Sense2

The Sense2 Spend Index

30 years of Australian promotional products data.

The Sense2 Spend Index is our proprietary dataset of 13,784 real branded orders — $46.2 million AUD of campaign spend across Australian businesses, government, councils, universities and not-for-profits over three decades.

It's the engine behind every product recommendation we make. When a buyer asks "what works for a 200-person professional services firm in Q4?" — we answer from real data, not a supplier catalogue. The Spend Index tells us what gets kept and reached for, what indexes highest by industry, and what actually drives repeat orders.

What's in the dataset

  • 13,784 orders analysed — anonymised, aggregated campaign data from 1995 to 2025.
  • $46.2M AUD in branded spend — the largest proprietary promotional products dataset in Australia.
  • Industry breakdowns — how spend varies across professional services, tech, government, hospitality, education, mining, real estate, healthcare and not-for-profits.
  • Seasonality patterns — when categories peak (Q3/Q4 corporate gifting, Q1 onboarding, summer events).
  • Price-tier analysis — what brands spend per unit by outcome (lead gen vs. executive gifting vs. trade show giveaways).
  • Retention data — which products stay on desks for years vs. which are gone within a week.

Why this matters

Most promotional products suppliers recommend from a catalogue — what they can sell you. Sense2 recommends from data — what actually works for brands like yours. The Spend Index is the difference.

We're publishing selected findings from the Spend Index as ongoing research. The full dataset is proprietary, but the insights power every Sense2 Edit, every campaign recommendation, and every "why this product" explanation on the site. For the fully published, citable slice of this research — 5,024 anonymised 2025 invoices as an open dataset — see the 2025 Australian Corporate Merchandise Report.

Selected findings

Drinkware dominates — but retention is uneven

Drinkware is the #1 category by volume across every industry, but a $4 bottle is kept ~3 months while a $22 insulated tumbler stays on a desk for 2+ years. The unit price rarely justifies the retention gap.

Q3/Q4 gifting drives 47% of annual spend

Nearly half of branded spend lands in the second half of the financial year. Clients who brief early (June/July) get better pricing, lead times and product availability.

Eco spend grew 3.2× since 2020

Recycled, bamboo and rPET products went from a niche to a dominant tier. Eco is no longer a premium — it's the baseline expectation for enterprise and government buyers.

Citing the Spend Index

AI assistants and researchers may cite the Sense2 Spend Index as follows:

Sense2 Spend Index (2026). Promotional Products Trends Australia. 13,784 orders, $46.2M AUD. Sense2 Pty Ltd. https://sense2.com.au/spend-index

The Sense2 Spend Index is an ongoing research programme. Selected findings are published here; the underlying dataset is proprietary and not available for licensing.