The Advertising Specialty Institute® (ASI) today released its annual sales analysis for the promotional products industry, showing total sales of $20.5 billion for 2013, up 5.3% from 2012, with continued strong sales forecast throughout 2014.
Leading research firm eMarketer's estimates for media spend by category suggests total distributor sales of $20.5 billion puts promotional products third among all advertising media, behind TV and digital, the same ranking as 2012, when sales were $19.4 billion.
Sales of promotional products have now increased for 16 straight quarters, according to ASI supplier and distributor sales reports. Fueled by sales of branded items like T-shirts, caps and pens that companies typically give away to promote their brand or event, the promotional products industry is growing at over twice the rate of the U.S. economy.
"It's clear the entrepreneurs and small business owners at the heart of the promotional products industry are bullish on ad specialties and more optimistic than ever," said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI, the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the promotional products industry, with a network of over 25,000 distributors and suppliers throughout North America. "ASI is proud to play a continued part in celebrating the success of distributors, suppliers, decorators, screen printers and line reps who help America's businesses promote themselves through low-cost, high-impact ad specialties, which still cost as little as half a penny per impression."
According to ASI reports, generally, as the size of a distributorship increased, so did the proportion with higher sales in 2013 than 2012. Over 86% of larger distributors (over $5 million in sales) reported an increase, compared to less than two-thirds (65%) of smaller distributors (less than $250,000 in sales).
"Our overall experience is that we saw growth greater than the industry average," Jo-an Lantz, executive vice president of Top 40 distributor Geiger (asi/202900), told ASI's Counselor PromoGram. "We anticipate another great sales year in 2014. The industry will have another growth year, and we are expecting the same."
The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that real GDP – which measures output produced in the U.S. –grew at an annual rate of 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2013. Averaged across the four quarters of last year, real GDP added 1.9% in 2013 from 2012. Economists predict the U.S. economy will grow by 3% in 2014, the fastest rate of expansion since 2005. By contrast, the promotional products industry was up 5.3% from 2012 to 2013.
