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Paul Callais, president and CEO of United Community Bank, doesn’t want the free loot he gives his customers to end up in a closet or a trunk.

“I give good stuff,” he says. “I give something I want to use and I’m proud to give. Plus it’s a reflection on me and the bank.”

UCB’s gift-giving started six months ago, Callais says, “just because” and as a way to thank his customers.

“My dad used to say people won’t do business with you unless you ask, and they won’t come back unless you let them know you appreciate them,” he says. Giving free—and hopefully useful—gifts, Callais says, is one facet of appreciation. “If it has the UCB logo on it, so much the better because it helps them remember where they got it from.”

Every month, Callais orders 500 or so of the featured free item and distributes them between his bank’s six locations in Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes. The promotions started out simple, with gift bags full of items like coffee mugs, coin purses, umbrellas and the usual bank swag, all featuring the company’s logo. “We were just getting geared up to doing it,” he says. “It’s a learning curve, but I think we’re riding the wave of the curve right now.”

UCB recently gave out gardening sets (complete with a “bean” that dons the logo as it sprouts), grilling sets and collapsible, gel-pack-lined coolers. “I’m interested in doing what nobody else is doing. I don’t want the cliché umbrella or the cooler on wheels,” Callais says. “Those things, they’re a dime a dozen. You find them on special at Wal-Mart.”

Free gifts are given to “anybody that comes in to open any kind of account,” Callais says, and UCB doesn’t promote or advertise its giveaways. So what builds his customer base? “We’re not out stealing customers,” he says. “We’ve had the luxury that they come to us because of the service we provide, word of mouth, referrals and taking care of customers.”

Patrick Little, CEO of Teche Federal Bank, says the New Iberia-based company has been giving out free gifts every month or two since 1994 and that it’s very effective as part of an overall marketing approach to introducing new customers. From Pyrex mixing bowls to Coleman sleeping bags, Teche offers it all.

“It’s not a question anymore of whether we’re going to give a free gift,” Little says. “It’s a question of which free gift we’re going to give."

Teche—which has four area branches—gives customers up to $25 when they bring in unused checks and debit cards from their previous bank. Though Little knows customers like the free gifts, he knows it’s not really what they want from a bank.

“What they really want is great products like checking and savings and money market accounts and great service,” he says. “I think a free gift and money for unused checks and debit cards is icing on the cake.”

Campus Federal Credit Union would rather offer customers a bigger slice of that cake. Kristie Daspit, Campus Federal’s assistant vice president of marketing, says they don’t give out free gifts for opening accounts even though they know it would bring in new business. Instead, they try to reward the entire membership and not just a new customer.

“We have higher returns rates on deposits, and our loan rates are typically lower,” she says. “Students coming to us over going to a bank for a free ice chest will benefit greatly in the end.”

Plus, Daspit says, offering gifts to new customers could ostracize longtime customers. She cites cell phone companies as an example. “If you signed up new, you’d get a state-of-the-art telephone. If you’ve been with them for 10 years and your phone breaks, you don’t get anything. We don’t want our members to feel that way.”

But that doesn’t mean Campus Federal is short of merchandized mugs and the like. “If someone wants a mug that says ‘Campus Federal,’ they can buy it at a reasonable price,” Daspit says. At the company’s Perkins Road branch, a marketing cart offering an array of items like mugs, pens, tablets, ponchos, umbrellas, hats and even holiday cards and flowers serves as a convenience for shoppers. The items are offered essentially at cost, Daspit says, as a benefit to customers.

It’s all about the cards at JPMorgan Chase. Senior Communications Manager Chris Spencer says they’ve had a strategy in place for years to offer incentives through a gift card program. Coinciding with the time of year (Home Depot in spring, Blockbuster in summer), gift cards are offered to new checking account customers, as well as various promotions for home equity and customer referrals.

When building a brand, as Lafayette-based IberiaBank did last year with opening new branches in Baton Rouge, promotions can be the key to success. From April to August, IberiaBank gave away George Foreman grills for new checking account products and iPods for checking accounts tied to a loan product.

“It always helps to use the product as a way to build some awareness and hopefully grab attention and draw people further into the bank,” says Michaelle Carnaggio, IberiaBank’s vice president, director of marketing. “It worked well for us, but we felt long term it wasn’t the strategy we wanted to continually employ.”

And if IberiaBank was to venture into new, unbranded markets in the future, Carnaggio says she doesn’t think they would offer free gifts like they did before. “We’ll make sure we have a strong, competitive menu of products.”

Carnaggio says in the industry, clients tend to leave a financial institution two to three years after opening up a relationship with a special promotion, product or gift. Now, she says, institutions are seeing the “rewards” trend increase with credit and debit cards. “If you give them points, they can purchase the items they want. I think that has some value to it as well."

In about six weeks, IberiaBank will launch a rewards program to new customers and existing clients. Points will be earned on debit card purchases that can be redeemed for a variety of items.

A quick stroll through any garage sale, you’ll see the key chains, coffee mugs, grill sets, umbrellas and tote bags. But as the gift-giving becomes more creative, what’s next? Perhaps puppies.