Promoting Promotional Merchandise

June is turning out to be a busy month for the promotional merchandise industry in terms of promoting the value of promotional products as a marketing medium. Marketing Week Live starts next week, on the 26th and 27th June. This year the promotional merchandise zone, in partnership with the British promotional merchandise association (bpma), has over 60 exhibitors, covering a wide range of products and providing innovative and cost-effective solutions for integrating promotional merchandise into marketing campaigns. The zone will also be showcasing successful campaign stories from the likes of Yo Sushi, Birds Eye, Visit Scotland and Cancer Research during the conference sessions.

June has also seen the launch of the PSI Show media campaign for the 52nd trade show, held in Dusseldorf, which focusses on promotional products as fashionable must-haves and daily companions. The campaign, called ‘Style your Business’ and ‘Time to Surprise’ has been launched in a large number of specialist magazines as well as online media and the aim of the campaign is to reflect the lifestyle character of promotional products.

If that wasn’t enough, this month also sees the official launch of the campaign advertising the bpma event, the National Promotional Products Week, which will be held during 16th-20th September and is directed at the end-user community.

The aim of the week will be to raise the profile and demonstrate the effectiveness of promotional products to the end-user, with one clear voice supported by the leading industry trade association.

Members will be provided with a designated logo and promotional pack, and will participate in a number of events during the week to engage with their clients and prospects. The bpma will run a series of adverts and features in various media titles to promote this exciting occasion.

This is the first time the industry has had such a focussed event and bpma chairman Viv Blumfield stated, "Our intention is to create a very powerful message to as wide an audience as possible during this week. The timing of the event in mid September is aimed at capturing the pre-Christmas season and planning ahead for the New Year' The bpma will be launching the event officially to the end-user community during the month of June, which coincides with the Marketing Week Live event at Olympia and the Institute of Promotional Marketing Awards night on the 18th June. It has been one of the bpma's top priorities to demonstrate to buyers the benefits and value of using merchandise in marketing campaigns. Some of the bpma's latest research will also form part of the packs to members."

This is yet another example of Viv Blumfield’s commitment to the promise she made when she was announced as the new Chairwoman of the bpma in February: to continue the programme of end-user engagement to ensure that marketers were made aware of the effectiveness of promotional merchandise.

We hope that these campaigns will produce a positive reaction from the marketing community in the months to follow and that they will help to increase the awareness of the value and uses of promotional products.

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