Breaking the Marketing Mold: Kade Kimber Of Oak City Gifts On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Gift with a clear purpose. What specific outcome are you aiming to achieve? Consider your audience and think about how that goal can be reflected in the choice of gift, product selection, and even the unboxing experience. Do not — and I repeat, do not — gift just for the sake of gifting. You won’t get out of it what you put into it, nor what you want from it. This is the biggest mistake made with corporate gifting and the reason most people don’t even bother, or just assume it will be money thrown away. It doesn’t have to be.
Traditional marketing methods are no longer sufficient in today’s dynamic and fast-evolving market. To truly engage and captivate audiences, businesses need to think outside the box and adopt innovative and non-traditional marketing strategies. What are these strategies, and how can they transform audience engagement? I had the pleasure of interviewing Kade Kimber.
With nearly two decades of corporate marketing experience, including key roles in global leadership, Kade Kimber, the founder of Oak City Gifts, created a venture that fuses strategic marketing with corporate gifting. This innovative enterprise harnesses deep marketing insights to craft gift boxes that do more than just delight — they serve as powerful tools for maximizing client lifetime value, enhancing relationships, and driving business growth. As the visionary behind Oak City Gifts (www.oakcitygifts.com), Kade draws on his extensive corporate marketing background to redefine the corporate gifting industry.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! To start, could you share when and how you got started in marketing?
Thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview series. I’m truly passionate about marketing and corporate gifting, so I always welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics.
As for how I got into marketing, it’s been quite a journey. Initially, I intended to major in marketing during my undergrad, but after my first marketing course, I switched to pre-law. That marketing course was heavily focused on analytics, which, at the time, I didn’t understand or enjoy. So, I shifted to pre-law, with English as my major and communications/PR as my minor because at least there was some creativity to be had there. I also vowed never to work in marketing. Ha.
After graduation, I was all set to begin law school, acceptance and scholarship offer in-hand. While waiting for the school year to start, I moved across the country and found myself in a glorified admin role. My manager at the time, knowing my initial interest in marketing and my dislike of the glorified admin role, suggested I apply for a marketing assistant position that was being newly created within the company. After a lunch meeting with the hiring manager, I was offered the role on the condition that I postpone law school for a year. Since I had just started my first e-commerce business, I decided to focus on that business and the marketing role. So, in 2006, I put law school on hold and stepped into the world of marketing.
Nearly two decades later, I found myself still immersed in the marketing world. Along the way, I launched several businesses, including Oak City Gifts, a strategic corporate gifting company I founded in 2014. Oak City Gifts was born out of my desire to address gaps I noticed in the corporate marketing space. Ironically, I never marketed the company, preferring to keep it small while I focused on my corporate career. However, it grew organically through word-of-mouth to the point where it demanded my full attention. At the beginning of 2024, I made the decision to leave my role as Director of Global Marketing with a Germany-based company to dedicate myself full-time to Oak City Gifts. And by “full-time,” I mean non-stop.
Transitioning from a stable corporate career with a set paycheck to full-time entrepreneurship has been incredibly stressful but equally rewarding. What I love most is that I still get to use and expand my extensive marketing skill set, helping more companies transform how they engage with their most valued connections. My corporate career was something I truly enjoyed, which is why it took me so long to decide to leave. But knowing that my company is rooted in marketing strategy, I was confident I’d continue to apply the skills I’d honed over the years. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was just how much I would further refine those skills within my business. With offerings that range from retail gifts to on-demand custom-branded gifts to fully outsourced managed gifting solutions, plus another brand of mine focused on strategic gifting for custom home builders, the opportunities to leverage my marketing background are vast and ever-expanding.
What has been the biggest shift in the marketing industry and can you give us an example of how it impacted you?
When I started my marketing career in 2006, digital media was just emerging, and traditional print marketing still dominated. As the industry shifted toward a digital focus and some long-time marketers declined to change with it, I made it a priority to learn and adapt continuously to stay relevant. This approach led to nine promotions in nine years with one of the world’s largest companies. While others faced layoffs due to industry changes, I thrived by embracing the evolving marketing landscape.
Can you explain why it’s essential for businesses to break away from traditional marketing and embrace new strategies?
