ASI® Enrolls 10,000th Member in UPS Discount Shipping Program

TREVOSE, PA – March 22, 2006 – Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI), the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, announced today that it enrolled its 10,000th participant in the UPS^® (NYSE: UPS) discount shipping program from ASI.

Enrollment in the UPS discount shipping program has achieved and surpassed this level of 10,000 participants in only two years, after it launched in February, 2004, and is available to all ASI members at no additional charge.

“This is an important achievement,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president of ASI. “The UPS discount shipping program from ASI is one of the many benefits of ASI membership, and allows ASI members to save up to 40 percent on shipping costs. This benefit is providing substantial savings annually to businesses of all sizes. I strongly encourage those ASI members who are not yet participating, to consider doing so.”

ASI member, Blast Advertising (asi/141359), of Greenville, SC, registered as the 10,000th participant in the UPS discount shipping program from ASI. The company is now planning for reduced shipping and delivery expenses in its operating budget for this year. “We are excited to be the 10,000th ASI member to register for the program,” said owner, Martin Nubson. “As a newer business, our shipping needs are growing rapidly, and this program will help us save hundreds of dollars each year.”

This program provides ASI members exceptional savings on their most urgent air express deliveries, UPS’s international services to more than 200 countries and territories, as well as guaranteed time-definite ground shipments,” said Joe Trumbull, UPS program manager. “We also encourage ASI members to take advantage of UPS’s technology that helps businesses large and small improve operations and customer service.”

The UPS discount shipping program and technology offerings ideally complement the nine other valuable benefits available for ASI members, including customized credit reporting from Experian^®, virtual sampling services from Technologo^®, digital artwork services from Affinity Express^®, and credit card processing options from Access Group-NPC^®.

For more information about the UPS discount shipping program from ASI, and other valuable ASI member benefits, email Cathy Martino, affiliate relations manager for ASI, at [email protected], call 1-866-Join-ASI, or click here to visit the ASI member benefits Website.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 22,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of promotional products. Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 19,000 ASI distributor firms. Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 750,000 promotional products, 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.  Visit www.asicentral.com.