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Winning promotional products campaigns show versatility, creativity and impact
TORONTO—Not-for-profit organizations used them to raise funds, promote health and safety, and protect the environment. Human resources management used them to recruit policemen, motivate employees, build awareness and promote corporate values. Sales and marketing people used them to introduce a range of new products from Smart cars to BlackBerries –all with the same result.
“In this age of restraint, what happened here explains why the use of promotional products continues to grow even during tough economic times, “ said Ed Ahad, President of the Promotional Product Professionals of Canada (PPPC) at the annual Image Awards Sunday night.
“This event was about innovation, versatility and productivity,” Ahad said. “From eco-friendly paper made from recycled elephant dung, to programs that generate a 566% increase in sales simply by adding an online catalogue, promotional products offer effective business solutions for a very wide and diverse range of opportunities.
“From promoting better health to protecting the environment, promotional products have once again proven themselves to be very effective and in many cases inexpensive communications tools,” Ahad explained. Genumark Promotional Merchandise Inc. took home a Silver Image Award for producing more than one million specially designed tape measures to highlight the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Healthy Waists campaign. Their facts were compelling: 60 percent of Canadian adults are overweight or obese; obese Canadians are four times as likely to have diabetes; 3.3 times as likely to have high blood pressure and 56 percent more likely to have heart disease. “Put this information on a tape measure to remind people of the risks and distribute them free via a national pharmacy chain and people get the message,” he said.
Environmental programs continued to be an important theme in the choice of promotional products programs in 2009. In addition to two new award categories introduced this year by PPPC, Best in Green and Eco-Solution, a significant number of entries were built around products using ecologically beneficial products. Debco Bag Distributors was awarded a Gold Image Award for its program targeting low volume clients with a bag full of promotional product ideas and a seminar to help them build their businesses. “In choosing the products we focused on everything ecological to let people know that this has become an extraordinarily popular product category,” Debco Senior Vice-President of Sales & Marketing Stan Gallen said in his program description. Ecology sells evidently. Gallen reports the promotion generated a 124 percent increase in the first six months of the year compared with the entire year’s purchases from this target group the previous year.
Technology was another important theme reflected heavily in this year’s Image Awards. Promotional products have always favored technology but now the industry has gone beyond simply imprinting high technology products to using new communications technology to market them. Ash City won a Silver Image Award for its flash-based e-marketing tools, which allowed distributor clients to build everything from their customized online catalogue to promotional videos, electronic flyers and websites. Likewise Ottawa-based Akran Marketing won a Silver Image Award by generating a five-fold increase in sales of Canada Day items through the introduction of e-catalogues and other online marketing tools used in association with traditional methodologies.
Human resources programs won a number of awards this year ranging from recruiting to creating better workplace environments. Montreal-based Copilote earned a Bronze award for a six-month contest to focus employee attention on the six core values of its client, a major cable television company. The contest, with prizes ranging from sports bottles and coasters to a vacation and a RolexTM watch, generated such a huge response from employees that the program will be repeated and expanded. Driven by peer recognition, which resulted in the nomination of 600 candidates whom their colleagues felt best applied the core company values in their daily work, the program achieved huge impact over a six-month period of high awareness among employees.
Close to 60 companies received awards or honourable mentions for their work but several of those firms made many trips to the awards podium. Spector & Co. of Montreal won nine Image Awards including one gold, six silver and two bronze trophies. ESP Wholesale of Markham, Ontario, followed closely with eight awards, four gold, three silver and a bronze.
For the fifth consecutive year, Toronto-based Leed’s won Gold Supplier of the Year. In addition, Leed’s won two other Gold Image Awards for Supplier Best Website and Best Catalogue. As well, Deborah Porteous of Leed’s won a Bronze for Supplier Sales Representative of the Year.
Among distributors of promotional products, Waterloo, Ontario-based Immediate Sales Agency, member of BrandAlliance, led promotional products distributors with five Images Awards including two gold and three silver.
The complete list of Image Award winners is below.
About PPPC
Founded in 1956, Promotional Product Professionals of Canada is the national grouping of suppliers and distributors of promotional products for business gifts, rewards, incentives, premiums and specialty advertising products. Its mission is to lead, inspire and advance the $3.97 billion industry through the strength of more than 7,222 companies involved in the business and their 37,000 people across Canada. Its members offer more than 360,000 promotional items through the association’s website at www.pppc.ca
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For more information, please contact
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, PPPC, 514-489-5359
or
Robin Palin, RPPR Inc., 514-426-7137 or 1-800-363-3801
The 2009 Distributor Winners
INTERNAL FOR A CLIENT
GOLD CREATIVE CONCEPTS INC., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
SILVER IMMEDIATE SALES AGENCY LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
BRONZE TALBOT MARKETING
HONOURABLE MENTION ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP
INTERNAL FOR YOURSELF
BRONZE COTTON CANDY INC.
HONOURABLE MENTION METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
PROFESSIONAL DEALER
GOLD IMMEDIATE SALES AGENCY LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
SILVER MULDOON MARKETING INC.
BRONZE ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP
HONOURABLE MENTION WHY-STERIA MARKETING
PROFESSIONAL CONSUMER
GOLD UNIVERSAL LINKS INC.
SILVER THE BRANDING COMPANY
BRONZE COTTON CANDY INC.
HONOURABLE MENTION THE PROMOTIONAL SPECIALISTS
MULTIPLE AUDIENCES
BRONZE ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP
HONOURABLE MENTION THE PROMOTIONAL SPECIALISTS
NOT-FOR-PROFIT
GOLD TAPAJ EFFETS PROMOTIONNELS
SILVER GENUMARK PROMOTIONAL MERCHANDISE INC.
