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Monday
September 19, 2011 What’s In Your Bag?Filed under: Industry Initiatives, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties Once again our industry is tapping into a growing worldwide trend by capitalizing on the plastic bag bans enacted in states as diverse as Alaska, California and North Carolina, and countries like Italy and India. According to Counselor’s 2011 State of the Industry report, bags accounted for 9.7% of all revenue from the sale of promo products last year, or $1.7 billion. And searches for bags in ESP rose more than 10% in the last year, with more than 10,000 bags from over 800 different suppliers currently available. California really seems to be on the cutting edge of this trend. The Los Angeles Times reports that a city councilman favors a bag ban that goes even beyond action already taken in other California cities and counties, calling for stores to stop using plastic and paper bags. There’s no question recyclable bags help reduce the billions of plastic bags circulating around the globe. It’s estimated that if each bag is used multiple times – at least once a week – four or five reusable bags can replace 520 plastic bags a year. There’s also no question bags make for terrific marketing vehicles. When compared with other promotional products like pens and caps, bags generate the highest number of ad impressions in a month – 1,078 for a single bag – because they’re used repeatedly in and out of the office, and the message they carry is seen by significant numbers of people. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re at the mall, a grocery store or a college campus, take a look at how many bags – and advertisers – you see. I rest my case. We spoke to distributor Michelle Altobelli of Altobelli Advantage, Inc., who called bags “a functional, usable, ageless item,” and suggests distributors help clients maximize their potential by tying in a marketing program to make it a really worthwhile promotional investment. What’s in your bag? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
August 31, 2011 You Spoke, We ListenedFiled under: Industry Initiatives, News About ASI ASI has long been committed to staying ahead of the technology curve, continually updating and improving our many products with one firm goal in mind: helping you close more sales. To that end, we just announced significant improvements to ESP Web that should benefit every subscriber. In many cases, you spoke and we listened, upgrading and adding new features based on your input, suggestions and feedback. Distributors and decorators should find significant enhancements to ESP Web’s user interface that improve speed and workflow, making the industry’s most accurate and up-to-date supplier and product database even faster and easier to navigate. Suppliers will find new advertising opportunities designed to help boost sales via trigger marketing and supplier specials. Like any system upgrade, this one is the result of months of hard work on the part of numerous members of our team. Some of them even worked with a hurricane bearing down because they were determined to make their deadline and guarantee a smooth transition for everyone. Now, it’s time for you to kick the tires and take it for a test drive. Please let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Distributors and decorators who need info on subscribing to ESP Web can contact Dan Dienna, ASI’s VP of distributor services, at ddienna@asicentral.com or 800-546-1295. Suppliers should call 800-546-1226 or e-mail Gene Rahill, ASI’s digital advertising director, at grahill@asicentral.com.
Thursday
August 11, 2011 Brave New World for Sales ProsFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research ASI took another giant step forward this week with an announcement about our upcoming launch of ASI SalesPro for suppliers. Powered by Oracle exclusively for the ad specialty industry, our latest sales and marketing tool will help suppliers close more sales and increase profits. We’ve spent a year developing ASI SalesPro and committed millions. It’s money well spent. The plug-and-play business platform will integrate Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform. ASI SalesPro will feature:
To be the first to receive ASI SalesPro when it becomes available sometime in the fourth quarter, e-mail salespro@asicentral.com or call 800-546-1226. For a video demo, click here. Receive ASI’s new CRM complimentary as part of your CreditConnect Prospect Hunter subscription, or as a stand-alone product. If you want more information, click here to read our press release. And stay tuned for launch details on SalesPro and the upcoming launch of ASI SmartSales – a customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for distributors and decorators. If you’ve seen the demo of either SalesPro or SmartSales, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
July 26, 2011 Vampires, Superheroes … And Ad Specialties?Filed under: Industry Initiatives, Media Coverage, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties Whether you’re a geek or a Gleek, you probably saw news reports on Comic-Con, a gigantic comics fanfest in San Diego. As CNN reports, promotional products were an undisputed “star” of the 42,000-strong annual convention. Conventioneers collected free T-shirts and tote bags along with branded buttons, sunglasses and other souvenirs promoting popular franchises like True Blood, Twilight and the upcoming movie Captain America. Click here to view the CNN report (wait past the inevitable commercial) and to take a look at numerous examples of imaginative ad specialties in action. Cape and alien mask optional for viewing. On another “good news” front, I recently saw a blurb about a “prop drop” for the popular TV show The Office. The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, a real organization in a real city where the fictional TV show takes place, asked local businesses to bring in promotional products touting their companies for possible display on the desks of characters like Dwight, Pam and Jim. They asked for pens, mugs, magnets and the like in triplicate to be sent on to the show, which is about to embark on its eighth season on NBC. So next time you tune in, look closely at desk items to see what ad specialties you can spot. All of this is boffo news for our industry, which Counselor Promogram just reported enjoyed the sixth consecutive quarterly increase in Q2 revenues. Ad specialty industry distributors increased their revenues by 5.9% in Q2, with sales totaling $4.6 billion, rising by $257 million compared to the same period in 2010. This follows a sales gain of 7.6% in Q1. According to the survey conducted by our executive director of research services, Larry Basinait, the majority of surveyed firms are also forecasting continued growth during the rest of 2011. The number of distributors anticipating an increase in sales this year is four times greater than those that expect a decline. That’s a great big “woo-hoo” for all of us, especially on the heels of a very successful gathering in Chicago. Let me know which Office character you resemble and what you think of our latest survey by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
