The advertising-specialty industry outdid itself last year. According to results from the Advertising Specialty Institute’s (ASI) annual sales analysis, the market raked in $18.6 billion—an increase of 4.5% from 2005 and a new record. ASI also reports that spending on ad specialties outpaced the growth rate of the US GDP and was almost twice as large as Internet display advertising, nearly fives times greater than outdoor advertising, and more than cable TV advertising for the same period.

ASI’s findings credit the growth to the health of the North American economy and increased interest from businesses in using advertising specialties as an alternative to other forms of advertising and as an integral part of their marketing campaigns. “The advertising-specialty industry is extremely robust, and as this analysis indicates, has set an unprecedented record of continued growth and increased sales for the last four years,” says Timothy M. Andrews, president of ASI.

ASI’s estimate of sales in the ad-specialty industry is derived from a census of total ad-specialty sales from more than 20,000 ASI distributor members in North America. These members represent approximately 95% of all sales volume in the industry, and ASI assigns a median dollar value to the remaining 5% that are not members of the organization. ASI reports that its distributor members are optimistic about 2007, but they’re keeping an eye on price volatility for natural resources used in manufacturing, availability of competitive information accessible online, and the emergence of China and India as more stable manufacturers of high-quality products. For more information, visit www.asicentral.com.