Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI)
The Advertising Specialty Institute, or ASI, has been providing award-winning products and services to the advertising specialty and promotional products industry for over 50 years
Advertising Specialty Institute – or ASI – is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry. But what, exactly, does ASI do?
To understand that, as well as ASI's mission, you should know a little bit about promotional products and the major participants involved in the industry.
Promotional products are practical, entertaining, or decorative products imprinted with an advertiser's name, logo, slogan, or message and given away. Think of all those freebies like mugs and T-shirts you get at trade shows. These products are kept by recipients, offering great exposure for the advertiser's message.
The two major players in the advertising specialty industry are suppliers (importers, manufacturers) and distributors (sellers). Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to distributor salespeople, while distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources to locate supplier firms and to market services to end-buyers (promotions and advertising buyers).
ASI's mission, then, is to bring together these participants by providing catalogs, information directories, newsletters, magazines, Web sites and databases, and offering interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.