July 20, 2011 Windy City Kickoff for ASI SmartSalesFiled under: ASI Shows, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties ASI chose its Chicago show – the biggest industry event of summer – to offer a sneak peek of its biggest technology investment in years: ASI SmartSales™ . The Oracle-powered tech platform is a customized solution for maximizing sales and revenue opportunities. Click here to watch the SmartSales video for yourself. Read the press release we dropped to the industry here. ASI spent millions researching and developing SmartSales, a high-tech sales and marketing tool to help distributors and decorators close more sales and increase profits with modules dedicated to sales management, marketing campaigns and revenue-generating capabilities. ASI expects the rollout of the new service to begin in the fourth quarter. Expect an announcement shortly about an upcoming customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for suppliers. We paid a lot of attention to the security aspect of this new business platform, leveraging Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform consisting of a hybrid implementation of cloud and locally hosted software and databases. The new technology will include the core ASI services vital to members’ success, allowing them to access ESP for comprehensive product sourcing from 3,400 suppliers; ASI ProfitMaker, which provides ERP and financial management capabilities; ASI LogoMall; their own company websites; exclusive ASI research; and the latest professional development resources available for BASI/MASI certification. ASI distributors with ESP who are interested in being the first to receive ASI SmartSales when it becomes available should e-mail smartsales@asicentral.com or visit www.asicentral.com/smartsales. Members who want to sign up for ESP and ASI SmartSales should call their ASI account executive at 800-546-1350. The video demos were just one of the many highlights at ASI Chicago, which takes place through Thursday at McCormick Place convention complex. If you’re at the show, I hope you’re enjoying yourself. If you had a chance to see the video, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
July 13, 2011 ASI Launching Oracle-Powered Tech PlatformFiled under: Industry Initiatives, News About ASI ASI is in the midst of a very exciting technology launch, and I’d like to share some preliminary information – with much more to come as we prepare for the official fourth-quarter rollout. Following a decades-long tradition of providing business tools that help distributors, suppliers and decorators grow sales and manage profitability, ASI teamed up with tech giant Oracle to build an industry-specific technology platform. The next-generation sales-boosting tools will include cloud capabilities and software services tailored for the industry – and your business. Knowing how integral relationship-building is to this industry, we designed this platform to fundamentally change the way suppliers and distributors communicate, collaborate and nurture those relationships. And it comes at a perfect time – when the industry is shifting from cost-cutting to all-important revenue-building. The new offering will include comprehensive product sourcing powered by ESP, order management, reporting and business analysis and other functions. The R&D for this project took more than a year and represents a multimillion-dollar investment by ASI. From the beginning, we concentrated as much on safety and security as we did on the technology itself, and we have every confidence in Oracle, a worldwide database and software innovator with over 30 years experience and more than 370,000 customers – including 100 of the Fortune 100. In addition to the new Oracle-powered implementation, ASI initially invested $1 million to increase protection of data driving the industry and continues with annual investments of $500,000. There isn’t a single company in the industry spending more on product development and data integrity and security than ASI, and that long-standing commitment is something I and the Norman Cohn family are proud to have as our hallmark. ASI expects to announce general rollout plans in September, with initial availability anticipated for the fourth quarter. We can’t wait to make this safe, high-quality product a part of every member’s business. For more information, distributors may contact Dan O’Halloran, executive vice president of distributor services, at dan.ohalloran@asicentral.com or 215-953-3070; and suppliers may contact Rich Fairfield, publisher and executive vice president at rfairfield@asicentral.com or 215-953-3627. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions, ideas or comments, post a comment or e-mail me here. Stay tuned!
Thursday
May 5, 2011 We Got HimFiled under: Community, Industry Initiatives, Using Ad Specialties One thing our industry does exceptionally well is jump on breaking waves and ride them right to shore. This week, companies like Northwest Embroidery in Washington state did just that. Northwest sprang into action within hours of bin Laden’s death to embroider Navy SEAL Team 6 hats and get them up on their website. The company knew Sunday’s feat by the elite military squad would fuel interest in all things patriotic. So did Matt Quinn, owner of Quinn Flags and Banners in Hanover, Pennsylvania, whose phones started ringing Monday morning. Quinn says his sales increased about 400% this week – and that his company was ready to meet all comers. “We have over 3 million flags in stock today and more are being produced daily,” says Quinn (asi/80228). Other popular items include decorative pleated fans, patriotic bunting and American stick flags imprinted with a client’s name or website. Gill Studios (asi/56950) of Kansas, has five new stock design bumper stickers and a ribbon magnet along with American flags – and 10% of proceeds from the sales of these items will be donated to a very good cause, the Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit that aids injured service men and women of this generation. Did your company see a spike in sales of patriotic items – or produce anything Osama-related? Pinata Casa, a Texas promo products company (asi/73969) that offers 4-foot-tall piñatas (perfect for Cinco de Mayo promotions!), sold more $50 bin Laden piñatas in the last few days than they’ve sold in the last year. “Osama is one of our most popular piñatas,” Gerald Zhou told us. Sometimes, it really is all about timing and knowing when to strike when the iron is hot. Just like the Navy SEALs did. I’d never heard of SEAL Team 6 until Sunday, but according to the New York Times, SEALs – which stands for Sea-Air-Land teams – were created by JFK in 1962 as a way to expand unconventional warfare. Their specialty is using lethal force intelligently in the most dangerous missions on earth. The “elite of the elite” are the guys who parachute from 30,000 feet with oxygen masks to take back hijacked cruise liners – the guys who jump from Black Hawk helicopters in the dead of night to find and dispatch Public Enemy No. 1 in all of 40 minutes. Incredible. Let me know if your company did anything special this week by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. |
