"We've had 14 straight quarters of growth," so what better way to celebrate than with a road trip in a moving billboard covered with promotional products?
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Advertising Specialty Institute's one-of-a-kind #ASIpromobile made a brief pit stop in Downtown Cleveland on Wednesday during its 750-mile road trip The ASI trade show in Chicago.
And if passers-by turned and did a double take at all the red-and-white stress balls, refrigerator magnets, flip flops and promotional pens stuck to the outside of the car, that was exactly the point.
ASI wanted to do something both lighthearted and wacky to salute the creativity of the $20.5 billion promotional products industry, which is projected to grow another 6.4 percent this year. Dawn Marie, public relations manager, had several months' worth of industry magazine headlines about how buoyant the outlook is because companies are spending again, but needed a more creative way to convey that message.
"We've had 14 straight quarters of growth," Marie said, so what better way to celebrate than with a road trip in a moving billboard covered with promotional products? So the trade group bought a 2002 Mazda Protege hatchback and tricked it out specifically for the show, dubbing the effort "Driving Serious Fun."
"Doing publicity today is so completely different than it was even five years ago," Marie said, after pulling over at Cleveland's West Sixth Street and Huron Avenue.
"The project took nine willing employees, 10 tubes of silicone glue, six rolls of painter's tape, 50 pairs of gloves, two cases of bottled water, three cans of Rust-Oleum paint mixed with playground sand to resemble asphalt, a lot of very loud rock and roll, six fans for ventilation, a drill, a sander, a sense of humor and a ton of patience," Marie said. "Imagine how long it would take to adhere a pen to the side of your car in 90-degree heat -- then multiply it ten-fold."
ASI, based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, calls itself the largest media, marketing and education association serving the promotional products industry. Its more than 25,000 member companies in North America (including 909 in Ohio) distribute and sell more than 750,000 products.
That the car stopped here in Ohio was fitting, considering that locals here say the Buckeye State is the birthplace of promotional product industry. A Coshocton shoemaker who wanted to advertise his business was the first to put his store name on children's book bags, according to the Ohio Promotional Products Association. And Ohio is home to more than its share of promotional products companies, including Quikey Physical Advertising in Akron, inventor of the squeezable oval Quikoin coin holder.
Marie said she always heard that the concept dates from kings and emperors, "who used to put their likenesses on coins and hand them out for commoners to remember them by." The coins weren't used as currency, but still became collectibles, she said.
"You can't have a political campaign today without buttons, hats, and bumper stickers," she said. Some of the oddest items she's collected are Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney dueling hand puppets.
Sam Phillips, advertising coordinator, had to learn how to drive stick-shift so she could be Marie's copilot on the trip. They left ASI headquarters at 7 a.m., hit Downtown Cleveland around the 400-mile mark, and pulled into Chicago at midnight.
Along the way, they got quizzical looks, thumbs up, and honks of approval from fellow motorists, but not as many tweets using the #ASIpromobile hashtag as they had hoped for.
"We've only lost one red pen so far," she said, pointing to a line of glue on the passenger door.
It's hard to see how anyone would notice, considering that the sides of the car are covered with car magnets, stress balls, sunglass frames, mousepads, poker chips and keychain whistles. The yellow hood and roof was repainted to look like a highway, with two pairs of flip flops on the sunroof.
And glued to the dashboard: a ceramic male hula dancer with a ukelele and a grass skirt, an antique created to drum up enthusiasm for Hawaiian tourism.
But the Promobile isn't like those plumbers' trucks that say "Take my magnets." Although these are usually giveaways at promotional events and trade shows, the last thing ASI wanted was for things to come flying off the car at 60-plus miles-an-hour.
The seats are covered with logo T-shirts and paper fans, and the interior roof is decorated with pinwheels, keychains and compact discs.
The industry's perennial best-sellers are still pens, T-shirts, baseball caps, magnets, calendars and coffee mugs, and the largest buyers are still banks, retailers, manufacturers and schools. "You go to the bank, you get a mug. You go to the dry cleaners, you get a calendar," she said. "Any time you run a 5K, you get a T-shirt and a cap."
Marie pops open the back to show off a colorful display of some of the hottest items in marketing: light-up pens, bracelets, ice cubes and fedoras. "Anything light-up is very big this year," she said.
The car will be featured at next week's ASI Show, where more than 4,000 attendees and 780 exhibitors will be able to sit in and take selfies with it.
Clevelanders will get another chance to spot the car when Marie and Phillips swing through Ohio on their way back from Chicago, sometime on Friday, July 18. Despite the official #ASIpromobile hashtag, Marie jokes that it really should be called "the Pokeymobile, because it's kind of pokey."