Promotional advertising -- big and getting bigger

Did you ever stop and think about who buys or uses promotional products?
The easy answer is, "a lot of people."
According to two recently completed studies the sales of promotional products (or advertising specialties) was either $18.6 or $18.8 billion -- BILLION -- in 2006.
The Advertising Specialty Institute said that sales grew 4.5% to more than $18.6 billion. The Promotional Products Association International, said that sales grew 4.2 percent, to $18.8 billion.
Just to put that in perspective, that's more money than was spent on cable tv advertising, more money than was spent on internet advertising, more money than was spent on Yellow Pages advertising and more money than was spent on outdoor advertising, and more money than Paris Hilton spent on lawyers.
There's a reason so many companies invest in promotional products as part of their marketing mix. Quite simply, they work. It's a unique form of advertising that gets directly to the person you intended it to -- they don't have to look it up in a book, or be tuned to the right channel and the right time to see your message, or be surfing on the right page.
The three largest product categories were wearables (t-shirts, sweat shirts, jackets, hats), which accounted for nearly 31% of sales. Writing instruments and calendars placed second and third, respectively.
If you are not using promotional products as part of your advertising, you may want to consider doing it. After all, there are 18.8 billion reasons to do so.