ASI® Announces Winners of ASI Membership Contest

Twelve Distributors and Suppliers Win Membership and American Express Gift Card

TREVOSE, PA – January 31, 2008 – Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, announced today the 12 winners of the ‘Why I Love My ASI Membership’ contest.  

The winning distributors and suppliers each received one free year of basic ASI membership and one American Express gift card for $250 and will be mentioned on www.TheNumberThatMatters.com and in Counselor magazine.

The winners are: 
Canyon Outback Leathergoods (asi/43766), New Ulm, MN; Coosa Creek Embroidery Inc. (asi/168315), Blairsville, GA; Elision Technology Inc. (asi/51905), Regina, SK, Canada; Flags Made (asi/54515), Humble, TX; Gener Advertising (asi/203684), Toa Baja, Puerto Rico; Gideon Publications (asi/205405), Bethlehem, PA; Nittany Corp. (asi/726700), Tampa, FL; Paradigm Custom Embroidery (asi/700087), Rogers, MN; Proforma CM Design (asi/300094), Greenville, SC; Prominent Promotions (asi/300856), Brooklyn, NY; TG Promotions (asi/304978), Nashville, TN; and Winning Edge Inc. (asi/97472), Maple Plain, MN. 

ASI members submitted stories through www.TheNumberThatMatters.com and to Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI, about how using the benefits provided by their ASI memberships helped them land a big client, connect with other professionals or improve their business.

“Congratulations to the winners,” said Andrews.  “Their stories share real-life examples of business successes made possible by their ASI memberships and provide ideas for how distributors and suppliers can increase their sales and approach clients with new marketing strategies and promotions.”

Winners are enthusiastic about the ways ASI membership benefits have grown their companies.

“ESP Online has given me a competitive advantage in the industry,” said Chris Dixon, owner of Proforma CM Design.  “I am able to quickly pull together organized and personalized quotations for my prospects and customers and consistently beat my competition to the table.  The time savings alone is worth the membership cost many times over.  Combine this with search capabilities, and continuing to subscribe is a no-brainer.”

“One time I attended an education seminar at an ASI show,” said Julie Wolff, sales manager of Coosa Creek Embroidery, Inc.  “I took the information back to a car dealership client of mine who was doing a weekly mailer that included a key for people to bring back and use to try to win a car by turning the crank.  I learned in the seminar how to suggest another idea, and that was to offer a logo product to anyone who came in.  That way, they could promote their logo and everyone left with something.  They now buy an average of 250 products every two weeks, at $20 per item.”

“For our business, it’s simple,” said John Giefer, general manager of Canyon Outback Leathergoods.  “Credit checks can be done by asking ‘what’s your ASI number.’  If the distributor has one, everything becomes seamless.  Without it, we have to take more steps to figure out who is trying to buy our products.  That costs time, and delays production.  Having an ASI number is the way to go!”

The contest was launched in October and sprouted when ASI members indicated in a recent survey why they love their ASI membership.  In fact, 94% of distributors who responded in the survey indicated that they use the ASI number when looking for information about a supplier, and 93% of suppliers and distributors said that the ASI number is the number one way they identify another industry professional.

Respondents also indicated that the top five benefits of ASI membership are:  credibility, recognition, knowledge, trust and innovative solutions.

“If you are an ASI member, you should be proud of your investment and the positive return you get by using your ASI member benefits,” said Andrews.  “If you are considering joining ASI, there are more than 130,000 salespeople, over 3,500 suppliers and more than 21,000 distributor companies that are searching for more clients to do business with all the time.”

An ASI membership provides access to the best business-building tools in the industry, like ESP Online, LogoMall Websites, award-winning magazines, education, and product catalogs that increase sales.

For more information about the winners of the ‘Why I Love My ASI Membership’ contest, and for more survey results, visit www.TheNumberThatMatters.com.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of 24,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 21,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain nearly every product in the industry from over 3,500 reputable suppliers, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.