Promotional Hand Clappers

A hand clapper is a noise-maker shaped like a hand: the crowd grips the wrist end, shakes, and the two palms slap together. It answers a problem every stadium and arena organiser has — a crowd that wants to make noise and has nothing to make it with, and a sponsor logo that stops being looked at the moment play restarts. On a clapper the logo is in the hand that is moving, which is the one place in a packed stand the eye actually goes.

Where it works — and where it does not

Anywhere the crowd is standing and loud: football and basketball fixtures, motorsport, athletics meets, parades, festival stages, school sports days. It also carries a retail campaign well, because it costs little per head and children take it home. It does not belong at a seated conference, an awards dinner or a trade show stand — noise is the entire point of the product, and in those rooms the point becomes a complaint. Indoor arenas are usually fine: at 20 gr the clapper is light enough that it carries no risk if it is thrown, which is why venues that ban air horns still allow it.

What to check before you order

• The print area is a hand, not a rectangle. The clapper measures 8.5 x 18.5 x 2 cm, which is generous for a giveaway, but keep the logo in the palm and off the fingers — the fingers are what gets gripped and creased.
• Colour does the work at distance. It comes in a range of bright tones. Match the home shirt or the sponsor, and pick a tone that separates from the seat fabric, so the block of supporters reads as one colour from the camera position rather than disappearing into the stand.
• Weight decides the freight. At 20 gr each, a run of several thousand is still something two people can carry to the gates in cases, which matters more than it sounds at six in the morning.

How many, and when to leave the date off

Order against the attendance you honestly expect, not the venue’s stated capacity, then add for staff, guests and the ones that end up underfoot. This is a per-head item and its economics only make sense in the thousands — a few hundred clappers spread through a stand does nothing, because the effect is a whole block moving together. If the sponsorship runs across a season rather than one fixture, print the design without a date or an opponent on it. Leftovers then go straight back out at the next home game instead of into a store cupboard.

Other fan and cheering items

Other things to put in a crowd’s hands: Printed Hand Fans, Folding and Rigid, Custom Printed Cardboard Fan Clappers, Printed Hand Fans, Folding and Rigid and Printed Hand Flags, Paper and Polyester. The full range: Fan and Cheering Items.