Josh orders a bunch of swag without a plan for it

Josh admits to ordering 500 custom Cards Against Humanity decks without any plan for them, except a strong urge to fight against boring swag at events. Jess steps in to help turn his impulse purchase into a real strategy that works.

Will custom swag really drive brand awareness? What kind of swag do marketers actually want? And will Josh finally get rid of all those boxes from his house?

Get to the good stuff:

[00:00] Josh confesses how he ordered 500 custom Cards Against Humanity decks without a plan but with a cool idea for "Marketers Against Humanity"

[04:17] Jess comes to the rescue to start outlining a gifting strategy to get the cards into the right people’s hands (and out of Josh’s house)

[06:49] Jess shares how important shareability is with swag – is it fun and unique enough for people to share?

[08:37] Things get spiritual when Jess and Josh share positive affirmations for marketers

[09:01] Josh talks about the buzz our cards created at the CMO Summit and how he couldn’t give them out fast enough

[11:14] Behind the scenes: Josh explains how he sourced the cards and designed all 180 cards himself to make sure they had Vector’s unique brand voice (yes, Josh wrote ALL of the cards!)

[15:37] Josh and Jess break down the three-tier swag strategy, who gets what, and why a good merch strategy doesn’t have to cost a fortune

[19:00] Jess explains how the right swag gets the attention of influencers. Spoiler: it’s about giving them something they actually want to talk about

[21:04] Story time: Jess spills the tea on how one CEO’s love of bucket hats had them running with merch that made zero sense for their customers

[23:53] Jess’ take on why gifting branded freebies at the right funnel stage beats random merch drops and how a simple handwritten note from Josh goes a long way

This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.

Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.

Editing by Handy Man Edit.

Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops you smack dab in the middle of the closed-door sessions where Jess Cook (Head of Marketing) and Joshua Perk (CEO) are working to turn their company, Vector, into B2B marketing’s next big thing.

In each episode, they tackle a real, strategic decision together—"Should we hire an agency?", "Should we push free trials or demos?", "What are we going to do with all the swag Josh bought?!"—dishing out pros, cons, knowns, unknowns, wins, challenges, and stories along the way.

Come for the big picture strategy and day-to-day tactics, stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.

• No. of episodes: 5
• Latest episode: 2025-07-02
• Business Entrepreneurship Marketing

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