There could be no ambiguity in the message: Bullying deserves a red card.

In soccer, a red card signals a serious infraction and results in a player’s ejection. Children’s Mercy Hospital, based in the Kansas City, MO, metro area, partnered with local Major League Soccer (MLS) team Sporting KC on an anti-bullying campaign encouraging students across Kansas and Missouri to “Call It When You See It” and give bullying a red card.

INM Marketing Group (asi/229643) produced a range of print and promo items that made the anti-bullying campaign partnership between Children’s Mercy Hospital and Sporting KC a hit with students throughout Kansas and Missouri.

The campaign included a red card motif, featuring members of the Sporting KC MLS team, with anti-bullying messages.

INM Marketing Group (asi/229643) brought it to life with an integrated campaign that blended print and promotional hard goods, such as trading cards, bookmarks, posters, coloring pages, pencils and stress relievers, creating a wide-ranging promotion with a strong message.

The distributor captured the attention of the end-users – in this case elementary and middle school students – by creating products that looked like things they were already interested in. “When you talk about bookmarks, that’s not super exciting,” says LeighAnne Allen, creative director for INM Marketing Group. “But since this was at the height of popularity for baseball and Pokémon cards, we produced packs of trading cards.” The sets included 10 Sporting KC player cards that featured their stats, but also had information about the campaign.

“It didn’t cost that much to print trading cards,” Allen says. “And I think the inclusion of the program in multiple languages, and Braille, is really what helped it take off.”

The program started small, but grew to more than 34,000 students in the Kansas City area receiving products from the campaign, including window decals.

Indeed, the campaign grew from five pilot schools to 54 participating schools in 2023, and then to 82 in 2025. INM nearly quadrupled its total output, from just over 45,000 pieces in 2023 to more than 164,000 in 2025. During the 2025-26 school year, more than 34,500 students in Kansas and Missouri received products from this campaign.

Maggie Braden, marketing manager for INM Marketing Group, says the expansion into several languages showed how impactful the campaign was. “That growth demonstrated that the campaign was not only reaching more students across Kansas and Missouri,” Braden notes, “but also more inclusive and accessible to the audiences it was designed to serve.”

With more than 130,000 total print pieces produced in multiple languages and more than 33,600 promotional hard goods delivered to nearly 100 locations, this campaign’s execution required precision and organization, says Allen.

“It was a lot of work,” she says. “It was a huge amount of data for us to employ. The whole program was crazy from start to finish. It was very labor-intensive, and it required a ton of spreadsheeting.”

“The inclusion of the program in multiple languages, and Braille, is really what helped it take off.” LeighAnne Allen, INM Marketing (asi/229643)

INM, a 2026 Counselor Best Place to Work, worked with a print supplier in the area, and once all the products were housed in the distributor’s warehouse, the company packaged and sent them to each location.

The hard work didn’t go unnoticed: The campaign was recognized as a 2023 MLS Activation of the Year finalist. However, Allen says that was just “icing on the cake,” and that the real validation came from the connection that the products had with the young end-users, and the hope they provided for a better future for kids.

Even after INM’s relationship amicably ended with Sporting KC, Children’s Mercy Hospital kept the program alive with INM overseeing the campaign. “They didn’t have to, because our relationship with Sporting didn’t dictate that anymore, but they continued to choose us because of how easy we made it,” Allen says. “The program is a well-oiled machine at this point.” – Brendan Menapace

Sometimes, thinking outside the box means putting a bunch of items inside one.

It’s something Counselor Top 40 distributor ePromos (asi/188515) understood when it released its curated 12 Days of Holiday Advent Gift Box, customized with the company’s refreshed logo and brand identity.

The concept tapped into the cultural zeitgeist: the ePromos team had noticed that Advent calendar unboxing videos were going viral among brands and social media influencers alike.

“We started to brainstorm what that could look like, turning it on its head and planning for a new year with a promo advent calendar,” explains McKenna Klineyoung, senior marketing manager, brand & integrated campaigns at ePromos. “Luckily, we have amazing supplier partners who took these crazy ideas and were able to help us bring them to life.”

