Beauty brands are often asked to provide items for goody bags to give out at fashion parties.

Alice Stone holds W7 Press Powder from Pink Drinks goody bag

At London Fashion Week the Metropolitan Hotel hosted its Pink Drinks party, which is a fashion industry favourite.

There are lots of fashion press and buyers at the hotel to see new collections from top designers, so placing something in the goody bags of this event is a good move for brands that want to get noticed by fashion journalists.

This kind of marketing opportunity is a good way of promoting a website too.

By placing a URL on the product journalists can tell their readers where to buy the product, whether it’s the brand’s own store or an official stockist, making it a good marketing opportunity for that store too.

It’s probably one of the least exploited forms of offline marketing by online stores.

In this climate PR agencies could consider doing deals with online stores to charge them a per feature fee when they get them credited for a brand they are working to promote – of course with the full agreement of the brand.