We don’t have the rights to use ESPN’s SportsCenter theme song, so you’re just going to have to imagine it here, as we dive into some of our favorite sports-related promotional campaigns and stories from the year. Let’s call it our Top Plays, just to keep the theme alive, shall we?…
Read MoreAuthor: Brendan Menapace
U.S. Wholesale Sportswear Company Investigating After AP Report Links Shipments to Chinese Forced Labor
The Associated Press has tracked apparel shipments from Chinese internment camps to North Carolina wholesale apparel supplier Badger Sportswear. The camps, located in the Xinjiang region of China, are populated by an estimated 1 million detainees, mostly Muslims of Uighur and Kazakh ethnicity, held for what the Chinese…
Read MoreH.I.G. Capital Acquires Vision Integrated Graphics
H.I.G. Capital, the private equity firm that owns BIC Graphic and previously owned HALO Branded Solutions, continued its activity in the promo space—or at least adjacent to it. The firm acquired Vision Integrated Graphics, a company that provides print services and marketing solutions for a number of industries…
Read More2018 Wrap-Up: Our Favorite Podcast Moments
We started the Promo Marketing Podcast this year, and Sean and I have had a great time speaking with people from just about every facet of the promotional products industry. We’ve learned a lot (including how to actually make a podcast, proper mic placement and tasteful soundboard usage), and we hope you have too. It’s…
Read MoreStephen Willworth from SVS Marketing Talks Time Management, Preparation
Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to control time (yet). Until then, the best way to succeed in the face of unwelcome variables is to be prepared for anything, or at least as much as you can. Stephen Willworth, vice president of new…
Read MoreUsing Team Spirit for a Successful Promotion
People love a good bargain. Debbie Davis, account manager for My Corporate Expressions, Houston, remembers one promotion in the form of a stadium giveaway that gave people an opportunity to save some money at a local store. It’s a great combination of team spirit,…
Read MoreProforma Design Management’s George Klare Talks Creativity and Learning Experiences
It’s always fun to flex our creative muscles a bit more than usual. In the promotional products industry, that opportunity arises when clients come to you with a need, but not a fully fleshed-out solution. Whether that creativity means finding the right product, designing an eye-catching imprint or thinking up an effective marketing plan, there’s…
Read MoreA Look at All the Awesome College Football Gift Suite Bowl Game Swag
For college football fans, it’s the most wonderful time of the year: bowl game season. (Unless you’re a fan of one of those teams that didn’t make the playoff.) For the players, it’s an even more wonderful time of the year, because they get some seriously awesome bowl game swag as part of the now-traditional…
Read More2018 Wrap-Up: 10 Distributor Success Stories We Ran This Year
The end of the year is a time for retrospectives. We look back on the year and think about our accomplishments, the highlights, maybe some things that didn’t quite work out but we can work on in 2019. In the television world, it’s when you usually get stuck with an episode that revisits clips from…
Read MoreNewspaper Merchandise Has Gone Far Beyond the Tote Bag
In the difficult media landscape of the 21st century, news publications need to offer much more than just relevant content and ad space. Brands like the New York Times and the Daily Beast are moving beyond the tried-and-true tote bag offering and going with full lines of apparel and other merchandise for readers to show their preferred media…
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