Attendees at Hirsch Gift's open house in celebration of PPW! Week included local distributors, charity representatives and staff members from the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. John Culberson and Texas State Rep. Gene Wu.

The fifth annual Promotional Products Work! Week (PPW! Week) is under way at companies and associations across the industry. PPW! Week, which began Monday and wraps up on Friday, is aimed at raising awareness of promotional products’ role in advertising and marketing, and delivers the message that promotional products work to advertisers, marketers and media buyers.

PPW! Week has tapped into the successful and growing Get In Touch!® campaign, the industry’s first-of-its-kind, multiyear multimillion-dollar branding initiative targeted directly to promotional products buyers. The Get In Touch! campaign is designed to increase awareness and enhance the overall perception of promotional products and direct a larger share of advertising dollars to the industry.

Over the course of its five days, PPW! Week features five ways to speak up for the promotional products industry: Day One, host an open house, meet-and-greet or company tour; Day Two, advocate for the industry by speaking to colleges, clubs or business groups about promotional products industry careers or the power of promotional products; Day Three, designate a day of service to support a local charity or cause; Day Four, share the industry’s impact on the economy with legislators, politicians and government officials—this day coincides with PPAI’s Legislative Education and Action Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.—and Day Five, partner with industry suppliers and regional associations and host a customer appreciation day.

PPAI Diversity Development and Engagement Manager Seth Barnett joined PPAChicago this week to offer its members education on reaching out to and working with new demographic markets.

The regional associations, as they have always done, stepped up for PPW! Week in a big way, hosting networking and education events, joining with industry companies for factory tours, and connecting with their communities to speak about the effectiveness of promotional products and support local charities.

PPAI Diversity Development and Engagement Manager Seth Barnett joined PPAChicago this week for a pair of education sessions on attracting, engaging and retaining young staff and managing the Millennial market. “The education component of PPWW is the most critical because that is where people learn the new skills they need to better define and grow their businesse,”says Barnett. “With our new push for public identification of promotional product use, industry members must arm themselves with the latest information to ensure they can effectively deliver the message of what they do and who we are.”

Geiger Sales Partners Ashley Moss (Left) and Elizabeth Mosley at an event the distributor hosted at client's facility in North Carolina to educate them on promotional products.

Industry companies have held events in support of PPW! Week across the country. Distributor Geiger hosted two presentations on the industry at healthcare provider clients’ facilities in North Carolina. Janet McMaster, MAS, Geiger’s regional sales vice president, says, ““A lot of work and planning went in to these events. Dozens of spec samples were prepared and displayed promoting the value, effectiveness and impact that branded products make; from showing appreciation to employees, assisting in raising patient perception and scores, helping with community outreach of services available, and of course recruiting purposes. We were pleased to speak with nearly 50 buyers during the two days.”

Supplier Hirsch Gift welcomed dozens of guests into its office during PPW! Week, including representatives from the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. John Culberson and Texas State Rep. Gene Wu, and collected products for donation to local charities Broken Walls and Richmond State School.

PPAI staff members also hit the road on Tuesday and Wednesdayin celebration of PPW! Week. They traveled to locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area to meet with a wide range of member companies and tour their facilities. They delivered gifts and snacks, discussed promotional products and the benefits they deliver to advertisers, and learned more about the companies and what they do.

Amy Roberson, president of Irving, Texas-based Ussery Printing, one the companies staff visited this week, shared how the 63-year-old company evolved into a promotional products distributor. She says, “Printing companies brought promotional products into their toolkits because it’s a natural fit. We brought it in because we do a lot of kitting for customers as far as brochures, letters, all types of projects, and then they’ll want us to get them complimentary items that go into that kit, which could be hats or shirts or pens. It just happens to be a natural fit. I think a lot of printers ended up in the promotional products world that way.”

PPW! Week and the Get In Touch! campaign are designed to increase awareness and drive traffic to regional and industry participant websites, educate buyers and drive business referrals to promotional products consultants. More information and planning tools are available at PPAI.org/PPWWeek.

Did you or your company do something to participate in PPW! Week? Share your story and pictures with News Editor James Khattak at jamesk@ppai.org for possible inclusion in PPB magazine.