Promotional Products Sales Up 5.9 Percent In PPAI Survey
Promotional Products Business Magazine
The promotional products industry is showing signs of recovery from the recent economic downturn, according to data compiled by PPAI’s Annual Estimate of Distributor Sales. The Association’s assessment found that distributors sold $16,560,162,075 in promotional products in 2010, a gain of $921,590,607 over the previous year. An annual survey of member and nonmember companies, conducted by PPAI this spring, found a 5.9-percent increase in sales among distributors in 2010. This performance is consistent with the improving fortunes observed in competing media. PPAI’s findings, along with favorable legislative action, trending market conditions—including signs of continued growth in the first quarter of 2011—lead experts to express cautious optimism for 2011.

“Some market indicators are pointing toward an economic recovery, albeit slowly, for our nation and the promotional products industry as well,” says Steve Slagle, CAE, PPAI president and CEO. “The growth is largely due to the smart business practices of distributors, suppliers and end buyers that have set in motion our industry’s recovery. However, the path forward is a challenged one. To take full advantage of the momentum we have in early 2011, it is essential that we all continue to tell the compelling reasons why our medium is the most powerful and effective choice of savvy marketers. Our research provides many clues about the superiority of promotional products in creating brand awareness and goodwill, as well as communicating important and often life-saving information.”

Both large and small distributor companies reported revenue increases in 2010, according to study results. While the industry overall grew by 5.89 percent, larger companies with sales of $2.5 million or more experienced an increase of 2.95 percent over 2009, while smaller companies saw an increase of 8.86 percent. Smaller firms achieving a market share of 51.1 percent.

Go Ahead, Take An Ad Risk
The New York Times
One of the hardest things to do in business is to take a risk with your advertising. I’ve made ad campaign presentations to fiercely competitive, Type A owners and here’s what happens:

A proposed campaign is presented that meets the creative brief, nails the marketing objectives and is not similar to anything that has been done in the company’s industry. Minute one, the chief executive’s face is euphoric, almost giddy. Minute two, more of the same as the C.E.O. imagines how far a truly new campaign might take the company. And then we get into the third minute and the rush of possibility recedes, deflated by the annoying arrival of self-doubt.

I know how hard it can be to take a risk, to try something different. I’ve been there, sweat behind the knees and all. It’s not pretty. The one mental mechanism that does seem to help me take the leap is reminding myself that sticking to the same actions is very likely to produce the same results. Is that what the situation calls for? That’s typically the mechanism that convinces me to move in a different direction. Of course, I also tend to look at the office’s lucky troll doll to see if its hair has gone white. I was reminded of this recently when the Austin Humane Society engaged our agency for help coming up with a new campaign.

NFL Lockout Threatens Pepsi, Mars, P&G’s In Store Marketing
Advertising Age
If you think the TV advertisers are sweating the NFL lockout, try talking to the in-store marketing folks.

After spending millions in advance on multibrand, in-store promotional deals with the National Football League, Procter & Gamble, Mars and PepsiCo, among others, now find themselves faced with the possibility of a truncated season that could do more damage to their plans and brands than those of the networks and TV buyers.

Networks can schedule alternate programming and marketers can apply media analytics to follow their target audiences wherever they go when they're not watching NFL football. But shopper-marketing events have calendars set a year or more in advance. Product has to be produced and displays have to be filled, regardless of whether games get played.

NFL sponsor Snickers is plowing ahead with its in-store promotion plans, although Debra Sandler, chief consumer officer for Mars Chocolate North America, said there's a chance the marketer could "scale back a few accounts."

"There is going to be a season," she said. "The issue is how late it will start and how it will impact our business." Normally, Mars uses TV ads to plug in-store promos, but the media buying will get tricky if the season is delayed.

8 Ways to Inject Your Brand with Mojo
Marketing Daily News
It seems like we could all do with a bit more mojo these days—something to get things kick-started and steaming forward again. The economy has certainly been lacking it for a while and the people who are still employed are so stretched that they would do anything for a little extra mojo to turbo boost their performance. When it comes to injecting brands with a bit of extra in market zip, mojo works pretty well there, too.

So what is mojo in the context of a brand? It is the energy and drive that comes from within that allows a brand to keep growing and kick the competition in the butt. When a brand has mojo it has stature in the market and draws flocks of evangelists like bees to a honey pot.

So how can a brand get a little extra mojo to do everything from revving up its success rate behind new product innovations to identifying a cause that it can really own and capitalize on?

For those people in the marketing realm who don't like to be faced with just one option, there are actually eight different sources of mojo that a brand can tap into—so basically, whatever a brand's weak spot at a particular point in time, there is a mojo source that will probably provide the answer.

Chicago Blackhawks Get Stanley Cup Ad Without Being in Finals
AdWeek
The Stanley Cup Finals begin Wednesday, with the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks squaring off for the NHL title. But Reebok has a soft spot for the Chicago Blackhawks, who lost to the Canucks three rounds ago—but who still get their very own Finals ad. Obviously, since their season is over, the spot—produced in-house by Reebok—focuses on the team's preparations for next year. It shows the Blackhawks players working out in their training facility in their Reebok Speedwick fitness apparel, getting a head start on not being eliminated in the conference quarterfinals next year. In a nice touch, the Stanley Cup program being handed out at the Finals contains a Reebok ad with a code you can scan with your smartphone, which leads to the ad—allowing Bruins and Canucks fans to rejoice that their season is ongoing.

P&G’s Billion Dollar Brands
Cincinnati.com
Procter & Gamble has built a business around selling brands that bring a billion dollars or more—each—to the company’s top line. Its vaunted billion-dollar brands—nearly two dozen of them that sell at least a billion, or in some cases, much more—are the core of its business. With that much on the line, what’s going to be the next billion-dollar baby?

It likely will be a brand we in the United States have never heard of—Prestobarba. Prestobarba is a brand of disposable razors sold in Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, and it’s on the runway to be P&G’s next billion-dollar brand.