Promo Insiders: Breaking Down the Details of ASI Research’s European Promo Market Study
ASI’s Michele Bell and Nate Kucsma share the trends and most important findings from ASI Research’s fourth annual study of the European promo market.
For many European promotional products companies, the story of 2025 wasn’t about major growth or truly tanked sales – it was about maintaining some level of stability in the face of economic headwinds, geopolitical challenges and buyer uncertainty.
That was one of the key findings of this year’s just-released European market study from ASI Research, which estimated the size of the European promotional products industry in 2025 at $14.8 billion. The sales figure beat last year’s metric with low single-digit growth, but that didn’t come without caveats.
“You used to be able to put forth a certain amount of effort and expect gains of 10% or 15%,” said Nate Kucsma, ASI’s senior executive director of research, who spearheaded the study. “Now, people have to work really hard just to maintain where they are. That’s a huge challenge.”
In this week’s episode of Promo Insiders, Kucsma and ASI’s Senior Vice President of Editorial, Education and Global Alliances Michele Bell join Counselor’s Data Analytics Editor Hannah Rosenberger to break down the most important takeaways from the European sales report – including advice amid the continued global interconnectedness of the industry.
Key Takeaways
• ASI’s Nate Kucsma, Michele Bell and Hannah Rosenberger unpack the findings from ASI’s newly released 2026 European Promo Market Study. Together, they explore the size of the European promotional products market, the factors shaping its performance and what the data means for the industry.
• The European Promo Market Study used economic data, industry benchmarks and feedback from promotional products professionals across Europe to develop and refine its market estimates over the study’s four iterations.
• Europe’s promotional products industry continued to face a challenging business environment in 2025, with geopolitical uncertainty, inflation, supply chain disruptions and varying government policies creating pressure on marketing budgets. Many companies are working harder simply to maintain existing business.
• Germany remains Europe’s largest promotional products market, but its dependence on manufacturing and the automotive industry has slowed its recovery, while the U.K. has followed a different path after navigating both COVID-19 and Brexit.
• Several Scandinavian countries stood out for stronger growth, highlighting how consumer confidence and broader economic optimism can influence promotional products spending. The conversation explores why sentiment often plays as large a role as traditional economic indicators in driving marketing investment.
• The speakers explain why European buyers are placing greater emphasis on measurable ROI, creating more pressure for suppliers and distributors to demonstrate the value of promotional products. That shift is influencing purchasing decisions across many markets.
• Although Europe spans dozens of countries, it should not be viewed as a single promotional products market. Differences in economic structure, regulation and customer behavior make each country’s opportunities and challenges unique. For companies looking to expand internationally, success depends on understanding local business cultures rather than treating Europe as a single market.