Long Name, Great Info: The 2016 ASI Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study

A few days ago, the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) released the 2016 edition of the Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study.

"What the heck is that?" you might ask. The study is an annual report on the effectiveness of promotional products, using information gathered by ASI throughout the past year. Covering a wide range of products, locations, and other factors, the study shows us just how popular promotional products can be.

Sounds a little daunting, right? Rest assured, ASI also included a number of graphics that help us easily view the information within the study. Let's take a look a few of the more interesting results:

First off, what is the most-owned promotional product in the United States? As you'll see in the graph above, t-shirts are the clear winner, with 58% of survey participants saying they owned at least one promotional t-shirt. While it's no surprise that most people have some kind of promotional tee in their home, we weren't expecting to see drinkware second on the list at 53%. It makes sense though. Custom coffee mugs, sports bottles, and glassware are a popular category, and that's why we now have a specific section for drinkware on our website.

Taking a closer look at drinkware, we see that half of consumers who own drinkware use it at least 2-3 times a week or more. If the custom drinkware is a coffee cup, we suspect that consumers may use it more than 2-3 times a week. Probably closer to 2-3 times a day – we all know it takes at LEAST that many cups of coffee just to get through the day. (4-5 if it's a Monday.)

According to consumers, USB drives are the most influential promo product. Separate those consumers by gender, and USB drives still come out on top. It's when you divide those consumers by age that things get interesting. USB drives are popular among the age group of 45-54 and anyone 65 or older. However, survey participants under the age of 45 all believed outerwear to be the most influential product, while those between 55 and 64 consider drinkware most influential. Here in Florida, we don't get much of an opportunity to wear jackets or hoodies, but it's certainly interesting to see how popular outerwear is throughout the country!

When it comes to impressions (how long a recipient has the product/how many people they come into contact with while using it), custom bags are the clear winner in the U.S. That should come as no surprise though – many people use some type of bag to carry their important items throughout the day.

Finally, the best statistic from the study is this one. According to survey participants, of all types of advertising media (radio, television, print, etc.), promotional products are the most highly regarded. After all, who doesn't like free stuff? We might be a little biased, but we'd much rather get a free shirt, pen, sticker, or bag than have to listen to yet another radio commercial on the drive home!

Thanks to ASI for providing the results of their study. View the rest of the survey here: http://media.asicentral.com/resources/impressions-study-2016.pdf

*Research provided by the Advertising Specialty Institute, ©2016, All Rights Reserved*