ASI Launches Phillidelphia Promotional Trade Show

At the trade show - produced by Trevose-based Advertising Specialty Institute, a company that brings together suppliers and distributors - 450 suppliers represented by friendly salesmen hawked their wares to distributors carrying plastic bags or even suitcases for samples.

ASI, which also publishes trade magazines and hosts Web sites, produces four similar shows nationwide. It has about 450 employees and produces more than $60 million a year in revenue, president Tim Andrews said.

ASI’s two-year-old Philadelphia show, considered a fairly small one in the industry, was a display of sheer capitalistic ingenuity - and proof that you can slap a logo on almost anything.

As one might expect, there were many variations on the perennial favorites: wearables (T-shirts, golf shirts, caps, jackets, etc.), pens, and brightly colored water bottles and mugs. One salesman proudly pointed out a square mug that fits in a round hole. On top of that, there were flashing badges, iPod covers, flashing plastic ice cubes, rubber duckies, stethoscopes, tattoos, voice-recording refrigerator magnets, big umbrellas for the golfer and small ones for the golf bag, and jar openers.

Dean Hammond, an account manager for Indianapolis-based Norwood Promotional Products, sells one of the old standbys: calendars. Norwood produces the Playboy calendar and the Son of God calendar. What better advertising than something someone looks at every day? Hammond calls it "timed-release marketing."

For trendier buyers, there were real roses with logos imprinted on their petals. The flowers, produced by Speaking Roses International, of Salt Lake City, come in white, pink, red and yellow for $69.95 a dozen.

Jay Butera, president of Spring Mill Home Products in Gladwyne, Pa., used a microphone to grab attention for his product: a device that pops the seal on jars. It has been available in retail stores for a decade, but entered the promotional-products market three years ago. "It’s the world’s easiest jar opener," Butera said with a carnival barker’s zest. "It’s a very effective promotional product ... because people will keep it for years and see that logo every day when they use it."

One of the latest things is a toaster that imprints a logo on the bread, the sort of thing a hotel might love. "The promotional product is actually the bread," Andrews said.

The competition included flip-flops with parts of the soles cut out so wearers leave branded footprints. And there was a sock-puppet frog that croaks children’s songs. Then there’s the logo bean, a bean seed with a logo pressed into both sides. Its leaves emerge with the logo printed on them. We’ll have to take Andrews’ word on that. The plants didn’t make it to this fair.