The 12 Days of Holiday Advent Gift Box from ePromos (asi/188515) features a collection of products – including a journal, drinkware, tech products and food gifts – from a variety of leading suppliers.

The gifts were sent to roughly 400 of ePromos’ top clients, as well as its employees. Riffing on the traditional Advent calendar for 12 days of Christmas, ePromos included a dozen items curated from Counselor Top 40 suppliers Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125), HPG (asi/61966), PCNA (asi/66887), SanMar (asi/84863) and Counselor Best Place to Work Midnite Snax (asi/71685). The product assortment included, among other items, a wireless speaker, Bluetooth tracker, NFC can cooler, winter beanie, tumbler and chocolate truffle box.

But to say this was merely a promo campaign would be underselling it, according to Klineyoung.

“This was an integrated campaign across so many different channels, including email, social media, digital catalogs, a dedicated landing page and the physical gifting experience,” she explains. “That was a huge piece of our thought process and our marketing strategy.”

“This was an integrated campaign across so many different channels, including email, social media, digital catalogs, a dedicated landing page and the physical gifting experience.” McKenna Klineyoung, ePromos (asi/188515)

ePromos saw it as a dual opportunity to not only show off its new brand identity, but to also highlight what it could provide to end-buyers. “By posting on social channels, we built this ‘fear of missing out’ into the campaign because we posted the box and its contents that our clients were receiving,” she said. “It showed them that we partner with a number of suppliers and what we’re capable of creating together.”

Turning this vision into reality was no simple task. The distributor’s merchandising department selected the products to include in the box, while the creative team developed the imprint and box designs and connected the project to the brand’s digital efforts. The operations, programs and sales team were also instrumental throughout the process, says Klineyoung. She also credits ePromos’ executive team, “who lets us dream big and run these types of programs.”

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ePromos says the campaign influenced more than 32,800 contacts and generated $130,000 in associated deal value. It achieved an email open rate of 35% and garnered over 14,000 social impressions. In addition, the mailer sparked an immediate wave of enthusiastic, unsolicited feedback from clients. “I LOVED it!” raved one client. “I also did not wait to open all 12 boxes. It was too suspenseful.” Many recipients reached out proactively to explore opportunities for their own programs.  

“What began as a holiday gifting initiative quickly evolved into a sales and relationship-building tool,” says Klineyoung. “Client responses led to product quote requests, pricing inquiries and discussions about future promotional campaigns, demonstrating the power of a thoughtfully executed branded experience. The overwhelmingly positive feedback confirmed the campaign’s strategy of combining memorable physical touchpoints with integrated digital marketing to create lasting brand impressions and drive engagement.” – Tara Lerman

This is the era of ultra-personalization, with custom accessories for water bottles, bags and even phones becoming everyday expressions of personal style.

So it’s no wonder that Dutch Bros’ blind-bag custom phone hippers were a hit. Working with print and promo distributor Premier Press (asi/298581), the coffee chain gave away 300,000 blind bags last December that contained one of three figurines: a bulldog, a cat or a Dutch Bros coffee cup.

Premier Press (asi/298581) worked with coffee chain Dutch Bros to create a trio of adorable custom phone hippers that were an instant hit with customers.

Phone hippers are small figurines that users can stick to the top of their phones, as well as other devices or flat objects. The trend was popularized by mini-Sonny Angel figurines designed to peek out from behind phones.

“They’re just super cute,” says Laura Mazy, director of marketing at Portland, OR-based Premier Press.

Across dozens of participating locations, customers simply had to order a medium or large drink to receive the product. The social media announcement revealing when the figurines would be available generated considerable excitement. “Canceled my doctor’s appointment at 2pm just for this,” one Instagram user commented. “OMG this is amazing and I need,” wrote another. Dutch Bros had to suspend online orders two hours after the drop in order to keep up with demand.

Without a recognizable mascot to draw from, Premier Press searched through previous Dutch Bros. marketing efforts to come up with the figurines for the blind bag giveaway: a dog, a cat and a coffee cup.

