ESP® Online Upgrade Delivers New Breakthrough Features

TREVOSE, PA – May 24, 2005 – Advertising Specialty Institute ® (ASI ®), the largest member organization in the promotional products industry, today launched a new upgrade to ESP Online that provides ASI distributors with the new Client Projects information organizational tool and offers ASI suppliers display advertising.

The upgrade, available at no charge to current subscribers, provides opportunities to increase sales by tailoring presentations for clients, improving efficiencies and providing more marketing opportunities.

ASI distributor subscribers can now:

•	Save CenterStage™ presentations, product searches and important notes to specific client folders with the new Client Projects feature
•	Access Client Projects information and subscriber preferences online anytime from any Internet-enabled computer that has an active ESP Online license
•	Export product information from ESP Online directly to ASItransact™ electronic order management system or ProfitMaker® accounting software from ASI Computer Systems, Inc.®

“For distributors, many have told us they’re pressed for time in today’s mobile business environment, so they can now access their sales information online more conveniently from more places,” said ASI’s president, Timothy M. Andrews. “For suppliers, targeted display advertising now allows them to increase their reach to distributors by providing search-specific offers. We constantly listen to our members and incorporate their suggestions into product releases to help them grow their businesses.” 

Feedback from ASI distributors has been positive.

David Regan, vice president of sales for The Vernon Company (asi/351700) said: “ASI’s ESP Online program is an integral part of the Vernon support team and the new Client Projects features will be very helpful. We appreciate your efforts in making this one of the best programs in the industry. We couldn’t live without it!”

Michael Fink, president of GWS, Inc. (asi/200095), said: “The improvements to ESP Online continue to pay off. Not long ago, we were asked for ideas involving a promotion for our client’s Web-based, time-saving product. We had two hours to come up with ideas and pricing and only three weeks to deliver. With ESP, we soon had six different ideas, pictures and pricing options to our client via e-mail and received an order for $250,000 before the end of business that day.”

For suppliers, the upgrade now offers:

•	Advertising with banner graphics and text messages on search screens, providing exposure to distributors at the actual point-of-sale
•	Enhanced image quality and optimization for viewing and printing all ESP Online supplier product images
•	Increased exposure to buyers through the capability of ACE® (All supplier Catalogs Electronically) to display entire catalog pages for distributors instantly in a Web browser

Supplier members are looking forward to the enhancements.

David Vogelhut, sales representative for 13 years with American Apparel, Inc. (asi/35297), said: “For me, these upgrades continue to make ESP Online a tool that is easy to use. I see it as a powerful tool when I get a request from a distributor who needs a specific style. I can send a sharp, clear picture of our long-sleeve T-shirt, tailored specifically for the distributor. Everything’s very defined and I can go from generic to extreme detail. For a person like myself, with little computer knowledge, its ease of use is amazing.”

Jennifer Lee, vice president of Otto International, Inc. (asi/75350), noted: “We are so excited to begin advertising our hats and specials in ESP Online. We’ve always felt that ESP Online is a great way to get product exposure and orders, and now we’ll be able to build on that with even more targeted marketing campaigns.”

To learn more about new features with ESP Online upgrade or how to get a FREE trial, visit the ASI booth, #1218, at the ASI Show! Philadelphia on May 25 or call ASI Member Services, at 800-546-1350.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 20,000 distributor firms (sellers) and suppliers (manufacturers) of promotional products. Suppliers use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 17,000 ASI distributor firms. Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 700,000 promotional products, to locate suppliers and to market services to buyers of promotional products. ASI was founded in 1950 and employs 400 people. It provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools. Visit www.dev-asicentral.com.