If I were a business trying to get out around a college campus, there are several different kinds of promotional products that I know would be beneficial to my business. First of all, what student doesn't need school supplies? I have seen a lot of great promotional items in the past with the name of the company on folders or pens or backpacks. Who wouldn't want a deal on a backpack, they're expensive, or if I went to a store or a business and there was some sort of promotion involving school supplies, I would be all ears. Another promotional item that I have seen more recently (probably because I live most of the year in Muncie, Indiana where it rains like 5 of the 7 days a week) is an umbrella. There are certain things that you would not want to carry around for fear of being tacky with a random companies name on it, but an umbrella is totally fine. I cringe when I admit this, but I own 17 umbrellas. I bought or my dad bought for me about 13 but the rest are random business ones or one with my sorority logo on it. I use one almost every day during the school year and sometimes people even ask about them. What a great conversation starter! If someone's umbrella said something I didn't know about, like a new company for example, I would probably ask about it. That really gets word out. Another promotional item that may seem obvious is a mug or glass. What college student wouldn't want a deal on a cup? Whether it's to use for coffee in the morning before class or beer pong on a Thursday night, its there for the reminder and if I got a free mug I would probably think to myself, hey, I'm going back there again. Sticky notes or paper are also great ways to promote your business because we don't care what we're writing on, sometimes I write notes to my roommate on toilet paper, but if we had your name on our paper we would definitely think twice about it and that's really what you need.
It's all about knowing who your audience is and what they would want. You probably wouldn't go to a retirement center and use sports balls with a logo on them to advertise and you definitely wouldn't get your logo put onto a coaster to hand out to college students.