From Tim Andrews, president and CEO of the Advertising Specialty Institute:

Thanks for inviting me to write a guest post for your new blog and I hope my topic today will get you thinking even more about your business.

Many ASI members are telling me that video is starting to transform how they’re selling advertising specialties and they’re thinking about using videos to increase sales faster.  Some already use them extensively.

We’ve embraced using video at ASI and you can watch several on the homepage of asicentral.com that provide personal introductions to our staff and demonstrate business-building features of our products.

But, using video was unchartered territory for us not long ago - maybe for you too - and we’re constantly refining and trying compelling new ways to deliver video that keeps viewers engaged.

In a recent business radio program about using video, I shared some tips that we’ve learned at ASI that you can apply to your videos or ones you’re starting to make.

Tips for producing and using videos that sell:

• Keep it simple - show the most unique features of a product to keep viewers interested.
• Make videos brief - several short segments are easier to digest than one lengthy one.
• Repurpose - post a video on your Website, but also email it to prospects and run it in a loop on a screen in your trade show booth.

I’ve uploaded the video of the radio program and you can click here to watch it for more video tips from me, the hosts and another invited guest.

Let me know your thoughts about the radio program and producing videos - I’d like to hear your experiences.  Post a comment or email me anytime, at tim.andrews@asicentral.com.  For videos of new products from our trade shows, visit youtube.com/timasitv.

As the writer of our items on Identity-Links, I’m constantly coming across new knick-knacks I find fun, interesting, and cute.  At the mere sight of an especially hilarious bobble-head or furry pen, I’m reduced to my 10 year old self that had a special basket for a collection of keychains right next to the beanie babies. I know I’m not alone,  keychains put all of our inner childs on orange alert, with indisputable classics like a keychain rubix cube,  and the mini etch-a-sketch!

As I recall the “martian popping thing” toy with bulging blue eyes keychain that my 5th grade teacher ordered me to take off of my backpack zipper, my unyielding obsession falls into relapse. Here I commence a duly appropriate 5th grade history story:

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Well, a lot depends on whom you ask. The Fortune 50 Executive would consider a debossed leather writing portfolio as a suitable imprinted executive gift, while the outreach director at the local church would go for the $.40 refrigerator magnet listing the service times.  The college recruitment director will say it refers to imprinted highlighters, while the safety director at the plant see an imprinted first aid kit as the ideal personalized promotional product. (more…)