This Is The Year To Get In Touch!

Mary Jo Tomasini_ldw-109

Mary Jo Tomasini, MAS, chair of the board

Thank you for the privilege to serve as your 2017 chair of the board for PPAI. I truly believe in the power of this organization and in its dedication to members. How fortunate we are, as we work each day to add value to our clients’ advertising and marketing initiatives across the globe, to be members of such an engaged association whose primary focus is on our success. I am proud to share with you that my promotional products distributorship, Competitive Edge, has been a PPAI member for 24 years, and the company I worked for before starting my own was a PPAI member too. When I made the decision to open my own business, I couldn’t imagine going to market without being a member of our trade association.

I am delighted to chair and represent the great talent and expertise that is embodied within our membership. In the coming year, I look forward to helping to raise the awareness of our organization within the advertising profession and to bringing to the forefront the tremendous value that promotional products professionals and our medium truly represent. We have a fresh year in front of us and a lot to accomplish. I am confident that PPAI will continue to serve as a valuable resource to elevate your business and reputation, and to advocate on behalf of the more than 14,000 PPAI member firms. Together, we will achieve greatness.

New Strategic Plan. New Mission.

This year marks the official launch of PPAI’s new strategic plan, which, among other things, will help us transform the organization’s mission from transactional to relational. Put simply, this means we are working to enhance a deeper relationship and more engagement with our members. This change to a more vested interest in you and your business is all focused on your success. Your PPAI board has worked diligently on the new plan, and the new mission statement summarizes this nicely:

PPAI is the trusted leader delivering essential knowledge, resources and community to ensure the success of our members and the industry.

PPAI’s shift to a relational organization will allow us to work more collaboratively for a positive outcome. We are excited to focus on you and to bring added value to your membership. PPAI is committed to inclusivity to build positive momentum and to arm member firms with the information you need to help your customers (and prospects) surpass their marketing and advertising goals, which ultimately grows your business. Who doesn’t want delighted customers and increased sales?

A New Branding Initiative

To help foster the new relational culture, PPAI is aligning our new strategic plan with a branding campaign to build awareness of our medium. This seems quite appropriate for the promotional products industry, don’t you agree?

Get in Touch! Advertising That Lives On is a first-of-its-kind industry branding campaign focused on engaging your customers and prospects to:

  • Recognize the power of promotional products

  • Understand the value of working with a promotional products professional

  • Encourage them to allocate a larger portion of their marketing and advertising dollars to promotional products

We need all of you to help spread the message to make this five-year initiative the huge success we know it can be, to put promotional products front and center in the advertising and marketing mix.

For the past five months, PPAI has placed the campaign center stage at Advertising Week and at Public Relations Society of America and American Marketing Association conferences. It’s also been promoted through placements in digital, social media, programmatic and print including Advertising Age, Facebook, Twitter, Google and AdWords, garnering more than 31 million impressions with an engagement rate between 13 and 19 percent, which kick-started awareness for the campaign right out of the gate.

To continue the momentum of reaching the thousands of customers and prospective customers, we encourage all members to use the Get in Touch! tools that are available including social media posts, digital and print ads, collateral, logos and graphics for promotional products branding to reach, influence and inspire your customers. And, don’t forget to use the #GetinTouch hashtag when you post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms.

Find all the campaign resources at www.ppai.org/events/getintouch.

We are focused on your success. Here’s to a fabulous 2017!