The Effectiveness of Promotional Items Proven by ASI’s Study

Promotional giveaways remain one of the most popular, effective and long-lasting forms of advertising available today. The Advertising Specialty Institute’s Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study (A Cost Analysis of Promotional Products versus Other Advertising Media) delivers some impressive results for promotional products. Following are the key findings of the study.

The most popular products by categories are writing instruments, shirts, bags, calendars, desk/office accessories, caps/headwear, drinkware, USB/flash drives, health & safety products, and outerwear.

Consider these statistics:

• 50% of U.S. consumers own writing instruments with a logo.
• 43% of U.S. consumers own a promotional shirt.
• 29% of U.S. consumers own a promotional bag.
• 21% of U.S. consumers own a promotional calendar.
• 17 % of U.S. consumers own a desk accessory with a logo.
• 16% of U.S. consumers own a promotional hat.
• 14 % of U.S. consumers own branded drinkware.
• 9% of U.S. consumers own a USB drive with a logo.
• 8% of U.S. consumers own promotional health and safety products.
• 5% of U.S. consumers own promotional outerwear.

All combined, that’s a lot of people!

Respondents were asked how long they kept the promotional items they had received in the past year. The study found that awards were kept longest, for 7.6 months, and writing instruments were kept for the shortest amount of time, 5.1 months. The average was 5.8 months for all promotional products, which indicates far longer staying power than any other form of advertising.

What happens to promotional items that are not kept? The study found that 66% of recipients gave the item away to someone else, thus taking the advertising to a new audience.

Another crucial finding was that consumers are far more likely to keep a promotional item that is useful: 81% keep an item for its practicality. Awards are kept by 61% of recipients simply because they enjoy them.

Perhaps the most compelling part of the findings is that owners of ad specialties recall the advertiser’s name 87% of the time, while 97% of outerwear recipients remember the advertiser.

Over half of the time, specialties create a more favorable impression of the advertiser, and 31% of recipients indicated that they were more likely to do business with the advertiser in the future.

Finally, the study found that “promotional products deliver the same or a better ROI than other forms of media.” However, considering the costs of television or radio advertising, promotional products have the potential of offering more value.