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Wednesday
January 11, 2012 Everything Old Is New Again
Well, of course you do! And yes, they’re all coming back into fashion again! Read this article to find out more, and don’t be afraid to hold onto those parachute pants a little longer!
Thursday
April 28, 2011 Noodles, Novelties and Things I’ve NoticedFrom Counselor Senior Writer Dave Vagnoni, our guest blogger who’s reporting from the land of China … On an especially hazy day here in Hong Kong, I had breakfast with Danielle and Randee from Dard, along with Ross Beaton of Australia’s Logo-Line. Ross, who’s a former Counselor International Person of the Year, has been trying for days to get me to eat how the locals do (that means eating fish that stare back at you). He’s also been pushing Peking Duck, which is not on my top 10,000 list of things to eat. Sorry, Ross. As a compromise, I did decide to take baby steps toward enjoying Far East cuisine by sampling authentic Chinese noodles this morning. Now, in America, a similar noodle dish would come with broth and maybe mushrooms. Real Chinese noodles, though, can come with exciting additions like fish balls. I opted for spinach noodles in a broth with some unpronounceable green vegetables, a bit of pork (I think) and, yes, a few of the aforementioned fish balls. While it was, I admit, a tasty dish, I’m still craving Italian food. A burrito doesn’t sound bad either. After breakfast, I went to a press conference hosted by Jeffrey Lam, the chairman of the Hong Kong Gift Show organizing committee. He had some interesting things to say about pricing, labor and exporting – both in his general remarks and to me in our sit-down interview. He told the audience – a group of about 20 members of the international press – that he expects labor costs in China to increase 10%-15% every year for the near future. He admitted manufacturers in China face serious challenges related to inflation and the rising costs of raw materials. He also said he anticipates the U.S. dollar will remain unstable and may even “tumble” in years to come, while Chinese currency will hold its value, he believes. Here’s part of my Q&A with Lam from this morning. There will be more to come from this interview online and in Counselor magazine. Q: How can companies really know that products manufactured in China are safe and compliant? A: Hong Kong has a very mature testing industry. The international companies are here and the labs are here. They are here to help the industry test their products. All the manufacturers do test their raw materials and also the finished product before shipping. I’m sure they can provide the buyers with the certificate about the safety aspect of the product. You know, this is something that the buyer should ask for and the supplier should supply to buyers. Hong Kong, like the toy industry, works very closely with the U.S. importers and U.S. toy companies on certain safety standards. I know all the toy products made here comply with the U.S. and international regulations. Besides talking with Lam, I also had the chance to meet with several other show suppliers – some from the industry and some that aren’t. One company I spoke to manufactures those really elegant greeting cards sold in the U.S. by retailer Papyrus. Another company supplies housewares and gift items to Pier One and Bed, Bath & Beyond. A third supplier – from Japan – showed me a bunch of relief-from-the-heat novelties that he hopes to soon introduce to companies in North America. The items were pretty clever and have promotional potential. If you want more details, shoot me an email at dvagnoni@asicentral.com. Following the press event, I spent a very educational hour with Jeff Lederer from Prime Line. As he met with a factory contact, I watched him literally take a pitched product and create a design for a new, multi-use pen that I think is really going to do well in the industry. Jeff is also extremely knowledgeable about compliance issues. Our conversation will be part of the video I’m putting together, plus the feature I’ll be writing for Counselor. As I was walking the streets of Hong Kong today, I realized my time in China is passing quickly. With fondness, I thought I’d type out a few things about China that I’ve found particularly odd, humorous or just plain surprising. Here goes.
