On Tuesday, New Era released a series of MLB caps decorated with patches depicting landmarks, food items, area codes and other local oddities specific to each team. It went ... poorly. So poorly, in fact, that New Era pulled the plug on the entire line by Wednesday. What happened?...
Sean Norris
What’s the best way to showcase modern online marketing methods and the latest advances in packaging and labeling products? A fictional murder mystery set in the 1920s, of course. If that made you do a double take, well, that’s what Repacorp Inc. was counting on...
As part of our 2021 State of the Industry report, we reached out to experts in five major product categories. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Pat Noonan, chief product officer for SanMar, Issaquah, Wash., who gave us an inside look at the state of promotional apparel...
Expedia, the online travel booking company, recently released a report that found 80% of Americans are stressed about resuming international travel and 60% need more help booking travel now than they did before the pandemic. As part of its plan to win back those wary travelers, Expedia is offering a helping hand. A Jonas Brother's hand, to be specific...
Visstun announced last week that it will move out of the promo industry to focus on its food packaging division. In an email sent to distributors, the supplier said it is still operating and will be available to handle projects, but is "no longer seeking to actively grow in the promotional market." Digispec and CounterPoint will continue operating as normal...
As part of our 2021 State of the Industry report, we reached out to experts in five major product categories. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Jo-an Lantz, president and CEO of Geiger, Lewiston, Maine. Find out what she had to say about the current state of promotional products, the long-term prospects for PPE and more...
Patrick Wyant, business development manager for The Identity Source, shared how his company is putting creative twists on virtual event kits, including using the exterior of the boxes as a key component and incorporating local flavor. Check out this gallery of images from three kits the distributor produced...
We scoured the Style Internet to identify some major trends, then picked specific looks within those trends and asked industry suppliers for their best advice on how to bring them to promo. If you want to be way ahead of the style game and deliver the best apparel for your customers, you’ve come to the right place...
As we say often around here, a good strategy for standing out in a heavily commoditized market is providing value beyond price. One way to do that? Exceptional creativity that elevates an otherwise basic product to build a real connection between customers and their target audiences. Here's how one top distributor is doing that...
Incorporating data from NAPCO Research, insight from government affairs analysts and reporting from our editors, the 2021 State of the Industry report is a comprehensive look at the challenges of the past year and the opportunities available to industry businesses as the year progresses. The report features four subsections and five Q&As with industry experts...
The U.S. is still 8.4 million jobs short of where it was pre-pandemic, but March brought unexpectedly good news. According to the Labor Department's most recent report, the U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs over the last month, far more than the 675,000 economists had projected. Some industries saw significant job growth...
When we last checked in with Amazon Business in 2018, the B2B e-commerce marketplace was set to top $10 billion in annual sales just three years after it launched. Now, three years after that, annual sales on the platform have topped $25 billion worldwide. More than half of those sales came from third-party sellers...
One distributor's one-on-one meetings at a recent Promo Marketing virtual business development event led to $7,000 in orders after the supplier helped put together virtuals for a few of her clients. More than that, though, the meetings laid the groundwork for future business. Here's how...
Eugene Seroka, executive director for the Port of Los Angeles, said shipping volume is about to surge again over the next few weeks, continuing "into the spring and summer." And analysts are worried that the $1,400 checks issued as part of the Biden administration's $1.9 trillion stimulus package will make delays worse as Americans keep spending online...
In January 2020, Ampersand Group's Todd Mellon and his team officially launched The Power of One Group. The idea was simple: Create a robust directory of vendors in print, promo and office supplies, giving distributor members easy access to all three segments...
