Promotional Products Week 2014 Rocked!

Promotional Products Week (PPW) 2014, which took place from 15th to 19th September, has been hailed as a great success.

The PR campaign reached an audience of 17.8 million, which was more than double the previous year, and the comprehensive social media programme, which incorporated several different channels, saw significant increases across the board reaching a total audience of over half a million. More than 150 members were actively involved in promoting this year's Promotional Products Week.

The extensive PR and social media campaign promoted PPW as well as pushed out the core messages about promotional marketing. In particular, Express.co.uk highlighted positively the powerful role of promotional products in marketing and the high value of industry, whilst City AM confirmed the popularity of promotional pens by publishing an extract from PPW’s 'What's on your desk' survey.

The Week officially began with Student Day, when 25 Brunel students took to the streets of London pushing forward the message to passers by that promotional products rock! The day ended with BPMA's Director-General Gordon Glenister being soaked with icy water in an Ice Bucket Challenge in Russell Square park before a vast audience of onlookers.

BPMA members were very keen to become involved in this year’s PPW and used some ingenious and brilliant ways to showcase their companies, offerings and services. Award winning BPMA member Outstanding Branding showed they definitely know how to rock by producing a parody of Queen’s ‘We will rock you’ video, which received very positive feedback and in just over a week managed to reach 1,000 views on YouTube. The video proved so popular that former professional boxer and Sky Sports commentator, Johnny Nelson, was one of those who retweeted it to his many thousands of followers.

Gordon Glenister, Director-General at the BPMA and organiser of the Week commented: “It has been an absolutely brilliant week and the response has been very positive. None of us could have missed the prominent use of promotional merchandise in the Scottish Referendum campaign. In fact, we have estimated £0.25 million has been spent on items, which is the biggest share of marketing budgets ever in a political campaign.

“Plans and activities are already in the pipeline for PPW 2015, which will coincide with the BPMA’s 50th anniversary. As it will be a double celebration we want it to be much bigger and get the whole industry involved from the start."

Feedback from BPMA members has been particularly positive. Melissa Chevin, Director of Marketing – UK at Senator, said: “We were delighted with the amount of brand exposure for LAMY writing instruments during Promotional Products Week and the activities of the BPMA really helped to raise the brand profile. These included samples in the hands of major tabloid, broadsheet and trade journalists and key personnel at London marketing associations."

Gill Thorpe, Managing Director at The Sourcing Team, added: "We love the opportunity to make some noise about our amazing industry so, as last year, we fully embraced the opportunity to get involved with Promotional Products Week 2014. The 'PromoSelfie' campaign was a fun way to engage with our clients to find their personal favourite promotional product and if they shared that information with us then we donate to the charity."

PPW Sponsors also highlighted their support for the Week. "We were truly delighted to be involved as a sponsor – this was an important initiative to help us build our brand across the UK market," commented Andrew Kouroushi, Sales Manager Stormtech.

“We found being a sponsor of Promotional Products Week to be a great way to co-operate with key clients and support their activity during this vital week focusing on our industry”, added Matt Pluckrose, Managing Director of Desktop Ideas.

A video diary of the entire Week has been produced and can be viewed at: http://bpma.co.uk/pprock2014

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