Summer Marketing Game-Changers: How Custom Cooling Towels and Golf Tees Are Redefining Seasonal Promotions

The summer months bring unique marketing opportunities that smart businesses are increasingly capitalizing on. Two promotional products have emerged as standout performers for warm-weather campaigns: custom cooling towels and personalized golf tees. While seemingly unrelated at first glance, these items share a common thread—they deliver practical value during the season when people are most active outdoors.

Custom Cooling Towels: The Hot Trend in Summer Promotions

Let’s face it—nobody enjoys feeling overheated and sweaty. This universal truth has propelled custom cooling towels from niche athletic accessory to mainstream promotional powerhouse.

These innovative fabrics work through evaporative cooling technology. When wet, wrung out, and snapped, they maintain a temperature significantly below the surrounding air for hours. Unlike traditional promotional items that might get tucked away in a drawer, cooling towels actually solve a problem that affects everyone during summer months.

“The genius of cooling towels as marketing tools lies in their utility-to-visibility ratio,” explains a marketing strategist who specializes in seasonal promotions. “Recipients actually use them, and when they do, your logo is prominently displayed around their neck or draped over their shoulders—essentially turning them into walking billboards.”

Industries finding particular success with these items include:

• Construction companies providing them to workers on job sites
  
• Healthcare organizations distributing them at community wellness events
  
• Fitness centers offering them as new member welcome gifts
  
• Outdoor retailers using them as purchase incentives
  
• Schools providing them to athletic teams and for outdoor events
  

The customization options have expanded dramatically in recent years. Beyond simply printing a logo, companies can now select from various sizes, materials, and cooling technologies. Some advanced options even offer antimicrobial properties or UPF sun protection—adding further value for recipients.

One fitness studio in Phoenix reported that their branded cooling towels generated significant word-of-mouth marketing after distributing them to members last summer. “People would take them to other activities—hiking, golf, even just gardening—and conversations naturally started when others noticed how effective they were,” the owner shared. “We essentially created hundreds of brand ambassadors for the cost of a towel.”

Pricing has become increasingly competitive as well. When ordered in bulk from suppliers like Garrett Specialties, custom cooling towels can cost as little as $3-5 per unit, making them comparable to traditional promotional items with far less practical value.

Custom Golf Tees: Tiny Billboards With Massive Reach

Meanwhile, on the greens, another promotional opportunity has been quietly delivering exceptional returns. Custom golf tees may be small, but their marketing impact is surprisingly substantial.

Golf remains a popular business activity, with approximately 25 million Americans playing at least one round annually. This creates a unique environment where your brand can make an appearance in a relaxed, recreational setting often frequented by decision-makers.

What makes custom golf tees particularly effective is their consumable nature. Unlike a single promotional pen that might last for months, golfers go through multiple tees per round. This creates ongoing visibility for your brand throughout the entire golfing season.

The versatility of golf tee promotions extends well beyond traditional corporate outings:

• Real estate agencies include branded tee packs with closing gifts
  
• Banks and financial services distribute them to high-value clients
  
• Local businesses sponsor holes at charity tournaments
  
• Resorts offer complimentary branded tees to guests
  
• Automotive dealerships include them in new vehicle welcome packages
  

“The brilliance of golf tees as promotional items is their perfect alignment of cost, utility, and exposure,” notes a country club marketing director. “They’re inexpensive enough to distribute liberally, useful enough to actually get used, and visible in a setting where people are relaxed and receptive.”

Customization options have evolved significantly, with biodegradable wooden tees becoming particularly popular as companies emphasize sustainability. Color options, length variations, and packaging choices allow for highly tailored campaigns. Some businesses even create custom package designs that turn simple tees into memorable keepsakes.

When ordered in bulk, custom golf tees represent one of the most cost-effective promotional options available, often costing less than 20 cents per tee. This allows companies to distribute them generously without straining marketing budgets.

Creating Seasonal Marketing Synergy

Interestingly, forward-thinking companies have begun combining these items into coordinated summer promotions. A financial services firm in Georgia recently distributed branded cooling towels and golf tees together as part of a “Summer Client Appreciation” package.

“The combination communicated that we understand and support our clients’ summer activities,” explained their marketing manager. “The cooling towels acknowledged the heat everyone deals with, while the golf tees recognized a specific passion many of our clients share.”

This paired approach creates multiple touchpoints with recipients. The cooling towel might be used during yard work or at a child’s sporting event, while the golf tees come into play during leisure time. Each use reinforces brand recognition in different contexts.

The Practical Appeal of Seasonal Promotions

The growing popularity of both custom cooling towels and golf tees reflects a broader shift in promotional marketing toward items with genuine utility. Today’s consumers are increasingly minimalist and value-conscious—they don’t want more “stuff” unless it serves a purpose.

Summer-specific items like these hit the sweet spot of being seasonally relevant, genuinely useful, and sufficiently affordable to distribute widely. As one marketing director put it, “The best promotional item is one people actually want to receive and use. Everything else is just destined for the junk drawer.”

For businesses planning their warm-weather marketing strategies, these two promotional products offer proven pathways to increased brand visibility during the most active months of the year. Whether keeping customers cool or helping them tee off in style, the end result is the same—positive brand associations during leisure moments that matter.