Prior to Stadium, Octus didn’t have a formal swag solution in place and relied on leftover swag from past events to gift for events and new hires.
Employees were eager and continually asked for swag, but leadership was hesitant to implement swag initiatives because they weren’t fully aware of its impact. Jenny Bain, HR Business Partner at Octus, along with members of the social committee, believed in the value of swag and decided to research solutions to gain leadership buy-in. She viewed swag as a key way to engage employees and build pride in the company culture.
As the person who would manage the platform and day-to-day of the initiative, Jenny needed a scalable, cost-predictable solution that could run largely on autopilot. She began her search with a thorough checklist of options.
At her prior company, Jenny had heard of Snackmagic, our customizable snack box solution, and soon discovered Stadium. Other vendors claimed to offer global shipping, but didn’t cover key countries on Jenny’s checklist. Stadium stood out as a solution that offered truly global fulfillment, shipping to countries like Pakistan, Romania, and Lithuania. Our print-on-demand swag solution also stood out for its flexibility and easier budgeting. After compiling a thorough presentation on vendor options, they presented it to leadership, and leadership approved a launch with Stadium.
With Stadium, Octus has a global, scalable solution that goes beyond swag, making it easy for Jenny to efficiently launch and manage initiatives across teams and countries.
To kick off swag within the company, Octus set up an integration with HiBob. With employee details now synced, she created an onboarding automation that gives new hires points toward a company store, ensuring employees are consistently recognized without gathering sizes or addresses and freeing Jenny to work on other HR initiatives.
Octus engages employees beyond onboarding: completing compliance training, participating in learning series, or rewarding presentations with points toward a shop, with different point tiers to encourage engagement. Octus has also used Stadium to support employee resource groups with swag tailored to each community.
Externally, Stadium is also paramount in engaging customers and VIPs. With Stadium Shops, Octus can create shops for different initiatives, keeping everything streamlined on a single platform. For example, to encourage customer participation in external surveys, Octus set up a limited-edition shop with a small number of items and let participants choose a fixed number of items from the shop. This enabled surveys to run at scale while keeping costs predictable, ensuring spending stayed within limits without adding a ton of manual work.
Octus also uses Stadium for ad-hoc VIP gifting. After a successful pilot with employees, leadership requested that customers also be gifted. “Our CEO is really passionate about Stadium, and will make requests all the time to gift to customers!”
Stadium also supported a full rebrand for Octus. After months of preparing the new branding and shop, Octus placed a bulk order for in-person employees to generate excitement and visibility in the office. Swag included hats, stickers, pens, and more. “We had to stagger the line because demand was so high, and within a week everyone was flaunting their swag–it was incredible to see.”
Octus also used bulk swag for an off-site event in Pakistan. Working with our global fulfillment team around the event timeline, the swag was delivered on a tight 2-week turnaround.
Since launching their swag initiatives with Stadium, Octus has seen adoption and true fervor beyond expectations. Boasting an 87% redemption rate, employees are fully engaged with company initiatives. “Many employees even spend extra for the brands they love, such as The North Face, highlighting how important swag is to them.”
Octus highly values Stadium’s robust platform, which goes beyond traditional swag solutions. When Jenny wanted to gift without emphasizing the price, she wasn’t sure Stadium could do that. Luckily, she checked in with her Customer Success Manager and realized that priceless shops easily addressed that need. “Anything we need, you guys can do. Even when things feel like a shot in the dark, Stadium already has it.”
Stadium has also been cost-effective and predictable, making it easy for Octus to manage its budget when needed. “Being able to expire gifts and get our money back has been such a valuable feature.” The flat 15% sending fee when using Stadium without a subscription has also made it easier to predict costs and has been a valuable factor in securing leadership approval.
Stadium quickly won over hesitant leadership, and internal demand continues to rise. “I get requests all the time for more points, and leadership’s interest has grown as they see people embracing the program.” As hiring continues, demand has surged: “We’ve actually expanded our budget because the demand is still there.”
Most importantly, Octus highly appreciates Stadium’s collaborative nature and attention to detail. “Stadium doesn’t just facilitate–it’s a true partner. They caught a mistake we made that would have sent out points to the entire company instead of 10 people. Your team’s attention to detail gives me full confidence in your solution.”
HR Business Partner
