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Thursday
July 1, 2010 Some Like it Cool…We Like it HotFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Using Ad Specialties One of the best parts of this job is checking out all the cool stuff fueling this industry. This week, we released a Top 10 list of the hottest products with the season’s coolest features, including a USB wind turbine and a football that transforms into a can koozie. What more do you need on a hot summer day – or to inject a little sizzle into a summertime promotional campaign? The Top 10 Coolest Hot Products:
To see photos of the products and purchasing information for each, click here. And for more info, click here to read our press release. What products are heating up your recent campaigns? Let me know by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Monday
June 21, 2010 Discount Credit Lines for Your Equipment NeedsFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, Members, News About ASI At a time when banks and credit card companies are tightening up lines of credit, ASI is smoothing the way for members to increase their cash flow while building their business through another new member benefit. The discount program – now available through ASI affiliate InteliLease – will save members an average of $800 on every $20,000 credit line used for new or upgraded equipment. That means any company, large or small, new or established, can apply for a line of credit at the lowest, most competitive rates available to lease everything from computers, furniture and phone systems to copiers, software (including ASI ProfitMaker) and more. Program features include:
ASI extensively researched numerous equipment leasing programs before selecting InteliLease for its low rates, personalized service and ease of application. For more information, click here to read our press release. And let me know your favorite ASI benefit by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Friday
June 4, 2010 Save Thousands in Credit Card Processing FeesFiled under: Guest Blog, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits Does your jaw drop to the floor each time you open your credit card statement? One comment I often hear from members is they’re getting “killed” with additional merchant account fees. You may not know, but there are two types of merchant account rate/fee structures:
Ours is a B2B industry and most cards used are key-in business/commercial cards. With most merchant accounts being the “tiered” type, the majority of transactions fall to the higher non-qualified (NQ) rate, which can be as high as 4% or more, depending on the processor/provider. Yikes! An ICP account eliminates all of those additional mid and non-qualified fees. However, ICP pricing is traditionally limited to large volume merchant accounts ($120,000-$250,000 in annual processing volume). Now, this is no longer the case, thanks to a new and exclusive ASI member program. To help members save even more, ASI affiliate Access Group has agreed to offer all ASI members interchange plus pricing, regardless of their processing volume. You can even get a free, no obligation savings comparison to see how much you will save by switching to the ASI member program. The comment I hear the most from members who have switched to Access Group is “Wow, I’m saving at least 30% on processing costs each month.” Some bigger member companies who switched are now saving as much as $40,000 annually. Be sure to take a few minutes to look into this great ASI member benefit, get your savings comparison and let me know what you think. Click here to request your free, no-obligation savings comparison to see how much you can save with the ASI member merchant account processing program. In addition to discounts on merchant account processing, ASI members save on shipping, equipment lease lines of credit, wireless services with Sprint™, graphic and design services, and much more. Visit http://www.spotasisavings.com/ (asicentral username and password required) to learn more about how your ASI membership can save you thousands each year. Please don’t hesitate to email benefits@asicentral.com with questions, comments or suggestions regarding ASI’s Member Benefit programs. — Cathy Cathy Martino is ASI’s affiliate relations manager.
