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Thursday
January 3, 2013 Orlando, Here We ComeFiled under: ASI Shows, Community, Members, News About ASI ASI is kicking off the 2013 show season in a big way, with a major event in Orlando featuring expanded education, a newly redesigned show floor, three specialized pavilions, two networking receptions and a Gala Celebration at Universal CityWalk. In addition, we’re celebrating the recent 80th birthday of ASI Chairman Norman Cohn, starting with a party held in his honor Saturday night. The only thing Norman asked is we throw a party, “where people will have fun and be glad they came.” A larger celebration with a birthday cake will be held Monday 4-4:30 p.m. during the Closing Celebration, featuring the Passport to Winnings drawing. We’ll get down to the serious business of the economy Monday morning – with a keynote by Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes (co-sponsored by Pepco Poms, asi/77280, and Showdown Displays, asi/87188.) I’m sure Forbes will have some pretty firm opinions on how the last-minute, New Year’s legislation will impact small business tax incentives of particular interest to so many of our members. ASI Orlando takes place Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Orange County Convention Center, an enormous complex owned and operated by Orange County government and located in the heart of the area’s tourism district. Thanks to its many conveniences, it’s a great place to host a show. This year, anyone attending ASI shows will enjoy an expanded slate of ASI Education classes, including a new series of seminars for owners. Of course, all education sessions are eligible for credits toward BASI (Bachelor of Advertising Specialty Information) and MASI (Master of Advertising Specialty Information) certification. In Orlando, our newest graduates of the free ASI Certification Program will be honored at a special reception and on-stage pinning ceremony before the Forbes keynote. We’re especially looking forward to the leading companies launching their 2013 sales season with meetings at The ASI Show™ Orlando, including Brown & Bigelow (asi/148500), The Vernon Company (asi/351700), AIA Corporation (asi/109480) and Geiger (asi/202900). Finally, on Sunday, we’ll honor 270 of the industry’s top-performing suppliers as well as the 2013 Supplier of the Year at the annual Counselor Distributor Choice Awards. Be sure to check www.asicentral.com for complete coverage of the show, including blogs and videos. If all that wasn’t enough, I’m personally looking forward to leaving behind the N.J. cold for Florida temps in the 70s! And if you haven’t registered already, upcoming 2013 ASI Shows are Dallas (February 6-8), Long Beach (March 22-24), New York (May 8-9) and Chicago (July 16-18). To learn more about exhibiting or sponsorship opportunities for 2013, contact Karen DiTomasso, vice president of sales, at kditomasso@asicentral.com. If you’re in Orlando, please let me know what you think of the show’s new features by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Thursday
December 13, 2012 A Majority Minority NationFiled under: Community, Members, News About ASI One of the liveliest discussions at the recent ASI® Power Summit In the summit’s closing moments I asked everyone in the audience to hire one minority sometime in the next year. “Don’t hire someone like me,” I said. “We don’t need more 50-year-old white males!” It’s not surprising so many of you look just like me since white males outnumber everyone else in our industry. But if the presidential election taught us anything, it’s that the country’s demographics are changing – fast. According to a study released days after the election by the non-partisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans backed Obama by huge margins and helped him win. (To read the full report, click here). Fully 89% of Mitt Romney’s supporters were white non-Hispanics, compared with just 56% of Obama’s. If this industry doesn’t get with the program soon, we’ll lose just like Romney did. As study after study tells us, people tend to trust and buy from people who look like them, culturally and ethnically. Click here to watch my YouTube video on the subject, which also recaps Power Summit sessions ASI held on building trust and the 2013 industry sales outlook. In closing, do me a favor: look around your own office and count the number of minorities versus white males. And then let me know what you think of my suggestion by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. And for more info on the 2013 Power Summit, September 15-17 at the Montage Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, click here. Maybe by the time fall rolls around, I’ll look out and see some new faces in the Power Summit audience.
