Webinars

Our webinars share what’s new and trending and demonstrate how clients use promotional products to solve their specific challenges. 

Upcoming

2026 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 45 minutes

Register now!

What’s new and exciting in the world of branded merchandise for 2025? Join our experts, Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores, in this engaging webinar where we’ll reveal innovative products to supercharge your marketing campaigns.

In this 45 minute session, you’ll:

  • Get an exclusive look at the hottest trends and new products.
  • Discover ways to creatively use branded merch to enhance your marketing efforts.

View Previous Webinars

Click to watch webinar
2026 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: February 11, 2026
Duration: 45 minutes

What’s new and exciting in the world of branded merchandise for 2025? Join our experts, Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores, in this engaging webinar where we’ll reveal innovative products to supercharge your marketing campaigns.

In this 45 minute session, you’ll:

  • Get an exclusive look at the hottest trends and new products.
  • Discover ways to creatively use branded merch to enhance your marketing efforts.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#2026-new-trending
Click to watch webinar
Building Fans, True Impact: Unlocking the Power of Merch in Higher Education

Date: November 19, 2025
Duration: 30 minutes

Merch is breaking through the digital noise, and campuses are taking notice. In this lively conversation, Bobby Lehew and Michael Wolaver explore how the right piece of merch can spark pride, belonging, and lifelong fandom.

Learn how to turn branded merch into meaningful moments, leverage true fans to amplify your message, and use merch to drive admissions, retention, and donor engagement.

https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#building-fans
Click to watch webinar
Why Tangible Touchpoints Improve Enrollment Results

Date:  September 23, 2025
Duration: 30 minutes

Hosted by higher ed enrollment expert Teege Mettile, this Q&A session with our Client Strategist, Sarah Blake, offers research-backed insights on why branded merch still drives excitement, influences decisions, and boosts engagement in a digital-first world. Sarah highlights common pitfalls, emerging student trends, and real ROI examples from campuses using merch strategically, with practical, enrollment-focused tips for planning your next cycle.

https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#tangible-touchpoints
Click to watch webinar
Magellan Product Showcase 2025

Date: Wednesday, August 20th, 2025
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 45 minutes

An insightful session exploring what’s new (and what’s working) in branded merch for higher ed. Join our team as we take you through 5 different topics.
In this session, you’ll:
  • Learn about trending products and how they’re being used on campus
  • Find strategic inspiration for your next recruitment or fundraising campaign
  • Connect with ideas that are making a real impact
View our presentation and takeaways
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#product-showcase-2025
Click to watch webinar
Mailed It! | Effective Email Marketing Strategies

Date: Wednesday, May 14th, 2025
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 42 minutes

Join authors Ashley Budd + Dayana Kibilds for a talk on their book 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘐𝘵!

This book changes your approach to email marking by…

  • Showing how to craft and send the most effective emails possible
  • Explaining how to use emails to build trusting relationships
  • Revealing strategies to improve email campaign results

Hear insights from both authors as they explore key takeaways from the book.
Purchase MailedIt! Here
 
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#mailed-it
Click to watch webinar
2025 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2025
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 30 minutes

What’s new and exciting in the world of branded merchandise for 2025? Join our experts, Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores, in this engaging webinar where we’ll reveal innovative products to supercharge your marketing campaigns.

In this 30 minute session, you’ll:

  • Get an exclusive look at the hottest trends and new products.
  • Discover ways to creatively use branded merch to enhance your marketing efforts.
 
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#2025-new-trending
Click to watch webinar
Admissions Roundtable: Strategies for Leveraging Branded Merch

Date: Thursday, September 5th, 2024
Time: 12 pm CT
Duration: 45 minutes

We dive into leveraging branded merchandise strategies for lasting connections in the student recruitment funnel. Magellan Promotion’s Sarah Blake and Katie Flores are joined by Catie Taylor from Evansville University, Carlos Cano from Stevens Institute of Technology and Cory Gannon from the University of Pikeville. Our biggest takeaways are captured in our blog post “Six Insights from our Admissions Roundtable”.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#admissions-roundtable
Click to watch webinar
Enhancing Student Engagement Through Choice: A Case Study with Missouri S&T

Date: Wednesday, June 12th, 2024
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 30 minutes

We uncover how the Missouri S&T Admissions Office revolutionized student engagement through the power of choice. Join our team of Magellan Promotions experts, Sarah Blake, and Katie Flores, and Missouri S&T’s Ashley Crilly as they explore the intricacies of an innovative solution known as the ‘Choice Store’.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#enhancing-engagement
Click to watch webinar
2024 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: Tuesday, February 27th, 2024
Time: 2 pm CT
Duration: 30 minutes

What’s new and exciting in the world of branded merchandise for 2024? Join our experts, Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores, in this engaging webinar where we’ll reveal innovative products to supercharge your marketing campaigns.

