Industry News

Survey: Football fever is escalating
Good prospects for advertising companies: According to a survey carried out by the online market research institute, Marketagent.com, the Germans are already in football fever around two months before the 2010 World Cup kicks off. Just under seven from ten people questioned are at least  "moderately" interested in the major event. Almost half of them want to watch at least 30 games or more. 94 of 100 interested parties want to watch at least some of the games at home on their own TV. Further preferred locations for enjoying the soccer entertainment are the living rooms of friends or acquaintances (46.4%) and public viewing zones (28.7%).
2033 people aged between 14 and 65 were interviewed on the major sporting event in the scope of the survey, which was carried out in the German-speaking zone between the end of March and the beginning of April 2010.
www.marketagent.com

The EPPA (European Promotional Products Association) has announced some changes in its board: Patrick Politze has been succeeded by Hans Poulis of the Netherlands as the association's President & CEO for the next three-year period. Poulis is also chairman of the Dutch Association Platform Promotional Products (PPP). The EPPA has become a recognized professional authority for the approx 10,000 European companies in the industry. Poulis is committed to more strongly promoting the sector's interests in Brussels, as well as to boosting networking initiatives and contributing to greater market transparency.
Politze will remain with the EPPA organization in the capacity of Vice President. He also serves as chairman of the German suppliers' association BWL.
The EPPA offices will move to The Hague (Netherlands), where operations will commence as of May, 2010. The PPP's offices are also located there, with plans calling for resource sharing such that the EPPA is reachable on all five working days. Other board members are treasurer Annette Scott (Promota, UK), Gael de Calan (2FPCO, France), and Marco Busini (Assoprom, Italy).
www.eppa-org.eu

Promotional Products Turnover: 7.5% decline in 2009
According to the results of the 2009 Promotional Products Monitor, the turnover of the German promotional products branch dropped from 3.21 billion in 2008 down to 2.97 billion in the crisis year 2009, this corresponds to a 7.5% decline. In comparison: According to Nielsen Media Research the drop in turnover for the overall advertising branch amounted to around 8%.
The representative survey, which is carried out annually by the Cologne-based market research institute, Advernomics, on behalf of the GWW (German Association of the Promotional Products Industry e.V.) analyses the use of promotional products in German companies. Whereas predominantly only the microenterprises had ordered less last year, the turnovers of the small, middle-sized and big companies remained constant compared to the previous year level.
Further interesting findings of the survey: The marketing decision-makers interviewed found that the promotional product has gained significance in the marketing mix. In reply to the question of the relevance of the selected communications instrument, haptic advertising claimed second place, behind online media. In terms of the net advertising revenues of advertising media, promotional products ranked third behind print and TV advertisements.
www.gww.de

Certified advice: Further education for promotional products players
As of February 11, 2010 Germany has 14 promotional products advisers with a Chamber of Commerce & Industry qualification. The 12-month course, which was initiated by the Germany Association for Promotional Products Advisers and Distributors (bwg) and which was carried out in collaboration with the Sales Academy Mobile GmbH and the CCI, culminates in a Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Bonn/Rhine Sieg) final examination.
The curriculum of the further education measure includes among others customs duties, brand and competition law, printing techniques, the optimisation of one's own "adviser personality", sales & marketing. In brief: Qualifications that are of high value for promotional products advisers, when it comes down to providing the users with a high service. In addition to self-learning modules the participants took part in diverse block courses last year.
According to own accounts, the bwg sees the further education measure as the first step in a row of measures with the aim of turning the promotional products adviser into a skilled profession. A further CCI certified course for promotional products advisers is to be launched soon.
www.bwg-verband.de

Product piracy: reisenthel asserts itself in the United States
After a long-winded legal dispute with a Chicago-based US American manufacturer, reisenthel, D-Gilching, was once again able to assert itself in the battle against the sale of fake products. Evidently the object of the disputes was in particular the "carrybag", which has already been imitated frequently.
Since exceptional reconiliation attempts were unsuccessful, the German-based company took the case in front of a US court. In the course of the two-day lawsuit, the defendant ultimately backed down: With immediate effect the manufacturer from Chicago is no longer permitted to produce or sell typical reisenthel-style products. The several thousands of copies that have already been produced had to be handed over to reisenthel.
Peter Reisenthel, the company's founder and CEO, stated that they hadn't let themselves be put off by the high lawyers' and court costs. He also stated that the outcome of this dispute is a huge success and pioneering for future procedure in the USA.
www.reisenthel.com