Monday
November 19, 2012 A Few Words from Norman CohnFiled under: Members, News About ASI, Using Ad Specialties I recently attended the 2012 ASI® Power Summit in Naples, Florida, a wonderful annual gathering of about 250 of this industry’s most respected leaders. During one of our dinners, I had a chance to address the group and to thank everyone on behalf of ASI CEO Tim Andrews, the ASI team and our family for taking the time to attend, learn and benefit from the summit. I wanted to make sure that when participants returned home, they could ask themselves a simple question – Was it worth your time to attend? – and get a resounding “YES!” as an answer. At every Power Summit, we do everything possible to ensure everyone has a great learning and networking experience. And that’s because we want all of you to come to the next Power Summit, Sunday, September 15 to Tuesday, September 17, 2013, at the Montage Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT. As I said in my remarks, over the years, I’ve witnessed tremendous changes to this industry – and to ASI. But one thing has stayed very much the same: my family’s involvement and love for this business. It’s been incredible to witness the involvement over the years of our multiple generations, including my mother and father, of blessed memory. I’m proud to continue to work alongside my wife of 47 years, Suzanne, and my son, Matthew, and daughter, Stephanie, who I’m sure you’ve seen at our trade shows. Our other three children have been involved over the years, and already some of our 10 grandchildren are working as interns. Throughout more than 60 years in this business, I’ve learned an awful lot. At the summit, I shared five of the most valuable things I’ve learned, and I’d like to share them with all of you as well:
Hug your family and God bless America. Thank you. – Norman Cohn, ASI Chairman of the Board Pictured above at the 2012 Power Summit, from left: Jon Sloan, Jill Stirnkorb, Lori Bauer, Norman Cohn and Tom Savio
Tuesday
November 13, 2012 Nice Guys Finish FirstFiled under: Community, Members, News About ASI
This year is no exception, starting with the No. 1 name on the list – Marty Lott. We happily celebrated Marty and the other Power 50 leaders Monday night at a beach-side dinner at the sixth annual ASI® Power Summit at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Florida. At right, a few pics, of me with iPROMOTEu’s Samantha Kates Gotlib, and with Casey and Sydra Newell. We’re learning a lot from our keynote speakers and panelists at this year’s industry confab – but some of the most valuable insight has come from the ad hoc discussions that continue on long after the last official topic is exhausted. Keynote speaker Cindy Gallop discussed the future of brand promotion and keynoter Donna Burnette, a leader in the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust practice, guided us through a fascinating interactive workshop to help us figure out how to increase and leverage trust in our daily business lives. Sunday, ASI’s chairman of the board, Norman Cohn shared his thoughts on 60 years in this business – he started out as a distributor and then worked as a supplier before his family acquired this company. Amazingly, Norman turns 80 in January – and he’s still as busy and insightful as ever. Whether they’re meeting over drinks, dinner, golf, speed networking or a fast game of trivial pursuit, everyone here has a chance to connect with potential new business partners – and our Power 50 executives. If you made the 2012 list, congratulations! If you’re still aspiring for a slot, click here to check out your competition. You can get some incentive from the five newcomers on this year’s list:
To learn more about the men and women ranked 2012’s most powerful, don’t forget to check out the December issue of Counselor magazine. And let me know what you think of this year’s list by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
November 6, 2012 And the Winner Is … DemocracyFiled under: Community, Members, Research With the presidential race in a virtual dead heat and voting in many places along the East Coast still a struggle because of the storm, who knows how long it will be before we have a final decision? No matter who finally wins, I just hope everyone exercised their hard-fought right to vote. If our members are any indication, however, it’ll be President Romney come January. We polled members on ASICentral.com in September, October and November. Results from the November poll were compared with those from the Gallup Poll conducted November 1-5 among likely voters. Here’s what we found:
Let me know if you voted yet and, if you’re in an area hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, if you had any trouble getting to the polls, by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