The blind-bag format (customers didn’t know which figurine they had received until they opened the package) capitalized on a popular trend while also streamlining operations for the Dutch Bros team, says Premier Press Account Manager Amy Patterson. “They’re trying to get people through the drive-through very quickly,” Patterson says. “And customers might beg the barista, ‘Oh, I want the pink one.’ The workers won’t have time to rummage around to find the right thing.” The blind-bag distribution also created an air of exclusivity around the product, encouraging customers to come back and order again if they missed out on the figurine they wanted.

Dutch Bros doesn’t have an official mascot, but Premier Press – which regularly works with the coffee shop – was able to turn to other projects it had done with the chain for inspiration. “Once or twice a month, they give out stickers, and they had a dog sticker and a cat sticker that were some of their most popular characters,” says Jenn Diana, project manager at Premier Press. “These are characters that the Dutch family already knows and loves and we turned them into something they could take with them.”

“People get more connected to a three-dimensional object than a two-dimensional image, especially when it has a face.” Amy Patterson, Premier Press (asi/298581)

The original plan called for a single figurine: a corgi. It was later changed to a bulldog (which might or might not have been influenced by the fact that a member of the Dutch Bros marketing team owns one). The branding touches were thoughtfully considered; the animals wore Dutch Bros hats, and each figurine featured the coffee shop’s signature windmill logo on the back.

Perfecting the complex promotion took nine months, from conception to distribution. The product rendering went through dozens of revisions among Premier Press, its suppliers and Dutch Bros as the team refined minute details – down to the rolls of fat on the bulldog’s back, Diana says.

Aimed at coffee drinkers ages 16 to 24, the campaign succeeded by tapping into two trends popular with that demographic: personalized accessories for everyday items and blind bags. The figurines don’t have names yet, but they will in the next few months, says Diana, as Dutch Bros and Premier Press look for other ways to build on their popularity.

“People get more connected to a three-dimensional object than a two-dimensional image, especially when it has a face,” says Patterson. “These characters are already known and loved by the audience.” – Emily Wilson

What’s not to love about a self-promotion that led to a 16% overall sales increase in the month after the campaign launched?

That’s just one of the impressive results from a Valentine’s Day influencer campaign created by Spector & Co. (asi/88660). The project generated 9,563 impressions and 746 engagements while doubling social shares – all on a $650 budget. That works out to just $0.87 per engagement, making the campaign a highly cost-effective way for Spector to position itself as a creative partner to distributors.

Items in the nostalgia-driven, rom-com themed Valentine’s Day influencer campaign from Spector & Co. (asi/88660) included a VHS-style journal (ST4143), 20-oz. stainless-steel water bottle (DW319), rubberized aluminum pen (G4057) and custom packaging (P588).

The curated Valentine’s Day-themed kit featured a journal (ST4143), water bottle (DW319), pen (G4057) and custom packaging (P588) with a nostalgic rom-com theme that highlighted Spector’s decoration expertise. The supplier chose its best-selling Neoskin hardcover journal, but gave the decoration a twist by mixing debossed branding with a four-color process dome to evoke a long-lost VHS tape. “This was the item that got the most love,” says Alejandra Alvarez Martinez, digital marketing specialist at Spector.

The other items in the kit were selected just as thoughtfully. The 20-oz. Top Notch Natural stainless-steel bottle stood out for its red color and branding potential, while the Atlas pen (new at the time of the campaign) offered the largest imprint area of any of the company’s writing instruments, thanks to its distinctive shape.

Alvarez Martinez says the campaign succeeded by combining a creative, nostalgia-driven concept with a strategic influencer program that generated a sense of exclusivity. Seven industry influencers created reels, stories and LinkedIn posts that amplified the effort, driving additional engagement and user-generated content. “Rather than Spector saying ‘we’re creative,’ industry leaders showed it organically through their own content, lending credibility and reach that traditional advertising simply can’t replicate,” Alvarez Martinez explains. “This campaign was as much about planting a long-term brand perception as it was about February engagement numbers.”

