PRESS RELEASES

ASI Magazines Win Three National Awards for Excellence

<p>TREVOSE, PA – December 18, 2009   Advertising Specialty Institute® announced today that ASI magazines won three national awards for editorial excellence from FOLIO magazine. The FOLIO Eddie Awards are the top awards in the largest competition for magazines.  ASI magazines were</p>

TREVOSE, PA - December 18, 2009

PRESS RELEASES

ASI Magazines Win Three National Awards for Excellence

TREVOSE, PA – December 18, 2009 - Advertising Specialty Institute^® announced today that ASI magazines won three national awards for editorial excellence from FOLIO: magazine.

The FOLIO: Eddie Awards are the top awards in the largest competition for magazines. ASI magazines were recognized among several legacy publications throughout North America, including Fortune, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.

A panel of 60 judges examined more than 2,000 entries and selected the most deserving ones among 95 categories. Counselor magazine’s “Ad Specialties Across America” piece (May 2009) won a Gold Eddie Award for “Best Single Article,” Advantages magazine’s “Tips from Sales Superstars” article (April 2009) won a Bronze Eddie for “Best Single Article” and Wearables magazine won a Bronze Eddie for “Best Issue” for October 2008.

“We’re delighted our publications were once again recognized among the most prestigious magazines being published today,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “Our editorial staff produces outstanding work and consistently serves the industry through top-notch features that help distributors, suppliers and decorators learn, grow and sell.”

“If you’re an advertiser, you should feel great that readers are engaged in the content of these award-winning publications and are paying attention to your ads,” Andrews said. “If you’re a reader, know that in your hands are the best magazines you can get to help you be informed and increase sales in the advertising specialty industry.”

Counselor’s “Ad Specialties Across America” reported on special events over six months in each of the 50 United States, from rodeos to dental conferences. The feature demonstrated how ad specialty items were used for marketing and promotions at each stop.

Advantages’ “Tips from Sales Superstars” included the best sales advice from million-dollar salespeople, plus ideas on how they recession-proof their sales efforts.

The winning issue of Wearables was selected for its feature on recreating runway looks with industry products, as well as articles on becoming a consultant and how to sell brand-name apparel.

This is the third year in a row Counselor has won a Gold FOLIO: Award. This year, Counselor also received its third consecutive Jesse H. Neal Award from American Business Media, considered the “Pulitzer Prize” of the business press, and an award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. In total, ASI publications have won 11 national editorial awards.

To read the award-winning articles, click here. For more information, contact Rich Fairfield, executive vice president and publisher for ASI’s six magazines, at rfairfield@asicentral.com.

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 26,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties. Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 22,000 ASI distributor firms. Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from more than 3,500 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers. ASI provides catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers e-commerce, marketing and selling tools. Visit ASI online at asicentral.com and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, the CEO’s blog and the ASI Social Network.

# # #