After the successful relaunch of Hub Pen as “Hub” in September 2019, the company’s marketing services team went to work remaking Hub Promotional Group as HPG.
“There was a lot of confusion in the market about the difference between Hub the pen company and Hub Promotional Group, the parent company,” said Jason Lucash, senior vice president of marketing and innovation for HPG. “It didn’t help the logos and colors were almost the same as well.”
Why HPG?
“‘Hub’ is synonymous with ‘pens’ in the promo industry already, so it felt like a small leap to drop ‘pen’ from the name,” Lucash said. “It also has a broader product assortment than only pens now, which we’re expanding even further this year. The parent company name had started to build some awareness, so simplifying it to HPG meant it wouldn’t lose that momentum entirely.”
HPG comprises some of the best-known hard goods brands in the industry. In addition to Hub Pen, there’s Beacon, BEST, Debco, BCG, Origaudio and Handstands, all shipping distinctive specialty products from regions spanning the continent of North America.
“The brands that make up the HPG family are completely different,” Lucash said. “Different cultures, products and production techniques. But, they’ve all succeeded by going above and beyond for their customers and, because of that, the brands they’ve built have value we didn’t want to diminish. Our approach was to redesign HPG’s brand to be neutral yet flexible. So, on the surface, it would never compete with the other brands, but we could use elements of it to wrap around them, leaving a subtle but distinctive mark that’d bring some consistency to the group.”
The new HPG was revealed at ASI Orlando, along with a new website for the parent company. However, the HPG booth at PPAI 2020 attracted a lot of attention to the new creative direction for the group, complete with a neon sign, surreal art and imaginative product displays.
“We wanted to design a space and experience that no one could walk past without stopping, if only to do a double-take,” Lucash said. “It’s not every day you see a photo of a giraffe in Palm Springs with balloons covering its torso.”
Every product on display had an extra point of interest to excite, confuse or delight. From Beacon’s Rainbow Totes laying on a bed of Fruity Pebbles to Hub’s new “Lemonade” pen samples being held in a drink dispenser, or the new Handstands waterproof Bluetooth speakers inside fish tanks.
“It was a lot of work to pull together our brands in one space, as well as a big risk,” Lucash added. “We knew it was the right move when we were the busiest, loudest booth relative to those around us for three straight days. This year’s theme for the booth was ‘Expect the Unexpected.’ You won’t want to miss what we do next year either.”
For more information on HPG, visit www.hpgbrands.com.