The saying “nothing changes if nothing changes” might be cliché, but it’s true. To see new results, businesses must try new approaches. That realization led me to create Oak City Gifts. I witnessed firsthand how outdated marketing tactics failed to connect on a personal level with audiences. Ten years later, with a client base that includes numerous industry giants like SAS, Marriott, CAPTRUST, Morgan Stanley, and more, the success of breaking away from traditional marketing speaks for itself.
Could you share and briefly explain the first major change you made to break the trend of traditional marketing that was not so common?
In brand awareness and outreach, it was once unthinkable to use products without the company logo. Most marketers and business leaders believed that the more logos, the better. So, when I launched a business focused on creating memorable brand experiences through gifts that stand out precisely because they don’t rely on logos, it was almost considered heresy. Even today, we invest significant time educating prospective clients on the power of connecting with individuals without leaning heavily on logos.
What specific results did you see after implementing this change?
When people received gifts with branding limited to the packaging, clients started seeing more authentic engagement, increased referrals, greater investments in their services, and deeper relationships that withstood market changes. It was remarkable. I remember one client sharing the overwhelming positive feedback they received — recipients flooded them with messages of appreciation, and one even created a video showcasing their enjoyment of the gift. That’s when I knew we were onto something much bigger than I had imagined.
Since then, the impact has only grown. We’ve helped clients achieve six- and seven-figure returns on their gifting investments. Earlier this year, one financial services client, for example, secured a client through a $99 gift that now brings in six-figure fees annually — a relationship that will pay dividends for decades.
How do you ensure that these new marketing strategies resonate with your target audience?
First and foremost, it’s about gifting with purpose. Simply giving for the sake of giving, to check off a box, is often a futile exercise and a waste of money. Where we stand out in the crowded gifting space is by strategically designing gifts aligned with our clients’ end goals. Each gift is rooted in a solid marketing strategy, established before the gift is even created.
And since results matter, we closely monitor outcomes. Our relationship with clients is truly a partnership, not a transaction. While many gifting companies cater to those looking to give without purpose, we work with businesses that want their gifts to deliver results. We remain engaged even after the gift is sent, monitoring their measured success to ensure we’ve exceeded expectations and achieved their goals. Anything less would be failing them.
Can you share an example of something you tried that didn’t deliver expected results or ended up ended up becoming a financial burden, and what you learned from that experience?
We’ve learned through experience that less is more. Offering too many options or taking an overly detailed approach is not only costly and time-consuming but also less effective and overwhelming for both clients and recipients. For instance, creating six different gift designs because of minor differences between options, when the first three would have been more than enough to achieve the goals. We’ve wasted resources on unnecessary options by trying to cover every possible base — real or imagined — rather than focusing on what truly matters. Now, we deliberately aim for the simplest solution that will have the most impact. It’s an art to do this at scale, and while it’s challenging to refine rather than expand options, we’ve found that it’s the most efficient way to minimize waste and maximize results.
Great. Now, let’s dive into the heart of our interview. Could you list “5 Innovative & Non Traditional Marketing Strategies That Can Engage Audiences Like Never Before”?
I’m going to focus on five strategies that specifically relate to corporate gifting, as it’s often a misused or misunderstood marketing tool. However, when done correctly, it yields the greatest dollar-for-dollar results of any marketing action I’ve seen and engages audiences like never before.
1. Focus on subtle branding. Keep your logo and branding limited to the packaging to create a branded experience but leave the gift items themselves unbranded. Incorporating your branding in subtle ways, like crinkle paper that’s a brand color, for instance. That still visually ties the gift to your brand. With that approach, the gifts are more likely to be used, shared, and talked about. Glassware emblazoned with your logo will likely end up in the back of a cupboard, but unbranded glassware is more likely to end up on social media — with your company tagged.
At the end of the day, promotional items are, by their very definition, transactional. And there’s a place for that and there’s value there. But when used as gifts, they can feel just as impersonal to the recipient as they would at a tradeshow — perhaps even more so, which can come across as off-putting or even insulting. To create memorable brand experiences through gifting, companies need the confidence to shift focus away from themselves and instead toward maximizing the recipient’s experience. This approach ensures your brand stands out for all the right reasons.
Oh, the stories I could tell about brands standing out for all the wrong reasons because their gifting was so poorly executed before coming to work with us!
