Counselor Unveils Top 40 And Award Winners
At a ceremony held last night during The ASI Show in New York, Counselor announced its 2010 Top 40 list for the first time and honored its annual Counselor Award winners. Held at the famed Plaza Hotel, the black-tie banquet concluded with the announcement of the winner of this year’s Person of the Year award: Vera and Greg Muzzillo from Proforma (asi/300056). Also honored as Counselor Award winners: Nicolas Paillot, CEO of BIC Advertising & Promotional Products took home the International Person of the Year award; and Bill Grassmyer, founder of MediaTree, and Jerry McLaughlin, founder and president of Branders.com, won the Entrepreneur of the Year awards. To see the complete stories on the 2010 Counselor Award winners, click here .

The event also was the initial announcement of the 2010 Counselor Top 40 lists, the rankings of the largest suppliers and distributors in the ad specialty industry. Click here to see the distributor list, and click here to view the supplier rankings.

Counselor caught up with some of the winners to get their reactions on the awards and the night. Click here to see the video.

Also, Counselor Editor Andy Cohen interviewed Tim Andrews, ASI president and CEO, at his backstage private table during the awards ceremony. Click here to watch the video.

Distributors Post 11.1% Gain In First Quarter
The advertising specialty industry has officially begun its rebound, as distributors posted an 11.1% year-over-over increase in the first quarter of 2010. The total, which was released yesterday during The ASI Show in New York, represents a gain of $351 million in distributor revenues over last year’s Q1. “We’re seeing a lot more activity, and I’m talking with a lot of suppliers who are seeing a lot more activity,” says John Leahy, president and CEO of Target Marketing (asi/341691).

The gain marks a turnaround from last quarter’s decline of 9.7% and a year that saw the industry as a whole drop 19.5%. Considering that one year ago distributors reported a decline of 17.6% in the first quarter, there exists a sense of hopefulness in 2010. “Everybody is cautiously optimistic about a turnaround,” says Jeff Hall, president and CEO of NewClients Promotional Marketing (asi/282470). “The industry got hit pretty hard and it’s going to take a long time to recoup back to where we were.”

There’s universal sentiment among distributors that existing clients are opening up their wallets again after conservatively hedging the previous year – including some industries that weren’t hit as hard but held back out of fear. “They’re saying ‘Well, gee, we never even got hit,’” says Gregg Emmer, vice president of Counselor Top 40 distributor Kaeser & Blair (asi/238600). “They’ve got that pent-up need for their promotion and marketing that they were holding back on.”

Distributors are optimistic that there will be continual gains throughout 2010 – but they’re also realistic that it will take more than just one year for the industry to return to where it once was. “I don’t think anything gets back to where we were for another two-three years,” Leahy says. “I hope it all comes back, but I’m not so sure. … I think it’s going to be a long road to get back to that point.”

Video Report: ASI Show NY Update
In this episode of Industry Update, our cameras go on the road to New York for a special ASI Show Update report. We speak to distributors as the trade show floor opened yesterday, find out Tim’s Take on the ASI New York show, and catch up with glam attendees on the red carpet at the Counselor Awards banquet last night.

Click here to watch the ASI Show Industry Update report.

The Path To Social Networking Success
Dale Denham, senior vice president of ASI, delivered the keynote speech this morning at ASI New York, and told the audience some solid ways to ramp up their use of social networking. The session, titled “Build Your Brand And Your Business With Social Networking,” gave people advice not only on how to get started with online social networking, but also how they could improve their efficiency in using the medium.

Harnessing The Power Of Youth
For distributors wanting to learn how to reach the lucrative youth and young adult markets, Rob Watson of Media Tree presented “Hot Tips for Selling to the Next Generation of Big Buyers” as an education session yesterday at ASI New York. Tweens, teens and twentysomethings are the largest buying market out there, Watson said. Not only do they have significant discretionary income, but they spend family dollars by influencing their parents’ household spending and establish and affect fashion trends. This market, he said, spent $130 billion in 2008, and that number is expected to grow to more than $151 billion by the end of 2011.

Watson gave the audience numerous examples of ways to appeal to this important market, but stressed that the best way to reach them is through the Internet. More than 40% of this group considers the Internet the number one source of entertainment and “e-mail is probably the best and the easiest way to engage this demographic,” he said.

