Exactly how big is the promotional products industry? It did about $18 billion in sales last year and grew by 4 or 5 percent, but if you want to get more specific than that, it depends on whom you ask. Both the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI, based in Irving, Texas) and the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI, based in Trevose, Penn.) released their sales volume estimates this spring, and arrived at slightly different tallies: $18 billion according to PPAI, $17.8 billion by ASI's count. Louisiana State University and Glenrich Business Studies (a Corvallis, Ore., business research firm) conducted an independent study for PPAI, surveying 21,297 promotional products distributors. ASI did its own research, polling 19,000 of its member firms.

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The PPAI study, available online at www.ppa.org, also breaks its data into categories by product and program type (business gifts, internal promotions, etc.). There were no major changes among categories—wearables remain by far the most-used products, accounting for 29 percent of sales, followed by writing instruments (10 percent), calendars (7 percent) and drinkware (6 percent). According to PPAI, less than 10 percent of 2005 sales of promotional products were made online. —M.R.


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