2. Whenever possible, offer the recipient an experience they can enjoy at home. Examples would be culinary kits, entertainment setups, and game night packages. These types of gifts are utilized by recipients much more often than you’d think. And these experiences create lasting memories with positive emotions tied to them; those emotions and memories become intrinsically and deeply connected to your brand. It’s also important to note that gift cards to experiences, no matter how cool they may seem, tend to have lower usage than experiences that can more conveniently be enjoyed at home. This is particularly true the older the recipient is in age. After a certain point in life, like the age of 35, you actively look for ways to not have to leave the house, right? Curated gift boxes for in-home experiences are the solution for that.
3. Go out of your way to align your gifts with your company’s values and ethos. Your clients and employees connect with your brand because they believe in what it stands for. Ensure your gifts and outreach reflect and reinforce that commitment. Since 2020, purchasing behaviors have significantly shifted and 46% of consumers will pay more to providers that take visible actions for a positive societal impact. Translated: consumers are paying close attention. Your gifts need to take that into account.
4. Gift with a clear purpose. What specific outcome are you aiming to achieve? Consider your audience and think about how that goal can be reflected in the choice of gift, product selection, and even the unboxing experience. Do not — and I repeat, do not — gift just for the sake of gifting. You won’t get out of it what you put into it, nor what you want from it. This is the biggest mistake made with corporate gifting and the reason most people don’t even bother, or just assume it will be money thrown away. It doesn’t have to be.
5. Take a minute to develop and implement a basic gifting strategy. Keep it simple, but unless your gifting is planned out and implemented, it won’t happen. Or, worse, it will be inconsistent and ineffective. Incorporating it as a step in your engagement workflow for potential customers, existing clients, suppliers, and staff is what makes it happen. Using gifting platforms, even for small companies and solopreneurs, is particularly a great way to achieve consistency effortlessly.
What challenges might companies face when transitioning away from traditional marketing strategies, and how can they overcome them?
I know the unknown can be a bit daunting, especially when budgets are tight and every dollar matters. Taking a chance on something new can be tough, particularly if you need buy-in from decision-makers who favor traditional methods. To navigate this, start by doing thorough research. If a gifting company hasn’t asked about your goals or doesn’t clearly show on their website or materials that they align with your strategy, it’s best to move on. Working with transaction-focused companies can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where gifting seems and then becomes ineffective, especially if it’s a new approach for your organization.
Next, look at the gifting company’s client list. Most companies display their clients on their websites. If you recognize and trust those companies, it’s likely you can trust the service provider as well. I can tell you that securing partnerships with large companies is challenging, so their logo presence on a website indicates strong relationships and quality work on the part of the gift vendor. Finally, don’t hesitate to call the gift companies you’re considering. While email and text are convenient, a real-time conversation can provide valuable insights into how well they understand and align with your goals. Personally, I appreciate it when prospective buyers call and talk to our team because it shows they’re serious and looking to do more than just tick a box when it comes to gifting.
Oh, and here’s a bonus tip: adopt a crawl-walk-run approach. Before committing to larger gifting projects and expenditures, start with a small test run with the provider. This allows you to adjust your strategy if necessary or determine if the provider is a good fit for your organization. As you see positive results and gain confidence, you can gradually increase your engagement with the provider. This method reduces risk and ensures minimal visibility to internal and external stakeholders if things don’t go as planned.
How do you measure the success and ROI of these new marketing strategies?
Measuring ROI in gifting can be challenging, much like other marketing aspects. However, we advise our clients to focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as increased engagement with recipients — like social media mentions, emails, texts, calls, and thank you notes — as well as any referrals or new business directly generated from the gifting outreach. Tracking this data is crucial and simplifies the process of justifying additional budget for gifting to decision-makers. Often, people gift without a tracking system, even a simple one, and fail to measure results as they would with other marketing efforts.
For us specifically, success is evident in the fact that over 90% of our clients return for more services. We take great pride in this high retention rate, as it indicates that our clients are achieving their goals and growing their businesses. As their trusted partners and biggest cheerleaders, that is exactly what we want for them.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of innovative marketing evolving in the next 5–10 years?