US promotional products market: 19.5% turnover loss in 2009
As the American branch service provider ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute), USA-Trevose, announced, the American branch made a turnover of 15.9 billion US dollars in the fiscal year 2009. This corresponds to a 19.5% decline compared to 2008. However, the majority of the companies questioned, around 70%, are expecting their turnovers to increase in 2010.
According to the ASI, promotional products proved to be one of the advertising segments with the highest turnover on the American market: For instance the expenditure for promotional products was twice as high as that for radio advertising, approx. 26% higher than for internet advertising and indeed almost four times higher than the expenditure for outdoor advertising.
www.asicentral.com

ASS Altenburger: 2009 turnover equals previous year level
According to company sources, the playing card manufacturer, ASS Altenburger, D-Altenburg, made a turnover of 22 million euros last year and thus equalled its previous year level. It was stated that above all licensing products on the themes of Barbie, Hannah Montana or Bob the Builder, which in the meantime form an important part of the company's assortment, contributed towards this success factor. Thanks to the positive results, the company hasn't had to lay off any of its 150 employees based at the firm's premises in Altenburg.
Furthermore, the 500th anniversary of the production of playing cards in Altenburg provided a further reason to celebrate. During the current year the company intends to invest further in the production and internal logistics. The company is going to be focusing on the theme football - in line with the imminent World Cup.
www.spielkarten.com

Anniversary at Pelikan: 50 Years "Pelikano"
This year the writing instrument specialist Pelikan, D-Hanover, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its "Pelikano" fountain pen. To celebrate this commemorative anniversary a trendy designer model of the established school and youth's fountain pen is being launched in the colours red, blue and green.
The "Pelikano" was built in line with the requirements of learning to write after a comprehensive survey on the assessment of school fountain pens was carried out in 1959 and has belonged to everyday school life ever since. The first model was launched onto the market in 1960 and has been continually optimised over the decades regarding its ergonomics, writing comfort and user-friendliness.
www.pelikan.com

YouTube: The promotional products branch goes on air
More and more companies are discovering the online video portal for their own purposes. The classic advertising media have been using the video platform as a communications channel for some time already: Viral marketing on YouTube with its often very original short film clips has already become its own marketing discipline.
In the meantime companies from the promotional products branch are discovering YouTube to serve their own objectives. In just a few clicks firms that have posted video clips on their own website or in a web shop can also place these on YouTube. It costs no money and very little effort, and yet it brings tangible advantages - for example as far as search engine optimisation is concerned: The Google robots evidently pick up video contents too, which then appear under the results of search requests.

"Of course YouTube is not a selective form of marketing," explained Peter Prenner, CEO of the Austrian software specialist, e-merch. The company develops product databases and IT solutions for the promotional products branch and is represented on YouTube with several clips. "But because the service is free of charge, it in fact offers nothing but advantages. The trend towards videos is most certainly unstoppable."

Indeed within the branch more and more clips are being recorded - for example at trade shows: Anyone who wants to know what the promotional products show that the Solingen-based company, m.e.s. Marketingservices, held at the Dortmund Signal Iduna Park in 2008, was like, can find professional documentation on YouTube, and the camera is also always running during the events of the Mainz-based Bartenbach agency. The company from Sulzbach-Rosenberg, elasto form, has uploaded an image film as well as further clips that demonstrate their various customising techniques.

After all for products that require explanations - and there are plenty of these on the promotional products market, film is precisely the ideal medium. It is true to say that most of the web films made by the promotional products players are product videos. "In the case of the promotional products companies a film lasting only a few seconds says more than a thousand words," contended Thomas Ketterer, CEO of Active Promotion, Erlangen. "At our company it is part of the everyday work routine for employees to film short product presentations and place them on our website and on YouTube." Incidentally, Ketterer doesn't just see YouTube as an additional option that one makes use of, because it is free, but by all means as its own marketing channel: "I take it for granted that marketing decision-makers also search for product ideas on YouTube."
www.youtube.com