OK, back to my trip. Tomorrow, after some early meetings with industry folks, I’ll be headed to Victoria Peak and, if all goes according to plan, I’ll close my Friday with a trip to the night market. Anybody have souvenir requests? -Dave
Wednesday
April 27, 2011 The World’s Largest Gift ShowFrom Counselor Senior Writer Dave Vagnoni, our guest blogger who’s reporting from the land of China … Find in your mind an image of the busiest ASI Show you can remember. Now imagine a show at least five times bigger, held on three separate floors in giant halls and concourses, with more than 4,070 suppliers – that’s the Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair. The grandiose event is billed as the largest of its kind in the world, this year hosting exhibitors from 36 different countries. Suppliers here are not only trying to sell products, they’re also looking for new and different items themselves. That means buyers include distributors AND suppliers alike. Promotional products are just a part of what’s on display at the Gift Fair. You can find everything from vacuums to electric-powered butterflies to ribbons. The booths, which are largely pre-built for suppliers, range from simple cubicle-like setups to ornate 20-foot high toy castles. In contrast to an ASI Show, you don’t see much apparel at the Hong Kong Fair. I passed a few Gildan racks, but that was it. Electronics, though, are extremely popular here. While there weren’t any products that wowed me, some of the coolest items were in the tech category. Among a handful of things I hadn’t seen before were colorful 3D cell phone cases, waterproof cell phone pouches and crystal Bluetooth headsets (some pics are below). I also thought the “Push-A-Plant” product was unique for green marketing. With a push of a button, a plant starts growing out of Lego-looking base without needing water for an entire week. Once again on Wednesday, I shadowed Danielle and Randee from Dard, filming them at their booth, on the show floor and at new product meetings. Buyers from all over the world (Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Nigeria and Mexico, to name a few places) visited Dard’s booth to see patented items. Throughout the day, the product hunt continued. Danielle (who is living on grill cheese sandwiches, Raman noodles and other just-add-water delicacies) brought along with her to the Fair a shopping list from customers. She clearly has a keen eye for design. I’ve noticed Randee on the other hand (who has a much more adventurous palette) seems more impressed by practical items. Their balance of opinions was evident during a late-day meeting with a China factory representative that showed off 50 or so products. Danielle and Randee made a series of snap judgments, deciding whether a particular item would play well in their product line and in the ad specialty industry. If there was a brand-new product they liked, they asked the factory for exclusivity. In other cases, they had to weigh whether taking on a product would make sense if a competitor has already started ordering large quantities. There were maybe three or four products Danielle and Randee really loved in the stationery line. I’m sworn to secrecy but I suspect they’ll be offered solely by Dard in the near future. So, to recap, while I didn’t spend 18 hours in the air or get detained by customs agents, Wednesday was still an interesting and exhausting day. I can’t stress enough how massive the Gift Fair is…and how diligent suppliers must be to assure products manufactured in China are stylish, yet socially compliant. Tomorrow, I’ll be back at the Fair interviewing industry suppliers. Plus, I’ll have an exclusive as I visit with Jeffrey Lam, the chairman of the organizing committee for the Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair. Finally for now, thanks everyone for your emails. Please keep them coming at dvagnoni@asicentral.com. Although I won’t be buying any designer suits per one person’s advice, (there are pretty big discounts here on clothes) I will be following a suggestion to visit Victoria Peak for a great view of Hong Kong. Until tomorrow… –Dave
Tuesday
April 26, 2011 Detained At The BorderFrom Counselor Senior Writer Dave Vagnoni, our guest blogger who’s reporting from the land of China … My second full day in China began with a cab ride from my hotel to the Star Ferry. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was involved in a car chase. The driver swerved, then stopped. Sped up, then slammed on the brakes. I found myself holding onto the seat in front of me just to keep my balance. Picture a cab ride through New York City with narrower and curvier streets. When the thrill ride ended, I walked to a lower port terminal to take the ferry across Victoria Harbour to Wan Chai. The fare was incredibly cheap – $2.50 Hong Kong dollars or roughly a quarter in U.S. money. The boat was filled with people – many with newspapers or cell phones in their hands – on their way to work. The five-minute ride left me within a block of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre where the large gift show will begin on Wednesday. Attached to the Centre is the Renaissance Hotel where I met the amazingly helpful Danielle Ruiz and Randee Horwitch from Dard. While Danielle went to her office for some meetings and show prep, Randee and I, along with our translator and tour guide Polly, took a van into mainland China to visit one of Dard’s factories. The trip was mostly along three-lane highways and the writing on the road signs gradually changed from a mix of English and Cantonese into Mandarin-only. We drove through Shenzhen to Dong Guan (Dongguan), whizzing by impressive buildings, fruit and flower stands and tons of construction workers. The roads are well maintained and the infrastructure is much better here than in cities farther inland. The factory wasn’t what I expected and the quality of life for the 300 workers is better than a naive Westerner might think. The average worker earns 3,000 RMB or yuan (about $500 U.S.) each month, but has room and board provided. Workers live in a dormitory adjacent to the factory and receive three meals a day. They typically work from 8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and can leave the gated factory space at night to go into town. The factory grounds also have a soccer field and basketball court. We watched as workers put together, at various stages of production, items like ergonomic mice, pedometers and music players. Every step of the