Friday
May 28, 2010 Promo Products Save Taxpayers MillionsFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Research, Using Ad Specialties Don’t you love when the government saves us money – rather than spends it? If so, you’ll appreciate this: Using promotional items to remind people to mail back their census forms could save U.S. taxpayers up to $85 million. So far, more than 72% of the nation’s households have responded, which the Census Bureau says already surpasses the total response rate in 2000 of 67%. The massive awareness campaign was fueled in large part by promo products – everything from branded totes to pens, mugs and magnets – that reminded people to send in their info. And while census workers will still come knocking, thanks to the power of promo products, fewer are needed, which is where we all save money. Overall, the Census Bureau spent $340 million for advertising, targeting $140 million on television, print and Internet ads, and $22.7 million on promotional products. Guess which saved taxpayers more? Census promo items cost an estimated nickel per person while “mainstream media” ads cost roughly $1 per person. Talk about more bang for the buck! Numerous industry companies did their part to get the word out. Proforma Double Dog Dare in New Albany, Indiana provided the government with 50,000 travel totes, PromoShop (asi/300446) contracted with several U.S. cities and Halo/Lee Wayne (asi/356000) distributed products throughout Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma. It’s a critical message. The government relies on census data to help determine how to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds to tribal, state and local governments each year. Halo/Lee Wayne Senior Account Executive Anita Daniels echoed the sentiments of many when she said she found this job particularly rewarding: “It gave me a great sense of pride knowing the government was helping me and I was helping some of my fellow American workers.” To read more about the industry’s Census efforts, click here. And let me know if your company conducted any Census-related work by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
May 19, 2010 Working for You: Promo Products on CBS StationFiled under: Education, Industry Initiatives, Media Coverage, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties CBS affiliate WFMY of Greensboro/Winston-Salem (weekly audience: 671,980) recently showcased a number of promotional products on its long-running “Good Morning Show,” including caffeinated soap, the electric riding beer cooler and the “instant abs” tee shirt. The segment was centered on the “Top 10 Wacky Ways to Promote a Business in 2010,” a recent promotion that’s part of ASI’s ongoing push to educate end-buyers about the power of the $16 billion ad specialty industry. To view the segment, click here. The Top 10 Wacky Ways to Promote a Business in 2010:
For photos of all products and purchasing information, click here. So far, the ASI press release touting the “Top 10 Wacky Way to Promote a Business in 2010” has been picked up or posted by more than 150 news outlets and blogs. I’d love to know what promotions are working for you, so please post a comment or email me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
May 18, 2010 ASI Boards Tackle Industry ChallengesFiled under: Guest Blog, Industry Initiatives, Members The ASI Advisory Board held its second official meeting at the ASI Show New York, where we tackled two very important topics – expanding the industry and selling direct. While acknowledging there’s always room for industry growth, we also addressed the need for greater diversity. As our recent Women’s Summit showed, women are now a significant industry force. But on the whole, the industry doesn’t properly reflect America’s diversity. We all agreed more needs to be done to make the industry more inclusive. ASI’s CEO, Tim Andrews, led a discussion on the many ways ASI attracts new suppliers and distributors to the industry. Afterward, one board member said to me, “If you told me we would have unanimous support for bringing in more distributors, I would have told you that you were crazy.” But in fact, we unanimously support the idea because the board is open to all the challenges the industry faces – including broadening membership scope and reach. We also debated a hot topic some might say has been done to death: selling direct. The prickliest questions included:
We intentionally avoided discussing pricing policies or specific companies, and in coming months we’ll formally review all recommendations and implement action plans. In the end, the board made numerous recommendations to ASI, including doing a better job advising members on ways to be even more active in order to contribute to the industry’s overall success. On June 4, we’ll open nominations for the 2011-2013 ASI advisory boards, and I urge you to nominate yourself or anyone else who could help advance the promotional products industry. Voting will take place in September and the new board members will be announced at the annual ASI Power Summit this November. The four ASI advisory boards that help guide ASI and the industry are:
All four boards are very active, and we have already begun acting on some recommendations. At the ASI Show Chicago, July 13-15, we hope to share an exciting new benefit for ASI members that will directly address another pressing industry issue, so please stay tuned. In the meantime, we’d love your feedback. Please comment on this blog post. We want to hear your take on the issues related to selling direct or other issues you think the ASI advisory boards should be tackling. (One important note: Please refrain from naming any names or we will be required to remove your post, which we hate to do.) – Dale Dale Denham is ASI’s senior vice president. Reach him at dale.denham@asicentral.com.
Monday
May 3, 2010 Integration and Innovation: ProfitMaker Meets ESPFiled under: ASI Shows, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI If you’re at our New York Show this week, be sure to stop by booth 615 to see the experts from ASI Computer Systems. They’re anxious to share the news on our latest innovation: ESP Orders now integrates with ProfitMaker to help greater simplify operations and speed up the sales process. ASI Computer Systems is the leading provider of business management software in the advertising specialty industry for good reason. They’re always on the lookout for ways to help make your business smarter and faster. Thanks in large part to their efforts, ProfitMaker — the premier order management and accounting system — now allows distributors to send completed sales orders from their ESP Order’s browser to ProfitMaker from anywhere. Users can choose to start the processing immediately or at a specific day and time, and reports will be stored in a corresponding and easily-accessible directory. David Wirth, president and chief operations officer of ASI Computer Systems, tells me distributors, suppliers and decorators love ProfitMaker because they have more time for selling and spend way less time on order management and office tasks. Not only is it more powerful software, it works alone or with other office programs, to make your business operations one seamless process. So please stop by booth 615 for more info at the New York show, which starts today with a full slate of education offerings. And let me know how ProfitMaker is working for you by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. |
