In November 2021, StrongDM asked me to put together a swag program for employees, preferably in time for the holiday season.
6 years in, and there had never before been so much as a StrongDM-branded sticker. I was given a healthy budget, but almost no time — 5 weeks from conception to delivery, in the middle of a holiday season devastated by COVID-based supply line issues.
I never would have been able to get the boxes filled in time were it not for my super amazing friends, who, on zero notice, volunteered an entire Sunday (the last weekend before Christmas!) to help me prep and pack nearly 100 giant gift boxes.
A day or so before Christmas, every North American StrongDM employee received a colorful box on their doorstep, filled with 6 t-shirts, a dozen stickers, a mug, a backpack, a baseball cap, an umbrella, a sweatshirt, a beanie, and a handheld game system. The game system booted up to a custom StrongDM loader screen, included a custom made StrongDM game (!) along with hundreds more, and even came in a fully branded promotional box.
Starting that same day, StrongDM experienced a wave of employee-driven social activity like it had never seen before, with dozens of employees sharing photos of their new swag extravaganza, and raving about company culture.
The box was so popular, it became the standard new employee gift at strongDM.