“This campaign was as much about planting a long-term brand perception as it was about February engagement numbers.” Alejandra Alvarez Martinez, Spector & Co. (asi/88660)

Judging by their feedback, distributor clients were smitten. Comments included “The VHS cover journal is everything,” “That pen is precious,” “Absolutely everything about this is fab,” and “Spector sure does things on a WOW level!”

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“Beyond the metrics, this campaign represented something bigger for Spector – it was a deliberate step toward building a community around the brand,” Alvarez Martinez says.

By working with established industry influencers, Spector aimed to show distributors how creative storytelling and advanced branding techniques could turn a product kit into a compelling client experience. The Valentine’s kit served as a practical example of the kind of polished campaign distributors could adapt for their own customers. “When a distributor can present a client with a cohesive, beautifully branded experience like the Valentine’s kit, it elevates their reputation too,” Alvarez Martinez notes. “That’s the relationship Spector is building – one where our success is directly tied to theirs.”– Joan Chaykin

Yokohama wanted to connect its popular Geolandar tire line with the great outdoors – helping to protect and preserve the natural spaces that off-roaders love to explore.

So, the brand turned to Counselor Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) to assist in rolling out a line of sustainably sourced technical apparel, custom decals and rugged lifestyle accessories, all paired with a robust giveback element where 5% of top-line proceeds were donated directly to the California State Parks Foundation.

Counselor Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) worked with client Yokohama to produce T-shirts, hoodies, hats and other gear promoting its Geolandar tire line – all of which included a 5% giveback to the California State Parks Foundation.

“The Geolandar crowd loves getting outdoors, so the giveback element felt completely natural,” says Ashley Gonzales, senior manager of national accounts at BAMKO. “Partnering with the California State Parks Foundation really hit home with customers.”

Caps and patches were among the products BAMKO (asi/131431) sourced for the Geolandar project.

BAMKO has been working with Yokohama for over five years as a full-service partner, managing both its B2B and B2C stores, as well as pop-up, on-site activations. Using graphics created by Yokohama’s design agency, BAMKO works behind the scenes on production, webstore design, warehousing and fulfillment.

Products in the Geolandar State Parks Collection included T-shirts, a full-zip North Face jacket, hoodies, caps, patches, decals and drinkware. Among the suppliers used for the project were Counselor Top 40 supplier Next Level Apparel (asi/73867), which BAMKO says was chosen because of its sustainable practices and use of U.S.-grown cotton. Next Level Apparel has taken steps to secure its supply chain, including becoming a gold member of Oritain, a forensic origin verification program, and joining the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.

The promo campaign for Geolandar included a 5% top-line giveback to the California State Parks Foundation.

“We make sure that every single product that we ship and source hits core sustainability requirements,” says Laura Adams, a content marketer at BAMKO. For the Geolandar project, “We definitely focused on keeping the logistics clean and green wherever we could.”

The campaign was deliberately designed with a zero-waste sourcing framework. BAMKO built a custom e-commerce storefront for the campaign, using a small-batch, on-demand production model to eliminate “the carbon overhead and landfill waste associated with traditional clearance overstock,” according to the distributor. BAMKO says it squeezed the complex, multi-month retail, production and digital web development cycle into a six-week timeline to match hard launch dates on Geolandar’s environmental awareness campaign, all without cutting corners on material compliance.

“This project proves that when a distributor aligns design, utility and philanthropy, promotional merchandise becomes a powerful force for global good.”Laura Adams, BAMKO (asi/131431)

BAMKO also worked to mitigate the impact of distribution, storing inventory in U.S.-based warehouses for quick shipping, replenishing items to keep up momentum as they sold out. Shipping was initially set up for U.S. orders only, but to meet high demand, the distributor scaled the project to ship globally, while still working to optimize shipping routes to reduce the overall carbon-per-package footprint.

“Seeing the core collection sell out so fast and having to expand to global shipping showed us that people really care about supporting the places they love to explore,” Gonzales says.

Indeed, the purpose-led campaign achieved such market resonance because it turned what could have been a standard promotional products launch into an active environmental movement, “creating high-utility products that outdoor enthusiasts genuinely value and tying their distribution to the protection of California’s natural ecosystems,” according to Adams.