BRONZE THE BRANDING COMPANY
HONOURABLE MENTION UNIVERSAL LINKS INC.
SAFETY
BRONZE METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
HONOURABLE MENTION GEMINI 3D INC.
SERVICE & RECOGNITION
GOLD CREATIVE CONCEPTS INC., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
BRONZE COPILOTE INC., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
HONOURABLE MENTION MULDOON MARKETING INC.
DISTRIBUTOR SELF PROMOTION
SILVER RIGHTSLEEVE MARKETING INC.
BRONZE LES PRODUCTIONS RHINOFÉROCE INC.
HONOURABLE MENTION SIGMA PROMOTIONS INC.
CATALOGUE PROGRAMMES
SILVER AKRAN MARKETING
BRONZE METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
HONOURABLE MENTION METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
BRONZE COPILOTE INC., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
HONOURABLE MENTION LES PRODUCTIONS RHINOFÉROCE INC.
The 2009 Supplier and Multi-Line Agency Winners
SUPPLIER AND MULTI-LINE AGENCY SELF-PROMOTION
GOLD DEBCO BAG DISTRIBUTORS
SILVER ATTRACTION INC.
BRONZE PRG MULTI-LINE
HONOURABLE MENTION ECORITE
MOST CREATIVE NEW PROMOTIONAL PRODUCT
GOLD PROMOBILIA CORPORATION
SILVER SPECTOR & CO.
BRONZE (Tie) APF MARKETING LTD.
BRONZE (Tie) PROMOBILIA CORPORATION
HONOURABLE MENTION APF MARKETING LTD.
MOST BENEFICIAL SALES AND MARKETING AID
GOLD SPECTOR & CO.
SILVER ASH CITY WORLDWIDE
BRONZE SPECTOR & CO.
HONOURABLE MENTION STARLINE INDUSTRIES INC.
BEST IMPRINT – SCREEN PRINTING
GOLD ESP WHOLESALE
SILVER SPECTOR & CO.
BRONZE CANDEC
HONOURABLE MENTION ESP WHOLESALE
BEST IMPRINT – FOIL STAMPING
GOLD VISTA
SILVER DEZINECORP INC.
BRONZE DEZINECORP INC.
HONOURABLE MENTION DEZINECORP INC.
BEST IMPRINT- EMBOSSING & DEBOSSING
GOLD DEZINECORP INC.
SILVER ESP WHOLESALE
BRONZE ESP WHOLESALE
HONOURABLE MENTION DEZINECORP INC.
BEST IMPRINT – PAD PRINTING
GOLD ESP WHOLESALE
SILVER ESP WHOLESALE
BRONZE THAT’S MY BALL
HONOURABLE MENTION PROMOBILIA CORPORATION
BEST IMPRINT –ENGRAVING & LASER ENGRAVING
GOLD ESP WHOLESALE
SILVER ESP WHOLESALE
BRONZE ATTRACTION INC.
BEST IMPRINT – DIGITAL
GOLD MARTINI PROMOTIONS
SILVER APF MARKETING LTD.
BRONZE MARTINI PROMOTIONS
HONOURABLE MENTION ISM IMPRESSIO INC.
The 2009 Distributor and Supplier Winners
BEST IN GREEN
GOLD AVATAR BRAND MANAGEMENT INC.
SILVER IMMEDIATE SALES AGENCY LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
BRONZE THE PROMOTIONAL SPECIALISTS
HONOURABLE MENTION ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP
ECO-SOLUTION
GOLD IMMEDIATE SALES AGENCY LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
SILVER TRIMARK SPORTSWEAR GROUP INC.
BRONZE ASH CITY WORLDWIDE
HONOURABLE MENTION AKRAN MARKETING
BEST EMBROIDERY
GOLD METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
SILVER IMMEDIATE SALES AGENCY LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
BRONZE THE NEXT TREND DESIGNS, MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
HONOURABLE MENTION ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP
The 2009 “Of the Year” Winners
DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR
NATIONAL ACCOLADE REACTION PROMOTION GROUP INC.
WESTERN REGION (Tie)METROMEDIA MARKETING LTD., MEMBER OF BRANDALLIANCE
WESTERN REGION (Tie)IMAGE GROUP INC.
CENTRAL GENUMARK PROMOTIONAL MERCHANDISE INC.
EASTERN REGION GAGNON LEVESQUE INC.
SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR
GOLD LEED’S
SILVER SPECTOR & CO.
BRONZE DEBCO BAG DISTRIBUTORS
MULTI-LINE AGENCY OF THE YEAR
WESTERN REGION WESTPOINTE MARKETING GROUP
CENTRAL REGION CREATIVE BY CRAIG INC.
EASTERN REGION AGENCE IMAPRO INC.
SUPPLIER CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR
GOLD LORNA SHARKEY – ESP WHOLESALE
SILVER (Tie) DONNA DESBOIS – SPECTOR & CO.
SILVER (Tie) JOSIE DI STAOLA – SPECTOR & CO.
BRONZE PAOLA RICCIO – SPECTOR & CO.
SUPPLIER SALES REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR
GOLD CHAD MAYBURY – TRIMARK SPORTSWEAR GROUP INC.
SILVER VINCENT SARROINO – SPECTOR & CO.
BRONZE (Tie) NELSON ESCOTO – WHITERIDGE INC.
BRONZE (Tie) DEBORAH PORTEOUS – LEED’S
SUPPLIER BEST WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
GOLD LEED’S
SILVER ASH CITY WORLDWIDE
BRONZE DEBCO BAG DISTRIBUTORS
SUPPLIER BEST CATALOGUE OF THE YEAR
GOLD LEED’S
SILVER TRIMARK SPORTSWEAR GROUP INC.
BRONZE ASH CITY WORLDWIDE
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