production process is done here – from molding to printing. You can read much more about my factory tour – including my sit-down interview with a worker and my first time eating dried fish and an egg popsicle – in an upcoming issue of Counselor. And now, for the highlight of the day. On our way back to Hong Kong, we, of course, needed to pass through customs and immigration. No big deal, right? At the third of three checkpoints, we (our driver, a factory manager, Randee and I) found ourselves waiting an awfully long time for clearance. The light ahead of us stayed red. Other cars on our right and left were being let through. Not us. Every so often, a customs agent peeked his head out of a small sliding glass window. The factory manager, a man named Michael, assured us nothing was wrong. Then, all of sudden, another agent came rushing up to the side of our car. A siren blasted behind us. The agent asked to board our van so he could escort us to another checkpoint area where we’d be searched. Randee – a bit unnerved as it was– was forced to practically sit in my lap to make room in the car for this customs agent, who didn’t speak English and didn’t have anything close to a smile on his face. We arrived at this other checkpoint and were told to get out. Our belongings were taken out of the back of the van. By now there were four or five other agents walking around us. Imagine what I was thinking. They’re going to confiscate the camera, smash the memory card and break the tripod in half. Turns out my mind overreacted a bit. We were, though, taken to an X-ray room where all our things were put on a conveyer belt. That apparently wasn’t a convincing enough inspection because we were then taken to a small room with white walls, four chairs and a table. The agents again opened our bags. Poor Michael had everything inside of his suitcase taken out and displayed on the table. After this part of the search was over, we were told our van was going to be driven through a giant screening machine. We were asked to sit in this little room and wait…and wait…and wait. Finally, handed our bags, were given the OK to leave. Everything was intact except maybe our sanity. The entire screening process took 45 minutes and the agents thanked us for our patience. Of all of the hundreds and hundreds of cars passing through customs and immigration on this day OURS was the vehicle chosen for a thorough screening. We must’ve been part of a glorious training exercise. Lucky us. At least I’ll always have a good story to tell – one that I’ll be sure to embellish over the years. Hey, how many other people can say they were detained at the China border? I’ll have much more on my trip tomorrow with coverage from the Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair.
–Dave
Monday
April 25, 2011 The Year I Skipped EasterFrom Counselor Senior Writer Dave Vagnoni, our guest blogger who’s reporting from the land of China … It definitely was an odd feeling to leave Philadelphia Saturday morning and finally arrive in Hong Kong late Easter Sunday night. A delayed flight, three-quarters of a day in the air and a 12-hour time difference does tend to rearrange what seems normal. I wound up spending those “missing” hours catching up on some sleep, eating better-than-I-expected airline-provided Chinese noodles and watching in-flight movies (wish I would’ve dozed off during Gulliver’s Travels rather than The King’s Speech). Fortunately, my bags made it to China despite almost being lost in Chicago. Apparently, the destination tag fell off my luggage in transit from Philly. A U.S. Airways representative was nice enough to call me after seeing a contact card and find out where my next stop was. Otherwise, who knows where all my clothes would be now. My trip from the Hong Kong International Airport to my hotel – The W – lacked for drama and I’m grateful for that. The poor driver kept apologizing because more than once he flipped on the windshield wipers rather than the turn signal. He didn’t seem to be a fan of Japanese-made cars. My first impressions of Hong Kong were comforting. It’s amazing how familiar things can look in a strange place. We crossed over a spitting image of the Golden Gate Bridge, dealt with the hassles of some late-night highway construction and passed sign after sign that read: Don’t Drink and Drive. It did take me a while, though, to get settled in my hotel room. I stared at the shower for a few minutes before I figured out how to turn it on (see confounding image below). I suspected operator error when I couldn’t quite get the plug adapter to work. Turns out it was just broken. I couldn’t believe in-room Internet access was $40/hour. Then I remembered to convert the currency and the price significantly dropped. TV here isn’t quite what I’m used to in the U.S. There are versions of ESPN, CNN, CNBC and Fox News, but there’s a clear programming time lag. I quickly lost interest in the Yankees/Orioles game when I already knew who won. So there you have it. That’s a recap of my first hours in Hong Kong. Here’s what you can expect during the coming days: Over the next week, I’ll be following around a few of the good folks from Dard Products. We’ll head to a factory in Shenzhen, experience the massive Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair and haggle to get some deals in a local marketplace. I also plan to interview other industry execs who are here in Hong Kong, as well as some locals to get a sense of trade/labor challenges (and benefits) in Asia. I’ll be taking pictures wherever I am for a slide show, plus I’ll be shooting video that will eventually be turned into a TV-type report, similar to what you might see on the local news (that’s the goal, at least). If anybody has any ideas for places for me to see, or just wants to say hi (either in-person here in Hong Kong or from back home), email me at dvagnoni@asicentral.com. And by the way…Happy Belated Easter! –Dave
Thursday
April 21, 2011 Our Man About China
From factory visits and interviews with key players in Chinese trade and labor, to reports from the Hong Kong Gifts & Premium Fair, Dave is going to collect as much information as he possibly can – including images – and post it all right here in the Team Blog! Later in the year, a full account of Dave’s trip will be posted in Counselor magazine, but for now stay tuned to the Team Blog as our man Dave Vagnoni becomes … Our Man About China! Go get ‘em Dave! – Team Central PS - Subscribe now to Team Blog to get all Dave’s updates from China.
