In mid-March, Quad (asi/232306) announced that it would join the promo space. The multibillion-dollar marketing service provider already had a footprint in the print world but will now launch a branded merchandise division focusing on the promotional products side of things.

Oliver Kimberley, general manager of Quad’s managed services division, under which the company’s promotional products division will be housed, explained what the move into promo signifies for the company, and how the addition of promo is a natural progression for the company and signifier of the promo industry’s potential.

“I joined the company in April, and I was really impressed by the full suite of services that Quad could provide; however, I did see a little gap in there,” Kimberley said. “I thought the branded solutions space, that promo space, was something our clients were likely asking for and needed, but we weren’t providing.”

Kimberley also saw the branding initiatives in-house at Quad, as even before it launched its own promo division, the firm did a good job of providing branded products to advertise the company.

“We’re proud and good at branding our own company,” Kimberley said. “I thought, ‘Why could that not be an extension for our clients, too?’”

Kimberley outlines the steps that Quad took to get into the promo space, such as its investment in additional talent to provide the necessary expertise. This includes adding industry veteran Wendy Knapp as vice president of sales for the company’s branded division. Knapp has previously served as executive vice president of sales and marketing for iClick (asi/62124), formerly a Counselor Top 40 supplier, and as senior director of sports marketing and sponsorship activation at Counselor Top 40 distributor BDA (asi/137616). Quad also brought on Catherine Iannuzzi as vice president of branded solutions for the managed services division. Iannuzzi previously worked at Counselor Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) as vice president of enterprise accounts, and former Counselor Top 40 distributor InnerWorkings (asi/168860) as senior account manager.

Kimberley spoke on how adding promo now creates that “one-stop” service provider that distributors and suppliers are looking to provide their customers.

“I would talk about the broader marketing experience, which includes creative, it includes media, it includes production,” he said. “And then production more broadly breaks down into direct mail, in-store, POS, packaging, branded goods. When you sort of formulate all of this together, what you find is for procurement and marketing, this is all of the things that they’re trying to solve. And if you can call one company to get the answers to many of those questions, and we can do some of the heavy lifting, absolutely we think there’s a huge play there.”

He points out, however, that it’s not as simple as just jumping into promo for print brokers. Kimberley is quick to mention that promo expertise is what inspired them to make hires such as Knapp.

“We think there is a lot of respected subject matter expertise,” he said. “There is a lot of legacy knowledge that is required to do a good job when you’re providing a white-glove service. I think bringing that expertise in is the key to making this successful.”