Every year, as the holiday season approaches, corporate Kenya enters a familiar rhythm: race to brand umbrellas, print diaries, assemble fruit baskets, and package wine bottles for distribution.
Industry estimates indicate that a realistic holiday gifting budget might range from Sh200,000 and go well over Sh5,000,000 depending on company size, number of stakeholders, tiering of recipients and economic context. For decades, this has been a cornerstone of stakeholder relations. But as communication practices evolve, we must confront a simple truth: does this tradition still deliver impact? Increasingly, it does not.
The corporate gifting landscape has become saturated, predictable and largely forgettable. According to recent estimates within the events and PR sector, up to 40 per cent of generic corporate merchandise distributed annually ends up discarded or unused within six months. When organisations distribute nearly identical items, brand recall becomes diluted and return on investment, minimal.
A diary cannot replace a deliberate touchpoint. A fruit basket cannot replicate strategic engagement. A branded umbrella may momentarily impress, but it hardly creates long-term affinity. From a PR standpoint, this raises a critical question: if our goal is to strengthen relationships, is a branded diary really the best we can offer?
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Stakeholders today would rather have meaningful engagement as opposed to more corporate memorabilia. The corporate gifting budget is a significant investment; yet, by spending it on objects, we miss the opportunity to invest in true currency of PR: connection.
Purpose-driven appreciation can achieve what generic gifts cannot: an opportunity to create a strategic touchpoint that builds deeper rapport. This is where shifting towards meaningful, forward-looking gestures becomes powerful. Instead of mass-producing items that add little value, organisations should consider gestures that communicate genuine gratitude while opening pathways for future engagement.
A thoughtfully crafted appreciation note, for instance, can do more than a branded gift ever could. Not a generic card, but a personalised message acknowledging the stakeholder’s contribution to the organisation’s growth. Paired with this could be an early invitation to a flagship engagement in the coming year: a high-level forum, policy roundtable, sectoral caucus, or thought-leadership event aligned to business goals. This gift is not an object; it is access and status.
Beyond early invitations to flagship events, corporate Kenya can also explore experience-based gifting that adds real, non-tangible value to stakeholders. For instance, organisations can adopt knowledge-driven gifts such as targeted exclusive industry insights, annual outlook projections, or curated thought-leadership content tailored to stakeholder segments; resources that genuinely inform decision-making.
Further, organisations can consider impactful purpose-aligned contributions, making early commitments to collaborate and support community initiatives in honour of key partners, reinforcing shared values while advancing corporate citizenship. These approaches not only deepen relationships but also communicate intentionality, relevance, and long-term commitment.
This does not mean physical gifts should disappear entirely. They still have a place when they are strategic, truly useful, and tied distinctly to brand identity. But the industry must move beyond routine, transactional gifting and embrace approaches rooted in intentionality, relevance and future-focused engagement.
As PR professionals, we have an opportunity to lead this evolution. This holiday season, let us move beyond mass-produced gifting and adopt strategies that offer something far more valuable: time, insight, partnership, and a meaningful invitation into the organisation’s future. Happy Holidays!
-The writer is a senior communication officer in Nairobi
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By Linda Onyango