Tuesday
January 4, 2011 Call For Entries: Counselor Product Design Awards
Do you know of a cool, innovative product you think is worthy of recognition? Then you need to submit it for Counselor magazine’s Product Design Awards competition! Here’s how it works: In order to nominate a product, it has to fall into one of the following 14 categories:
Once you’ve identified a category, please submit the following three items:
Please send all entries to: Karen Akers, Awards Editor, Counselor Magazine, 4800 Street Road, Trevose, PA 19053. Questions? E-mail Karen Akers at kakers@asicentral.com. Please note that only products from North American suppliers will be considered and that submissions will not be returned unless specifically requested. And that’s it. Simple, right? Then what are you waiting for?! Get nominating! Want to see winner’s from the past three years? Click here!
Wednesday
November 17, 2010 My Shirt - Hip or Hideous?OK, during yesterday’s ASI Radio Show, I was assuming my normal duties as one of the radio techs, when all of a sudden two minutes into the show my shirt becomes the topic of conversation. Host Melinda Ligos introduced me as usual, then went on to say: “Vinnie’s wearing a very interesting, denim-y shirt today. A lot of sheen to it. So he’s gonna head out to the nightclubs right after this …” (listen to the ASI Radio clip here). And so on and so forth it went. And now my shirt has become something of a discussion piece in the office, flecked with comments ranging from nightclub anticipation to rodeo wrangling. So I have to ask you, what do you think of this shirt?!! Hip or hideous?! Feel free to post comments below … I can take it!
– DiscoVin
Friday
November 12, 2010 Power Summit 2010 WrapFiled under: General, Research
Sunday, Nov. 7 After registration, a commemorative photo, which will appear in Counselor magazine, was shot from the grounds of the beautiful Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club. See the pic here. After the photo, ASI ran a speed networking event that allowed all the guests to interact with each other in three-minute increments. See photos of the speedworking event here, and watch a video of the event with Counselor Editor Andy Cohen here. Finally, dinner and a keynote speech from Sean Snaith, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida. Watch Counselor Editor Andy Cohen interview Snaith following his keynote speech here. Monday, Nov. 8 Monday began with the unveiling of the Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study, which proves that promotional products beat all other forms of advertising mediums in cost-effectiveness. This study, which follows 2008’s landmark study, covers a broader audience as it spans cities such as London, Toronto, Montreal and Sydney. Read all about this study here. And for a quick video summary of the study, don’t miss this video! After the Impressions Study, guests engaged in lively panel sessions including product safety, supplier and distributor roundtable, and more. Watch a Counselor Editor Andy Cohen interview some of the panelists here. And for images from the panel sessions, click here. The afternoon ended with guests having the opportunity to relax and either play golf or tennis. See pics of the the activities here. And the day culminated in the announcement of the vaunted Power 50 list for 2010. See the list here. And watch a video interview with some of the Power 50 here. Tuesday, Nov. 9 Panel sessions continued on Tuesday, with guests engaging in sessions about building buzz. Watch as Counselor Editor Andy Cohen interviews panelists after the sessions here. For complete coverage of the ASI Power Summit 2010, click on the link below: And if you’re interested in registering for next year’s Power Summit, click here.
Wednesday
September 1, 2010 Wearables Best DressedFiled under: General One of this month’s Wearables magazine feature stories focuses on those that not only sell fashion apparel, but also look the part. Introducing images of the 10 most stylish people in the industry! David Frank
Bo Hwang Account Executive, Boxercraft (asi/41325)
Rob Watson
Peggy Peugh
Melissa Cantor
Cindy Jorgenson
Jim Sheets
Paul Kory
Kris Robinson Executive Vice President, PromoShop (asi/300446)
Laura Holt Vice President of the West Region, Geiger (asi/202900)
Read the entire article in this month’s Wearables mag. |
I guess the old saying “
Beginning early next week, my colleague and 
Suppliers, listen up!
If you were unable to attend this week’s ASI Power Summit 2010 from Aventura, Fl., don’t worry … ASI Team Blog has you covered! Here’s a recap of everything that went on at the Power Summit, along with news stories, videos, photos and much more. Enjoy!
