The History of Promotional Materials
Promotional merchandise is one of a variety of ways that companies attempt to enhance their brand awareness and engage their target market. Promotional merchandise is known by many names, including promotional items, promotional materials (Werbeartikel fullservice) , promotional gifts, and swag. There are a few particular items that are well associated with promotional merchandise campaigns, including pens, caps, T-shirts, lanyards, key chains, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, and many more. The gifting of promotional materials has a long history of use in the developed world, where it stretches back to the late 1700s. Since this time, an entire industry has developed around the manufacture, sourcing, and distribution of promotional items, to the stage where they now play an important role in the marketing and promotion of thousands of businesses around the world.
The first known promotional merchandise was used during the election campaign of George Washington in 1789. In this case, commemorative buttons were handed out to members of the public as a way to create awareness and good feeling. During the 19th century, promotional items were used in many more campaigns, with some of the most popular products including rulers, calendars, and little wooden gifts. However, while there was the distribution of sporadic items during the early 19th century, it was not until the later 19th century that an organised industry developed around the production and distribution of promotional merchandise. Many people consider Jasper Meeks to be the father of the industry, after he convinced a local shoe store to supply branded book bags to local schools. This idea soon spread, with other items including marbles, buggy whips, card cases, fans, cloth caps, and aprons.
In 1904, 12 manufacturers got together and created the first ever trade association for the promotional merchandise industry, which is still around today and is known as the Promotional Products Association International or PPAI. The PPAI currently has more than 7,500 global members and represents the products from 22,000 distributors and 4,800 manufacturers. These huge numbers show just how much this industry has grown since its inception, with a number of large distribution companies and networks now in operation in the 21st century. The use of promotional materials in marketing campaigns is now fully entrenched in modern marketing practice, and is likely to continue playing an important role for many businesses for a long time to come.