TREVOSE, PA – February 25, 2008 - Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, today launched marketing resources Websites for distributors and suppliers, at www.thenumberthatmatters.com/marketing.

The Websites provide more than 20 marketing and sales tools for advertising specialty industry professionals to use to improve their businesses, including a customizable end-buyer sales sheet, lead tracking sheet, end-buyer research, Internet marketing advice, an email version of Successful Promotions magazine to send to clients, and a link to the ASI Social Network – www.asinetwork.com.

The ASI Social Network is an online community for ASI members to connect and share advice, ideas and business experiences.  Users can create a customized Web page and upload photos and videos, and can also join related groups and post comments.  More than 1,600 ASI members have joined during its introduction phase. 

The Websites also feature marketing tips for subscribers to ESP Online.  Users can learn more about the new Event Planner - a tool to help customers select and buy appropriate advertising specialties for events - and can learn how to target specific prospects to increase sales.     

“ASI spends over $1.3 million each year on education for our members,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI.  “Our marketing team has worked hard to provide valuable knowledge and useful resources on these sites to help distributors and suppliers increase leads and manage their businesses better every day.”

“The sites also allow users to log-on whenever they wish and to use them often,” Andrews said.  “They are creative, educational and interactive online spaces that are also fun and represent the forward-thinking technology that ASI is known for in the advertising specialty industry.” 

Reactions from users have been positive.

“The type of information found on the new marketing sites from ASI is certainly valuable to American Pacific Promotions, but probably more so to our salespeople on the street,” said Terry Woodhams, president of American Pacific Promotions (asi/120677).  “Our industry is all about organization, and many people may have forgotten about some of the marketing processes, tools and tactics found on these sites.  I liked what I saw and found them useful.” 

“The new marketing sites are untapped resources, not only for distributors, but for suppliers as well,” said Bobby Lehew, director of operations for Robyn Promotions (asi/309656).  “A particularly useful component is the ASI Social Network, which provides much more personal collaboration in the industry.  Participants are able to put a face with a name in an easy-to-use format and it allows me to contribute and review ideas other distributors post.”

The ASI marketing resources Websites are available at no charge to distributors and suppliers in the advertising specialty industry and new materials and features are being added continuously.

Visit the new marketing resources Websites from ASI, at www.thenumberthatmatters.com/marketing.  For more information, contact Susanne Curry, vice president of marketing for ASI, at scurry@asicentral.com.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of over 25,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to over 21,000 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 www.asicentral.com.

Contact

Dawn Marie,
Executive director of corporate communications

Email industry news and press releases to Chris Ruvo, Digital News Director and Promogram Editor at cruvo@asicentral.com

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