July 1 marked my two-year anniversary as president and CEO of this amazing trade association. While I’ve worked for PPAI in a number of roles since 1998, these past two years have been the most challenging, exciting, rewarding and fulfilling.
I’ve logged hundreds of thousands of air and ground miles meeting with members, buyers, legislators and media (usually with PPAI past-chairs Steven Meyer, MAS, and Eric Ekstrand, MAS+, or current chair Marc Simon in tow) in offices, warehouses, factories, hotel meeting rooms, auditoriums, restaurants and even in living rooms and garages—anywhere we could get people to sit long enough to hear the story of the power of promotional products. There’s a good chance we’ve met at a trade show, a regional meeting or some other industry event. If not yet, hopefully we’ll meet sometime soon.
When I accepted this role in 2011, I could have never imagined the level of support and encouragement I would receive from so many industry professionals. And while I appreciate the support you’ve shown me and the PPAI team, I am equally thankful for how you questioned, challenged, motivated and inspired us to do more, perform better, move faster and lead. I invite you to continue to reach out to us with ideas, comments, suggestions and information that will help us grow the visibility, viability, credibility and community that make this industry so dynamic, important, relevant and fun.
Many of you are recipients of my informal Quarterly Update emails where I try to offer a more personal perspective of the Association, our industry and the global events that affect us all. In reviewing the updates since 2012, it is clear that the past year has been a busy one for your Association and our industry. Let’s take a look at four key initiatives covered in the updates.
The PPAI Strategic Plan
In June 2012, the PPAI board of directors, under the leadership of then-Board Chairman Meyer, approved the 2012-2014 Strategic Plan (www.ppai.org/about). The plan identified four simple yet powerful goals: Deliver Great Member Value, Advocate for the Industry, Engage the Global Marketplace and Manage an Efficient, Progressive and Professional Organization.
Because people respect what you inspect, PPAI’s Strategic Plan goals are tied to every PPAI staff member’s evaluation (including my own) in a measurable and meaningful way. If you’re interested in learning how we do that or about the strategic plan, email me at PaulB@ppai.org or call me at 972-258-3050.
Trade Shows
Recognizing that PPAI’s distributor membership has grown by nearly 40 percent since 2010, (since the launch of the Power of Two relationship with SAGE in January 2011) and that not every industry professional attends The PPAI Expo, we’ve adjusted our trade-show strategy to focus on reaching PPAI members where they live and work.
To that end, we announced our partnership with the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) to create Expo East, a show focused attendees in the eastern U.S. The show was successfully launched this past May.
We also expanded our Power of Two collaboration with SAGE by supporting the SAGE Show (formerly the MAPPS Show) which experienced its successful launch in February of this year. Our support of that event included developing the SAGE Show education day, aggressive attendee marketing and driving the exhibit sales efforts.
With the highly successful, long-running PPAI Expo in Las Vegas in January, PPAI has created a trade-show schedule that now covers the entire country in the first half of the year. Be sure to mark your 2014 calendars for The PPAI Expo, January 13-17 in Las Vegas; The SAGE Show, April 23-25 in Fort Worth, Texas; and Expo East, May 19-21 in Atlantic City.
Promotional Products Work!™ Week
In February, hundreds of companies united to educate and inform key stakeholders and create awareness for the proven power of promotional products.
PPW!W participants marked the weeklong celebration with events that demonstrated the importance of promotional products as an effective advertising medium and communications tool, and the benefits of working with qualified promotional products professionals.
To coincide with the event launch, we re-released the “People Love Promotional Products” video, which includes new data from our latest consumer study, The Influence Of Promotional Products On Consumer Behavior (see below). The video was shared 85 times and viewed more than 5,500 times on Facebook. On YouTube, it was viewed nearly 1,000 times, which prompted a spike in views of other promotional products videos.
And PPAI’s news release was picked up by multiple publications that reach millions of readers. In addition, there were 362 news posts and 1,031 shares of videos on Twitter. The week before and during PPW!W, PPAI’s end-buyer website recorded 1,711 visits and 5,600 page views, and PPW!W ads in PPB Newslink were clicked through, on average, more than 4,100 times.
I thank all the industry volunteers who contributed their time and expertise to the week’s success. We have already begun looking ahead to next year’s event, to be held April 21-25, 2014.
New Buyer Research
Earlier this year PPAI released a new study: The Influence of Promotional Products on Consumer Behavior (www.ppai.org/inside-ppai/research), which demonstrates that advertisers and marketers, now more than ever, can look to promotional products to deliver the highest rate of reach, recall and return on investment in the advertising industry, as the most cost-effective way to impact a targeted audience in a tangible, long-lasting and memorable manner. The results demonstrated that promotional products are used to educate, highlight safety awareness, support worthy causes, recognize and reward employee achievements, sign legislation and inspire action.
Highlights of the research revealed that:
88 percent recall the advertiser on promotional products
85 percent have done business with the advertiser after receiving a promotional item
83 percent like promotional products
81 percent keep them because they are useful
53 percent use promotional products once a week
47 percent keep them for more than a year
I invite and encourage you to read this newest, compelling PPAI research on our impact on consumer behavior and incorporate the powerful findings into your case histories, collateral materials and promotions. Promotional products work! Help us spread the word.
PPAI exists to grow the visibility, viability, credibility and community of our industry.
These four new initiatives—a revitalized and updated Strategic Plan, a revamped trade-show strategy, Promotional Products Work! Week and the new buyer research—are just the latest examples of PPAI’s outreach, education and advocacy efforts, the full list is extensive.
And finally, let me know if you would like to be added to the list of industry professionals who receive my informal Quarterly Update by sending me an email.
Thanks again for your continued support. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you grow your business.