At Agora Rhein-Neckar several different merchandise products were presented to the Network and it is proving to be more and more popular to have different types of products carrying the AEGEE logo in one form or the other.
One antenna that proves to be good in promoting themselves through merchandise production is AEGEE-Agrigento. The Italians were nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards by several AEGEE members showing that their merchandise reaches far beyond the city of Agrigento. When questioned why they produce hats, T-shirts, stickers and more, the answer was simple “our idea of merchandising is: If you can wear it, it should have an AEGEE-Agrigento logo! We love our local and we want to show it to everybody keeping always with us our logo. We are planning to launch merchandise and part of it was distributed for free already during Agora Rhein-Neckar.”
And it is not only AEGEE-Agrigento that tries to add AEGEE logos to different type of products. The Summer University Coordination Team brought inflatable pillows, SU buttons and new microfiber towels to Mannheim. The Comité Directeur brought a new grey version of the AEGEE-Europe hoodie together with the popular travel cups, and as always there were also stickers everywhere.
There were of course also AEGEE T-shirts to be seen everywhere in Germany and some pink T-shirts from a certain Spanish city especially stood out. Once they were nominated for The AEGEEans Choice Awards, AEGEE-Burgos said the typical “We are a small antenna, and we’re just happy to be nominated.” However, it was clear at the Agora that they had high hopes to bring home to the North of Spain The AEGEEans Choice Award for best merchandise. The award went to AEGEE-Helsinki, however AEGEE-Burgos president Rubén Sanz still shared information about the merchandise production in their city.
The AEGEEan: How did you come up with the design for your T-shirt?
Rubén: We are a small antenna, and we have no resources. When we were chosen to organize a Network Meeting (NWM) last year, all of us were so happy that we wanted to create something that would be unforgettable. And our final idea was to create the first AEGEE-Burgos T-shirt. We are very proud of our mascot Morcillote the pig, and we wanted to show him in our T-shirts somehow.
Why do you think it is important to design merchandise for AEGEE?
Merchandise can be used in several ways, one is for fundraising, but for me it is most important in creating brand image. Now a lot of people in Europe know that the pink T-shirt with a pig is from Burgos! Maybe it is not the best T-shirt in the world, but it works, and now it’s our window to Europe.
Are you plannning to launch any new merchandise this year?
Yes! We are in constant evolution, just now we have created a new design in lighter pink , all of you must come to Burgos to get it ! “La vie en rose” with AEGEE-Burgos Pink Pig Power!!
It will be interesting to continue seeing what type of merchandise the different antennae and project teams of AEGEE create in the future.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København