I’m not the best at making sweeping predictions — after all, I once thought reality TV would be a passing fad. That said, I don’t expect a total transformation in marketing practices. What I do foresee is an evolution in how we target and engage with audiences in more effective and respectful ways, with a particular emphasis on the respectful part as we embrace sometimes intrusive technologies.
While technology and data will keep advancing, the real shift will be in the necessity for marketers to innovate and stand out like never before amidst growing competition. Cutting through the noise will become increasingly challenging, demanding even more creativity and resourcefulness. Personally, I find this evolving landscape thrilling and full of potential. I didn’t start Oak City Gifts because it was a popular idea; rather, I ventured into it because no one else was doing it — or at least not on a prominent scale. This journey has required immense creativity and has been incredibly rewarding, especially when I see the success we’ve helped our clients achieve. It’s like the marketing equivalent of a dopamine rush.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitant to move away from traditional marketing methods?
Whenever I take a risk, I like to consider the absolute worst-case scenario. While it’s true that the reality can sometimes be even worse than I imagined, I’m generally good at assessing the potential downsides and what failure might look like. I then ask myself three key questions: Can I endure it? Can I survive it? Can I recover from it?
Marketing initiatives might not be life-or-death decisions, but they can certainly have a significant impact on a business. If I were a business leader evaluating a non-traditional approach, or if a team member proposed an unconventional idea, I would apply these same questions from a business perspective. If the answers suggest that the risk is manageable and potentially worthwhile, I’d take the leap. After all, you won’t know until you try.
One of my favorite aspects of being a business owner is the follow-up conversations with clients after they start using gifting in a more meaningful and effective way. Often, they begin with some hesitation due to uncertainty or previous lack of success. Then, they experience the positive outcomes that come from doing it right. Seeing their surprise, joy, and the satisfaction of knowing their risk led to tangible results is incredibly rewarding. And they wouldn’t have known it had they not taken the chance to try something different.
Can you share any upcoming initiatives or plans you have for further innovating your marketing strategies?
Absolutely. Let me start by saying I’m not a fan of the term “differentiator,” as it’s often used by companies to describe something others can easily replicate or already offer. However, in this case, I can confidently say that we’ve recently introduced something truly unique.
We’ve just relaunched our proprietary gifting platform, Shoppes. Shoppes addresses the key pain points I encountered in my corporate marketing career, as well as common challenges faced by our clients, especially small businesses. It offers on-demand gifting with custom-branded packaging, no minimum order requirements, no inventories to stock or prepay, and without the usual premium prices. It also automatically includes company-branded gift shops setup at no additional cost.
For a one-time $99 setup fee, users gain access to Shoppes, which has an on-demand gift shop that features an exclusive selection of gifts not available on our website, alongside popular retail items. Many of these exclusive gifts, such as glassware or wooden charcuterie boards, can be personalized with the recipient’s name or monogram. All gifts ship with the client’s logo on the professionally printed luxe gift tag and notecard.
Shoppes also offers users the option to provide gift-of-choice selections through three company-branded gift shops, priced at $99, $149, and $199, with the cost hidden from the recipient. Those gift shops only have Shoppes-exclusive gifts so recipients are selecting gifts they can’t get any other way. Shoppes users can share unique links to these branded shops in any way they prefer, including directly from the platform via text or email, making it simple to send a thoughtful gift with your logo on the packaging. Additionally, Shoppes users can customize on-page content for the price-based gift shops, including video, with updates taking effect immediately — perfect for seasonal campaigns and targeted marketing strategies.
Shoppes’ dashboard provides real-time metrics and order data, with no per-user fees or ongoing maintenance costs. Users can add as many administrators or general users as needed, all of whom can access the on-demand gift shop, branded shop links, and dashboard metrics and data. It’s designed to be an enterprise-level solution suitable for solopreneurs and multi-location corporations alike, offering the flexibility to send custom-branded gifts on-demand without upfront costs, inventory storage, or the need to always send the same gift.
How can our readers follow your work and learn more about your approaches to modern marketing?
You can check out our Oak City Gifts retail site, our Shoppes site, follow us on IG, or connect with me directly on LinkedIn. You’re also welcome to email or call if you have questions or need help getting stellar results from your corporate gifting.
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Breaking the Marketing Mold: Kade Kimber Of Oak City Gifts On 5 Innovative & Non Traditional… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.