She adds: “This project proves that when a distributor aligns design, utility and philanthropy, promotional merchandise becomes a powerful force for global good.” – Theresa Hegel

The soap opera is a unique television genre and an institution all its own. Soap operas often span several decades – General Hospital and Days of Our Lives have both been on the air for more than 60 years – and feature intertwined storylines filled with melodrama, intrigue, romance and extreme cliff-hangers.

Those distinctive characteristics inspired Tommy Gomez, senior director of creative strategy at Brilliant (asi/146116), to create the firm’s latest self-promo campaign: a fictional soap opera called Young & Gifted, complete with an e-commerce shop and an original trailer running more than a minute.

Young & Gifted, the soap opera-inspired campaign and video created by Brilliant (asi/146116), features characters like socialite Vivica Oreo (left) and software professional Ada Ortega (right), as well as promo products made available in Brilliant’s e-commerce shop.

“Lately, I’ve been looking at how to take vintage products and add branding to them,” says Gomez, a former Counselor Distributor Up-and-Comer of the Year. “Then I thought, what about a soap opera for our next self-promo? And what about an estate sale and different personas who use promo to further their interests? And it snowballed. I wanted to inspire our clients to do something different with beautiful products and a digital storefront.”

In Brilliant’s Malibu-based soap, which Gomez says has a “light ‘80s vibe,” “fallen socialite” Vivica Oreo hires Brilliant to help maintain her brand image. Executive Assistant Jennifer Price receives a cryptic message embroidered on a pair of socks. And Sales Executive Robert Vale steals an exclusive branded hat from Idle Palms, a members-only club, to close an important deal.

Sales exec Robert Vale wears a stolen embroidered cap that’s also available for purchase in the Brilliant shop.

The products did double duty: They drove the plot and were also available for purchase, with each designed to look like a prop pulled straight from the “set.” For example, the hat, produced by DK Headwear (asi/47999), featured a fake security tag bearing the Brilliant name.

“We wanted it to look stolen,” says Gomez. “Then we had embroidery done all over the crown, with a ‘Leisure is the new luxury’ tag line. That hat is our crown jewel of the collection, the centerpiece.”

Among the other branded products available for purchase were items from Oreo’s “estate,” including vintage vases, mini-paintings by Ukrainian artist Diana Kuk, candles, purses and evening bags, a 1989 Polly Pocket compact and – what proved to be the most popular item in the shop – branded incense cigarettes.

Character Jennifer Price receives these socks with a cryptic message – also available for purchase.

“A lot of clients want to play it safe, but we have to show them there’s room for novelty,” says Gomez. “We’ve seen a shift: At first, clients wanted swag with a logo, then a brand-name product with their logo; now, they want logos on something you can’t find on a retail shelf. The cigarettes are novel and look unique.”

Young & Gifted could have succeeded on the strength of its highly creative merch collection alone. But Gomez brought its fictional world to life with a slickly produced trailer. How did he pull it off? First, Gomez wrote the storyline as though he were producing an actual TV series, using AI platforms like Claude and ChatGPT to develop the screenplay, characters and themes. Next, he used Midjourney to create specific character likenesses, which he transformed into 360-degree images. He then generated stills for every scene before using Kling, an AI motion-control platform, and working with a human video editor to stitch everything together.

“A lot of clients want to play it safe, but we have to show them there’s room for novelty.”Tommy Gomez, Brilliant (asi/146116)

“There was a whole flow to it,” says Gomez. “It was a huge lift.”

Once the trailer was finished and the store was stocked, Brilliant announced the campaign through email marketing, and Gomez shared making-of content on social media. In the first week, the store received more than 300 orders, and many items sold out within three days. Brilliant fielded numerous questions about restocks, and at least five customers expressed serious interest in creating similar campaigns for their own brands.

Gomez says AI opens new opportunities for creative output, but it still needs to be prompted correctly.

“Converse with AI; physically talk to it like it’s human,” says Gomez. “Give it context, then ask for advice. It’ll know more about your use case than if you just ask it random questions. That’s how it was able to suggest the best platforms for me to use, because it had context. Treat it like a colleague, not just a search engine.” – Sara Lavenduski