Ad Specialties on MSNBC | Better Industry Exposure

Thursday March 8, 2007 | Filed under:

In last October’s Counselor magazine I wrote about how I’m often contacted by distributors and suppliers who are frustrated that our industry doesn’t get more media coverage to educate reporters and end-buyers about using advertising specialties.

I also mentioned that we were working on a new campaign at ASI, “Promotions Awareness Week,” a public relations effort to address concerns of distributors and suppliers and I’d like to update you on this exciting project.

With this campaign we sent 26 business reporters at top media outlets across the country different advertising specialties over the course of one week. Our goal was to make promotional products top-of-mind so that they might include them in stories they write about advertising or business.

As a result of this campaign, MSNBC featured a segment about advertising specialties this last Sunday on the Your Business show. ASI featured seven products in the segment, including anti-microbial markers, pill cases for dogs and customized paper clips in the shapes of trucks, apples and light bulbs. You can watch the clip here.

This segment educated end-buyers, in this case owners and principals of small businesses, about the power of using promotional products in advertising, direct marketing and sales.

Besides helping the industry as a whole by raising awareness and interest for branded items, perhaps the most important thing this project demonstrated is that using promotional products in marketing gets results.

It cost us a total of $2,510 - including the products, packaging and postage - to send 11 items to each of the 26 reporters, which resulted in the MSNBC spot that reached over 200,000 viewers. Doing the math, we can say that we reached this large group for an investment of just over one penny per viewer – an impressive ROI. We also have discussions going with other reporters, so the ROI isn’t completely in.

I’m proud of the progress we’ve made with our aggressive public relations and messaging campaigns, leveraging the presence of ASI Shows! in five major cities, using the latest video technology, and hiring communications professionals we pay to represent the industry - not just ASI.

In addition to the MSNBC segment, here are two more recent developments:

  • Television. At ASI Show! ® Dallas last month, WFAA Channel 8 ran a story demonstrating hot products, like the magnetic Sonic Rocks from Prime Resources Corp. (asi/79530), in a segment that reached over 190,000 people. Click here to watch the clip.
  • Newspapers. Newsday in New York published a story to an audience of over 550,000 about how to use unique promotional items to build a successful corporate gift-giving program. Click here to read the article.

We've also updated our Website, at www.asicentral.com/mediacoverage, so you can read or view clips of the coverage. I encourage you to share some of the stories with your clients or potential clients, especially the new MSNBC story, since these are third parties explaining why promotional products work.

If there’s anything ASI can do to help your business, please let me know anytime. My e-mail address is tim.andrews@asicentral.com.

Warm regards,

TA