All this schwag, promotional products, business gifts and all that I call here BizGifts have been around for quite some time, but for how long exactly ? Here is little bit of the early history.

The different sources do not seem to agree on when the first BizGift appeared and what it was, but widely accepted version dates back to 1789, the days of George Washington and the commemorative buttons celebrating his election as president. The next hundred years brought some calendars and wooden products but nothing significant happened until Mr. Wrigley showed up.

Mr. William Wrigley was originally a soap manufacturer and at his humble beginnings selling Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. As an extra incentive to merchants, Mr. Wrigley offered - here we go - premiums. He expected that the something little extra for free would make his customers more likely to carry his soap. One of these premiums was baking powder. The baking powder proved to be more popular than the soap itself and so he switched to the baking powder business.

Then came 1892. Mr. Wrigley decided to offer two packages of chewing gum with each can of baking powder. And guess what happened ? The premium - chewing gum - is what Wrigley’s has been famous for ever since.

The BizGift “historians” however give the honours of being the “Founder of the Modern Promotional Product Industry” to certain newspaperman Jasper Freemont Meek, owner of a small newspaper and a printing shop from Coshocton, Ohio. After seeing a child drop schoolbooks on the street the idea came. Meek bought some burlap fabric and had his printers set the names of several local stores in large type. Printing on burlap fabric instead of newsprint proved to be a challenge, but after some effort and several tweaks the fabric ran through the machine. Then Meek hired a lady to cut up the burlap and sew it into 12″ x15″ school bags.

With sample ready Meek approached his friend, Mr. Cantwell of Cantwell Shoes, with a marketing idea. Let’s imprint a burlap book bag with a simple advertising message - “Buy Cantwell Shoes.” Cantwell would give every child who came into his store a bag for free. The children would carry the bags to and from school and promoting Cantwell’s name all over town. Mr. Meek manufactured the book bags that benefited both Meek and Cantwell. The schoolbags with advertising messages proved to be huge success. Business operators in the surrounding areas jumped on the wagon and the orders poured in. Meek realized he hit the jackpot and separated his BizGift operation from the newspaper business. Soon he started officially the first promotional products company - the Tuscarora Advertising Co. This was year 1886…

He had no idea that his schoolbook bags just started a multi-billion-dollar industry.

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After several years of date collisions between the PSI Fair in Germany and PPAI Fair in the United States, this year the schedule finally provided me with an opportunity to visit both fairs in the same year. So I took off from Germany on Friday, landed back in Hong Kong on Saturday and tried to nurse my jet lag for 2 days (without much success). Tuesday I took of for Las Vegas and thanks to the time difference being the same as the journey I arrived in Vegas the same day and pretty much the same hour I left Hong Kong. Dead tired, but ready.

This has been my 3rd visit to the PPAI Show, but the first one since 2001. The last time I went I discovered what lanyard is :-), the product now as common as a ball pen but virtually unknown those days. Well, except it was all over the PPAI Show back in 2001 … So I was quite curious to see how the show, the exhibitors, the products have evolved. I also wanted to see what the location change did to the PPAI Show, as last time went the show was still in Dallas.

Same as the PSI Show in Dusseldorf, Germany, the PPAI Show is open to the PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) members only. Vast majority of the exhibitors are suppliers, most of the visitors are the distributors. For the suppliers this is an opportunity to present their new product lines, distribute new catalogs, meet up with their distributors.

The first thing I realized when walking the fair was that the size of the booths seems to have shrunk. I am not sure whether it is a result of an effort to accommodate more exhibitors or a result of some cost saving measures from the exhibitors. This also lead to changes in the design of the booths, nothing really spectacular I must say. People who visit this fair every year may not have realized this, but after 7 year break the difference is very obvious.

When it comes to products on exhibit the biggest changes I have spotted is the lack of US made products. There still are some, but not as many as there used to be back in 2000 and 2001. It is understandable that production shifts to the places with lower production cost, but the same forces work in Europe too and one can still see lots of products made in Germany, made in Italy, made in Switzerland at the PSI show.

Very useful feature of the PPAI Show is New Products hall.

Ween I walked in I felt like I am at some sort of flea market (without the sellers being present). But this simple set up is very practical. Not all the products on display were new things, but they might have been new for the exhibitors displaying them. Still quite a few new products, new ways of packaging and most importantly applications of new technologies especially in printing were on display.

The fact that the booth sizes were not as big and designs as spectacular as they used to be does not mean there is nothing to see. On the contrary. One has to look hard and know what to look for (like at most of the trade shows) but the fair is definitely worth the visit. Even though I could not see anything totally new and groundbreaking this time, it was a fruitful visit. I was not coming as a buyer or a seller but as an observer. And those 3 days I spent at the fair helped me a lot to get clearer image about the current situation on BizGift market in the United States (and Canada to certain extent).

The PPAI show is more than an exhibition though. The show program includes development workshops, seminars, keynote luncheons, fashion and accessories show. The highlight of the entertainment program this year was the ONE party that included a concert by the rock band Daughtry. I unfortunately had no time to attend any of these events…

It has been several years since the PPAI Show moved from Dallas to Las Vegas, but only this year I got a chance to see myself whether it helped the overall experience or not. Oh yes, it definitely did help . Those who have been to Vegas will understand, those who are yet to try should go and see.

