out for interesting news and trends that can help you elevate your strategy! We recently were intrigued by a recent AdAge article exploring the revival of PopSockets, those phone grip accessories that were seemingly everywhere in the 2010s and led to tons of imitators before slipping out of view.

In some ways, PopSockets are a great example of what we strive for in any promotional product: the balance between usefulness and a fun, catchy approach to branding. First, the utility: PopSockets were the first major product in the smartphone age to figure out a solution for phone grips. Then, the sense of fun: these small yet mighty items are a perfect canvas for showing off personal taste, favorite brands, and more. In today’s market, PopSockets – now in conjunction with plenty of other types of phone accessories – is a name unto itself, and one that has smartly seen the desire for increased personalization and offers a solution for that, too.

The AdAge article also notes how PopSockets has partnered with notable (and often youth-skewing) brands, from pop culture icons like Disney and Warner Bros. to social media favorites like Squishmallows. Your brand, too, can learn from this: younger consumers in particular love to show off or “rep” the brands they feel are an integral part of their style and identity. Whether partnering with a known pop culture property or tapping into a TikTok aesthetic trend, today’s most effective and desired promotional products connect your brand with an audience’s deeper values and sense of self.

As PopSockets hits its stride again, every brand can take away a few key lessons. For instance, it’s a helpful reminder that people prefer promotional products with attributes like:

• Useful or problem-solving
• Connected to trends, tastes, or identity
• Include ways to customize and express the user’s personality
• Can shift and tie in with current trends

If you’re searching for a cost-effective and memorable promotional product, branded phone grips should definitely be on your radar! Their small size and clear purpose allow them to appeal to people who don’t like walking around with obvious branding, but they’re still cool and eye-catching enough to get you that brand exposure. Plus, they’re affordable enough to use for many purposes, from onboarding or welcome kits to event giveaways.

Whatever your promotional product focus, Standard Press is here to help! Our expert team will help you source high-quality items from a global vendor network, then customize them to meet your exact needs and give your brand a big boost. Whatever you need – We Got It! Get in touch to learn more.