Gifts That Give Back
Four nearly free ways to build real loyalty with your accounts
Mint Mobile sends me a holiday card. Spotify “gifts” me my own listening data.1 Both are nearly free, yet they build more loyalty than a generic $50 gift basket ever could.
For drinks brands, you don’t need a huge budget to thank the bars, restaurants, and retailers that move your liquid. You just need to be personal.
Here are four ways to give a “Wrapped-style” thank you for under $3:
📊 The Performance Snapshot: Send a “Year in Review” card. “You poured 4,200 of our Spicy Margaritas this year—that’s 12 miles of lime garnishes. We couldn’t do it without you.” Data is a gift.
🤳 The Social Shoutout: (Where legally permissible) dedicate a high-quality post or “Story Highlight” to their venue. Promoting their business to your followers is a high-value, zero-cost gift.
🎓 The “Education Hour”: Gift 15 or 30 minutes of your time for a pre-shift staff training. Empowering servers with 3 “quick-sell” facts helps them earn better tips and makes the manager’s life easier.
✉️ The Founder’s Note: A handwritten card from the founder to the bar manager, referencing a specific win they had this year, costs $1 or 2. Have 100s or 1000s of clients? Use a company like Handwrytten to scale the process.
The Rule: If your logo is bigger than their name, it’s an ad. If their name is the hero, it’s a gift.
If you want to know what I listened to this past year, here’s my Top Songs of 2025.