This is where promotional products can come in – by using free offers and cool gifts, companies can persuade users to sign up for e-mail updates while creating a positive brand association. Anything from music downloads, movie tickets and mobile games to gifts with purchase, apparel and magazine subscriptions can influence their decisions. “More responses mean more interaction, which leads to positive word of mouth advertising,” he said.

Dispelling Myths About Nonprofits
Speaker Lisa Leitch of Teneo Results refuted the impression that you can’t make money while working with nonprofits in her session yesterday, titled “Marketing for a Cause: How to Sell to Nonprofit Agencies.” One of the first points she made in the session is a big “don’t” – “Don’t think there’s not any money in it. There’s lots of money to be made,” she said. “Promotional products can be used as great incentives and rewards to achieve a charity’s goal.”

In the U.S. the nonprofit market is a $300 billion industry that was listed among the top 10 ad specialties markets in last year’s Counselor State of the Industry report. Even with the recent recession the market was still growing, Leitch said.

But, to break into the market, distributors need to know what nonprofits want. Mainly, this is creative ways that they can achieve their fundraising goals. Leitch detailed ways to find contacts in the market by using simple tools like search engines, and presented some of the most important questions to ask potential clients. Addressing some audience members’ feelings of apprehension about selling with normal margins when working with charities and nonprofits, she said “It’s OK for you to make money when you are helping them make even more money,” she said.

Get Proactive On Referrals
In an afternoon session yesterday titled “Creating Referral Marketing Systems That Pay,” David Blaise, creator of Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales, said it’s possible to do all your business through proactive referrals.

A referral system is proactive as opposed to a reactive referral which is word of mouth. Blaise says it’s best to position yourself as someone who does business by referrals because it establishes credibility. However, “it’s important to remember to initiate the subject of referrals from the beginning of business, because it sets the expectation and also because it can be awkward after the fact,” Blaise said.

The best question to ask for referrals is “Who do you know that needs help solving a problem?” or “Who is looking to grow their business?” However, the question not to ask is “Who do you know that wants to buy promotional products?” Blaise said, as that type of question puts people on guard.

Break Into The Health-Care Market
“You should be asking every one of your corporate clients if they have a wellness program,” said Rosalie Marcus, The Promo Biz Coach, in her afternoon session, “Secrets for Selling in the Lucrative Health-Care Market.” “Wellness programs help companies to lower their health-care costs, so you can pitch products to reward weight loss, smoking cessation, fitness and healthier eating.”

In fact, Marcus said, the wellness and health-care industry is a $100 billion annual business that distributors should be tapping into if they aren’t already. This big niche market includes health insurers, hospitals, home health-care agencies, physician groups, pharmaceutical companies, outpatient surgical centers, and alternative health providers, such as chiropractors. “If you’re not selling in this market, you’re missing the boat,” she said.

Marcus offered attendees tips on how to ramp up their health-care sales. “Position yourself as a health-care specialist,” Marcus said. “People want to do business with an expert.” Ways to do that include creating a separate health-care promotions page, read health-care publications, have a health-care sample kit to leave with prospects, and start a health-care promotions newsletter.

“You can also create a yearly marketing calendar for yourself by focusing on health-care events,” said Marcus, who mentioned Healthy Heart Month, Doctor’s Day, Nurse’s Day and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Joe Show Day Two
Counselor Managing Editor Joe Haley went on a search this morning on the New York trade show floor for the newest and coolest items in the ad specialty market. Want to see what he found?

Click here to watch The Joe Show Day Two.

Fashion Finds Day Two
Looking for cool apparel items to wow your clients with? Nicole Rollender, editor of Stitches and director of ASI Education, has just what you need in this Day Two episode of Fashion Finds from ASI New York.

Click here to watch the video.

Get On Counselor’s Hot List
Are you doing something unique, hip, fun or trendy in the industry right now? Do you know somebody who is? 

Counselor is looking for nominations of people for its third annual Hot List, which will be published in August – our Hot Issue. We're on the lookout for anyone in the industry who is taking an interesting approach to business, shaking up the status quo or simply networking like a maniac at all hours of the night. We're in search of those people who are making the industry a unique marketplace that's fun and energetic. 

Send an e-mail to Karen Akers at kakers@asicentral.com explaining in 50 words or less why your nomination should be recognized on Counselor's Hot List in August. And, please make sure to include a picture of the person you're nominating.