ASI Announces Winners Of Annual Promo Industry Intern Essay Contest

TREVOSE, PA – September 10, 2020 – The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI) today announced  the student winners of its annual industry-wide promotional products intern essay contest.

Cameron Dubin won a $1,000 scholarship from ASI and Katelyn Drake won a ThinkBook laptop courtesy of ASI Business Savings Program partner Lenovo. Dubin is a student at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business who interned at Axis Promotions (asi/128263). Drake is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who interned at Proforma Surf City Promo (asi/491356).

The ASI Summer Internship Program is free to ASI members who hire one or more interns to work at their company. This year, owing to the pandemic, most of the interns worked remotely. Since ASI started its program in 2016 to attract more young professionals to the industry and get them excited about the power of promotional products, over 1,100 interns have participated. During the summer of 2020, 174 interns worked at 13 supplier and 125 distributor companies.

“While facing unprecedented challenges, our winners persevered, figuring out new ways to learn about our industry while mastering job skills that will serve them well into the future,” said Timothy M. Andrews (@Tim_Andrews_ASI), president and chief executive officer of ASI. “All of the promo companies who hired college interns this summer are also to be commended for participating in ASI’s intern program while conducting business during a global health crisis. Together, we found a way forward.”

ASI supplies participating interns (#PromoInternASI) with training webinars, free access to ESP^®, digital subscriptions to ASI magazines, a gift pack, certificate of completion and the chance to compete for a scholarship by writing about what they learned over the summer.

Further, ASI Marketing Manager Christine Shaw, who manages the industry intern program, helped the interns bond, interact and learn together remotely through the ASI Intern Facebook Group and numerous digital webinars.

To read both winning essays in full, click here.

Excerpt from winning essay by Cameron Dubin:

• Six months ago, face masks, hand sanitizer, and face shields were not everyday items. However, flash forward to March of 2020, masks are essential everyday objects. Furthermore, their location on peoples’ face presents a blank canvas of opportunity for businesses to place their logo front and center to enhance their brand. The promotional industry is constantly evolving and adapting to fit the needs of clients, even in a pandemic.

Excerpt from the winning essay by Katelyn Drake:

• Over my time participating in this internship, I learned the importance of branding for a company. Branding has the power to make a name and reputation for one’s company, which can have monumental impacts on sales and business. Through the use of promotional products, I learned how one can build and create a brand that will lead to success, no matter what business one owns.

For information on hiring an intern and participating in ASI’s 2021 industry-wide summer internship program, please contact Christine Shaw at cshaw@asicentral.com.

About ASIThe Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI^®; asicentral.com) serves a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors and decorators in the $25.8 billion promotional products industry. ASI’s flagship product, the technology platform ESP^®, manages the industry’s entire supply and marketing chain. ASI also produces award-winning digital and print content, live events and educational programs that enable companies in 53 countries to be more efficient, productive and profitable. ASI’s Counselor^® magazine provides the most authoritative business content in the industry, and the ASI Certification Program features 500+ live and online education courses for over 40,000 professionals. The company, family-owned and-operated since 1962, is proud to have been consistently ranked among the “Best Places to Work” in Philadelphia and Bucks County, PA.