Category: Interviews/ Profiles

Now more than a quarter of a century young, merchandise supplier Preseli was formed in a way that will be familiar to many businesses in the industry.

Jon Birrell, the BPMA CEO, recently took part in a. BBC World Service radio programme called The Why Factor. The programme, which is to be broadcast later in the year examined the complexities around giving presents. As an industry expert, Birrell was invited to talk about promotional gifts having the ability to trigger an emotional reaction, resulting in a smile and a ‘thank you’ from the recipient. “Companies are very happy to create this level of positive feelings associated with their brands,” he said. “Compare this reaction to other forms of media that are here today and gone tomorrow.

Q. What have been the milestones in your career?

A. My early management career was in the blue-chip corporate arena latterly with Thorn EMI. In 1987 I joined the now defunct, but legendary, Bourne Publicity. At the time it was the largest distributor in the UK and an exciting innovator that everyone looked up to. In 1990 I joined Dowlis Group as managing director and with a great team, we grew the company from£1.9 million to £13m turnover in 12 years, firmly establishing it as the largest independent promotional merchandise distributor in the UK. In 2002 I decided I wanted my own business and Dynamic Image was founded.

Located in London’s trendy digital quarter of Shoreditch, fast-growing digital marketing community Digital Doughnut has become one of the most sought-after platforms for marketing content to be published online, and its marketing push-pull approach reaches 1.1 million members.

In more than 10 years in the merchandise industry I am often amazed at the missed opportunities by distributors for delivering real impact to the end user. Without design, a promotional product is just a product. A pen in an office drawer, a mug left on the shelf or a bag for life discarded to never fulfil its purpose.

Saxoprint is launching its new solution for resellers, Saxoprint Partners, at Merchandise World. The service provides a white label print solution, that can be branded for distributors to deliver a scalable robust print solution to their existing and new clients. With wholesale pricing, distributor discount and an invoicing solution, Saxoprint Partners will enable distributors to offer a range of printed products.

Our resident technology expert, Matt Pluckrose answers more questions on how tech is influencing product media.

Q. What external technology do you see affecting promo tech in the coming months?

A. As always technology is racing and currently the buzz areas would include the Internet of Everything, artificial intelligence, VR and AR, with 5G to come plus new updated software and hardware such as Bluetooth 5. Such changes are developing new product markets including smart home speakers (Alexa, Google home, and so on), internet/wireless security devices, self-driving cars, wearable technology – the list goes on.