ASI® Expands Relationships with Kaeser & Blair Inc., Summit Marketing and HALO Lee Wayne

TREVOSE, PA – June 20, 2005 – Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI^®) announced today that Kaeser & Blair Inc., Summit Marketing and HALO/Lee Wayne are making new significant investments in ASI products and services, as integral components to support sales of promotional products.

These three additional relationships will benefit both ASI suppliers and ASI distributors, as more Counselor^® Top 40 Distributors™ are increasing exposure for products and building higher sales volumes with suppliers by using ESP^® Online, the premier product research and marketing tool from ASI.  The number of users of ESP^® Online has grown to 16,000.

Kaeser & Blair Inc. (asi/238600), spun-off in 1894 from its parent company, Acme Printing Company, which began operations in 1853, is the oldest promotional products firm in the United States.  It relies upon the largest network of independent dealers in the industry, which uses ESP^® Online and places more orders directly with suppliers by using ASItransact™, the electronic order management system, than any other ad specialty firm in business today.  It is known for its excellent customer service.     

Kurt Kaeser, owner and president of Kaeser & Blair Inc., said:  “As a top 20 distributor consecutively for the last 18 years, we understand the efficiencies and growth opportunities gained by using ASI products and services.  We helped design and build ASItransact.”

Summit Marketing (asi/339116) provides integrated marketing services, including promotional products, sales promotion, recognition and incentives and direct marketing, to its wide array of clients.  Summit has six divisions across the country, which have over 150 years of collective experience in delivering effective programs for clients, including Allstate, Cingular Wireless, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and The Salvation Army.  It plans to expand its use of ESP^® Online to its entire merchandising sales force. 

LeeAnn Schumacher, vice president of merchandising for Summit, said:  “ESP^® Online will greatly enhance our ability to meet the promotional needs of our clients with the custom solutions and exceptional service our clients have come to expect from Summit Marketing.”  

HALO/Lee Wayne (asi/218450) combines decades of industry experience with creativity and innovation to develop effective promotional products programs for its corporate clientele.  It uses ESP^® Online to support its 700 sales representatives and uses LogoMall^®, the Website hosting solution from ASI, to increase exposure for its products online.

Terry McGuire, vice president of marketing for HALO/Lee Wayne, said:  “ASI provides solutions that boost productivity for our reps and has helped us serve our customers more efficiently.  As the largest distributor in the industry, that allows our account executives to grow sales even more, because they’re spending less time on administrative tasks and more time selling.”

These relationships are unlocking the potential with ASI’s products to do more new business and presents end-buyers with the latest products.

Dan O’Halloran, senior vice president of distributor services at ASI, noted:  “These companies are recognizing that ASI’s products are sound investments that help facilitate communications with their suppliers, and ultimately build everyone’s bottom lines.  End-buyers are also happier with the greater attention placed on their needs.”

For more information about how ASI products can help excite your sales staff and increase your company’s bottom line, contact Dan O’Halloran at ASI, at 800-546-1350, or at [email protected].  For more about ASI, visit www.uat-asicentral.com.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 21,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of promotional products. Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 18,000 ASI distributor firms. Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 700,000 promotional products, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers. ASI provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, Websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools. Visit www.uat-asicentral.com.