In this 30 minute session, you’ll:

  • Get an exclusive look at the hottest trends and new products.
  • Discover ways to creatively use branded merch to enhance your marketing efforts.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#2024-new
Click to watch webinar
Build Excitement with Branded Merch in your Collegiate Recruitment using your Slate Comm Flows

Date: Tuesday, September 12th, 2023
Time: 1:30pm (Central)
Duration: 30 minutes

In this 30 minute webinar, hosted by Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores, we’ll explore how building a branded merch Slate integration can seamlessly incorporate a physically interactive experience into your digital communication flows as you pull students through the recruitment funnel.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#build-excitement
Click to watch webinar
2023 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: Thursday, April 6th, 2023
Time: 1:00pm (Central)
Duration: 30 minutes

We are always asked, “what’s new and trending?” and this webinar will not only answer that question, but also provide a variety of ideas and ways to integrate these products into your marketing campaigns. Join Michael Wolaver and Katie Flores as they showcase our favorite new items for 2023 in this fun, engaging and interactive live webinar.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#2023-new
Click to watch webinar
Building Affinity in Admissions with Merch

Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Duration: 30 minutes

Every moment matters in Admissions. From the earliest recruitment outreach, to the summer-long info streams, each touchpoint can build affinity for your institution and leave a lasting impression. Smartly integrated merch amplifies the biggest moments, delivering one-of-a-kind experiences for prospective students. In this short 30-minute webinar, Magellan’s Hannah Batts and Michael Wolaver talk about how promo merch marketing can create exciting, emotional moments that build affinity during the admissions recruitment cycle.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#building-affinity
2022 New and Trending Products
Click to watch webinar
2022 New & Trending Products Webinar

Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022
Duration: 30 minutes

We love answering the question what is new and trending in the promo merch world. The start of the year is the perfect time to provide this update. Michael Wolaver and Steve Baker will showcase the products we are excited about for 2022 in this fun, engaging, and interactive live webinar.

Click to watch webinar

How Promotional Products Impact Alumni Donations
Date: Thursday, November 11th, 2021
Duration: 38 minutes

Fundraising for colleges and universities has always been important. As the higher education landscape continues to evolve, institutions are looking for new, innovative, memorable and impactful fundraising outreach to stay successful. Promotional product solutions can help. In this webinar, Steve Baker and Tim Jones look at the results from our recent research about how promotional products impact alumni donations. What makes alumni more likely to give? Do gift incentives work?  Steve and Tim share some examples of effective fundraising outreach, and draw on decades of on-campus experience to talk about ways to incorporate strategic promotional products for increased engagement and alumni giving.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#impact-donations
Click to watch webinar

Igniting Engagement Through Tactile Experiences
Date: April 22, 2021
Duration: 30 minutes

Bobby Lehew (Chief Content Officer at commonsku) and Michael Wolaver (Captain of Magellan Promotions) will discuss how promotional merchandise is on the rise and why. During the time of COVID, many brands are finding promotional products as a way to reconnect in their disconnected world, and how those experiences can help build unity, bring delight, and ignite engagement. We’ll discuss the key touchpoints that matter when building promo experiences for audiences, how branded merchandise helps build affinity, plus how integrating with other media helps build a full sensory experience!
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#igniting-engagement

Yield and Anti-Melt Strategies with Promotional Products
Date: March 17, 2021
Duration: 30 minutes – Watch the Recording

Learn how to include the effectiveness of promotional product marketing in yield and anti-melt campaigns to keep deposited students interested and engaged with Steve Baker and Sarah Blake as they walk through examples of effective and impactful anti-melt strategies.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#yield-anti-melt

New Products for 2021
Date: February 24, 2021
Duration: 30 minutes – Watch the Recording

Alyssa Adriansen and Steve Baker present our annual list of our most-favorited new items for 2021 in this fun, engaging, and interactive live webinar.

Marketing That Sticks: Incorporating Stickers in Your Marketing Strategy
Date: November 19, 2020
Duration: 14 minutes – Watch the Recording

Tim Jones and Steve Baker share ways to include low-cost, high impact custom sticker sheets in your marketing.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#marketing-sticks

Enhance Your Marketing Strategy with Interactive Mailings
Date: November 18, 2020
Duration: 12 minutes – Watch the Recording

Find out how to include interactive mailings as part of your marketing strategy to engage your core audience in an isolating time.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#enhance-marketing

Products Ready to Mail
Date: March 26, 2020
Duration: 15 Minutes – Watch the Recording

Get solutions that help with recruiting from a distance, post-event follow up, developing new yield strategies, and combating melt.
https://magellanpromotions.freedomroolz.com/webinars/#ready-to-mail

View Our Podcasts

Click to listen!

Back To Basics: Yield Efforts by The Admissions Directors Lunchcast

Katie Flores, Client Strategist, chats with the Lunchcast team on their episode about Yield Efforts. They’ll explore what admissions counselors should be doing and thinking about at this stage in order to maximize enrollment results. 

 

Click to listen!

Back To Basics: Summer Melt by The Admissions Directors Lunchcast

Katie Flores, Client Strategist, chats with the Lunchcast team on their episode about Summer Melt.  They’re digging deep into stages in the recruitment process to help train and prepare admissions counselors.

 

Click to listen!

Unboxing The Power of Promo Merch

Jessica Shasserre from MediaCross, a higher ed marketing agency, interviewed Michael Wolaver, our Captain, on the power of promo merch for their podcast. The podcast covers how promo merch can play an effective role in influencing college recruitment, alumni engagement and donor giving.

Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”