Here are few more photos from the 2008 PPAI Show.

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For the BizGift industry in Europe and in the US every year starts with a bang with the respective biggest industry trade shows of the year. The second week of January the European BizGift who is whos make their way to Dusseldorf for the annual PSI Fair. This year it was the 46th edition and it was 6th time for me to visit.

PSI Fair is closed event, for members of PSI only. That makes is an exclusive event for the promotional product industry. This is the opportunity for the big players to display their new lines for the coming year, introduce new catalogs, meet with the existing clients and find some new ones. For the visitors it is one of the last opportunities to select some new items to carry in their 2008 lines. Most of the companies that come to PSI Fair as buyers would close their 2008/2009 product selection during the early weeks of the year.

Who are the exhibitors at the PSI Fair ? Of course those looking out to sell all over Europe, but there are several types of companies. The big guns that pretty much set the trends, holding huge stocks of full range of promotional merchandise (imported mostly from Far East). Another group are European manufacturers (yes, there still is stuff produced in Europe, more on that in some future posts) presenting their own product line. Other major group of exhibitors are companies that specialize in selected product ranges. And then those in between these 3 groups.

What trends did I spot at the PSI Fair this time ? Well, it was quite obvious that 2008 is again the year of football (the one with the round ball, soccer). EURO 2008 will be held later this year and so there were many football related products and product collections. The colours of the 16 countries taking part in the competition were everywhere I looked.

The current wave of environmental consciousness made it to the BizGift industry too. The “green” products like vegetal and corn pens, garments made of bamboo were all over the place. How is T-shirt made of bamboo more Earth friendly then T-shirt made of cotton, that I can’t tell.

In the wearables there is obvious further shift towards the higher end products, whether these are T-shirts, shirts or jackets. Cheap no name garments were almost impossible to find.

And while there is still big demand for low budget promotional products, there is more and more emphasize on brand name higher end high quality goods, whether it is for give away purpose or as a business gift.

As most of the other fairs, PSI Fair is also an important networking event. Many exhibitor booths look like hospitality centers with food, drinks and yes… booze in large quantities. And if there is not enough time for proper networking on the site, there are parties in the evenings. Either the official ones organized by some of the exhibitors, or the not so official one but attended by everybody every year on Thursday night (Friday morning) in one of the downtown clubs in Dusseldorf.

Here are few more pictures from the 46th PSI Show in Dusseldorf

The report from the PPAI Show in Las Vegas is coming next.

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Many people are surprised or even shocked when they realize the size of the BizGift industry. What would you guess, what would be annual industry sales let’s say in the United States ? Hundred million dollars ? Half a billion dollars ? Billion Dollars ? Or more ?

Well, it was 5.2 billion dollars… back in 1992. Now fast forward to 2006 (latest data available) and the figure stands and 18.8 billion dollars. And this is for United States only. It is not the biggest industry in the world, but as much surprise as it may be to some, it is serious business where big money is made (and often also lost, more about that later).

And what product lines take the biggest chunk of the BizGift pie ? As the above chart shows, in 2006 in the United States the honours went to wearables (t-shirts, shirts, headwear…) and writing instruments (pens, pencils, markers, highlighters).

I used the data from the United States to demonstrate the size of the BizGift industry. I do not have the data from Europe available at the moment, but the above chart would not be too different across the Atlantic.

Coming up next: Reports from 2007 PSI Show in Dusseldorf and 2007 PPAI Show in Las Vegas - the biggest BizGift industry shows in Europe and America.

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When people ask me what I do, I usually tell them:

“I am in premiums, promotional products (and business gifts, simple giveaways, advertising specialties, three dimensional advertising media).”

As nobody seems to have come up with a single world description of all the above I decided to create one myself. Promotional products is probably the most widely used English term that describes the kind of stuff this blog is about. But it is a bit clumsy and difficult to abbreviate. So I took the “business gifts” term out of all the not so suitable options available and turned it into BizGifts . Short and easy to use.

Now back to question what are these things that I call here BizGifts. People ask me this quite often when I tell them what I do and I tend to provide a simple answer:

“Anything that you can brand.”

Well, that is my lazy definition that normally does the trick but it is not exactly accurate one. You do not really have to brand things to turn them into BizGifts. You can also brand some product and instead of decent BizGift create piece of crap … But yes, in general when I am talking about BizGifts I am talking about products that carry a message - logo, brand, event, company name - and are used as a part of the marketing campaigns by individuals, small companies or large corporations.

Here at BizGiftGuru you will find examples of how simple products can be turned in exciting BizGifts. I will also bring my opinions on successful and unsuccessful adverting campaigns that used BizGifts as one its medias. You will also find here information about new exciting products from the world of BizGifts, ideas that you may consider when you work on your own promotional campaigns no matter whether your budget is tiny or huge.

I will also bring information from different BizGift industry related trade shows, interviews with BizGift industry professionals, case studies, dos and donts and more. And last but not least, soon you will also be able to get your BizGifts here at BizGiftGuru.

Stay tuned to BizGiftGuru

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