October 9, 2012 Where in the World is Tim Andrews?Filed under: Community, Members, News About ASI One of my favorite things to do is visit member companies and meet with smaller, more intimate groups. Over the past few weeks, it seems like I spent more time in the air than on the ground, traveling to the U.K., Chicago and L.A. I was in England for Sourcing City’s Marketplace event, which serves the U.K. promotional market. Besides the international cuisine and gorgeous English countryside, the U.K. means valuable face time with the distributor and supplier clients of Alistair Mylchreest, the CEO of Sourcing City and our partner in PromoAlliance, a new international alliance we formed with PSI to identify and introduce best practices and market development concepts benefiting the U.S., U.K. and European markets. In the photo at right, I’m pictured with PSI’s managing director, Michael Freter, left, and Alistair Mylchreest, center. They do things a little differently across the pond. For instance, only select U.K. distributors with sales in excess of 500,000 pounds are invited to the Marketplace event, held in Farnborough, England. There, they meet with suppliers during 30-minute appointments. It’s an interesting twist and provides up-close-and-personal opportunities for more in-depth discussions. I also traveled to Chicago to meet with a number of large distributors convened for an annual meeting. During business and social gatherings we discussed industry trends and challenges, the outlook for 2013 and beyond and what we all can do to strengthen the industry. Later, in Los Angeles, I met with the principals of distributors that are members of the PeerNet Group, an alliance that will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The business discussion extended to a recreational whale-watching trip that didn’t include whales but instead hundreds (maybe thousands) of leaping dolphins. No kidding. And they really put on a show. At each gathering, I was more than impressed with the intensity of their interest in ASI and the thoughtful roundtable discussions we had about our industry. They really pressed me for answers! I was also very happy to hear that so many of these successful entrepreneurs use ESP® to help drive their business, as well as ESP Websites™ and a number of other tools. There also were discussions about expanding attendance at The ASI Shows™ and other events. Along the way I heard a ton of ideas, including the possibility of holding sales meetings at one of our upcoming ASI Power Summits (the next one is November 11-13 in Naples, Florida). By co-locating, a group or company can take advantage of two major events while saving on travel and hotel expenses. If you think this might work for your company, please let me know. This week I’m in Lewistown, Maine, to visit with Geiger (asi/202900), and after that I hope to get some home base time before heading down to Florida. I’m flying right into the New Year! Let me know where your travels brought you this summer (and beyond) by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
September 4, 2012 Election Business is BoomingFiled under: Members, Research, Using Ad Specialties With the presidential candidates locked in a virtual dead heat, it’s obvious our industry will continue to play a key role in helping the candidates market themselves to voters. Pardon the pun, but at each political convention, we’re seeing promo products left and right. Counselor® reporters are continuing their convention coverage in Charlotte this week, providing boots-on-the-ground observations of the products being worn, banged and waved by Democrats. Click here for pics of what they’ve seen so far.
As Chicago supplier Rich Carollo, whose family owns Lion Circle (asi/67620), told our ASI Radio audience Tuesday, this election is all about visibility. So when the cameras scan the convention center, keep an eye out for Lion Circle’s “bang a banner” – basically a sign that makes noise – which is bound to be a hit. While standards like yard signs, bumper stickers and pins continue to be the biggest sellers, there’s no end to the creativity on display this election year. Last week in Tampa, Republicans showed off everything from “Got Mitt?” T-shirts to Obama punching bags. To see more pics of some of the zanier sights from the RNC as captured by Counselor cameras, click here. The election is big business and with two months to go, there’s still time to get in on the action. According to ASI®’s research, an estimated $870 million will be spent on election-related ad specialties – including $350 million on the federal election alone – by the time it’s all over. Local and state elections are great opportunities for distributors who might have a tougher time making the “big time” connections for national purchases. The man or woman running for Congress might like to buy from a local distributor and your neighbor might even be running for city council or school board. In Florida last week, our reporters didn’t see any branded pens or tote bags, which means the RNC missed a chance to provide low cost, high ROI products that everyone could have used during the convention (as well as once they got home) as constant, valuable reminders to support their candidate. And as Rich suggested, don’t forget to call on all the special interest groups out there who are trying just as hard as politicians to get out their messages. Earlier this year, we also conducted a survey to analyze the effects of advertising specialties on voter opinions. The study’s purpose was to understand how promo products influence voters, what kinds of products are preferred and if there are differences in the perceptions of promotional products based upon political affiliation. For a press release on the results, click here. You might be able to use a stat or two during your next campaign office sales call. What election-related products are you selling – and who’s buying? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. |
concerned a hot-button issue important to so many of you: whether to hire from inside or outside the industry. I used that discussion as a springboard to a favor I asked of the 250 industry movers and shakers gathered in Florida. 
So it’s good economic sense for every company in this industry to take an aggressive stance on hiring more minorities. Consider this: if every top distributor hired and trained a minority in 2013, in five years we’d have 25,000 experienced representatives courting new business. 
