Thanks to the miracle of “swag bags,” award nominees don’t have to walk away with a tiny gold trophy to feel like a winner. At lavish shows like the Oscars and the Grammys, celebrities clamor for curated gift bags filled with thousands of dollars’ worth of product. Plastic surgery, premium pet food, an Audi for a year, a trip to a remote Swedish island, and charitable giving opportunities are all freebies that have been tossed into award show gift bags at some point. Bags given out to 2022’s Academy Awards nominees contained items worth a total of $137,000 each. (And one bag from last year was valued at over $200,000!)
It’s not just big-name luxury brands that make it into award show bags. There are plenty of products from smaller independent brands, like The Chai Box, a tea company that was featured in the bag given to this year’s Oscar nominees.
“We felt that this was a france mobile database very unique opportunity to spread the love of chai across such an influential group of Oscar nominees,” says Monica Sunny, founder of The Chai Box.
Ahead, find out how businesses like Monica’s make it into these coveted gift collections—and if getting your product into the hands of Hollywood’s A-listers is worth your time (and marketing budget).
How brands are chosen for celebrity gift bags
The Chai Box’s own road to the Oscars began back in November of 2021, when the brand was approached by Distinctive Assets, an LA-based marketing firm that also handled the swag bags at the 2022 Grammys.
Gift bags aren’t meant to be a celeb consolation prize—in fact, they’re assembled entirely independently from the ceremonies themselves. Firms like Distinctive Assets undertake swag bag programs in order to garner attention and press—and the potential elusive celeb-as-influencer endorsement—for their clients. And to do so, they’ve got to assemble a collection of gifts that are really worth talking about.