Promo Through the Years

If you are a reader of The Swag Bag you must be a promo enthusiast, but how much do you really know about the origins of promo? There’s an astounding number of promotional products in today’s world, but when, where and how did promo begin?

The very first step in getting where we are today was in 1440 when Johannes Gutenburg invented the mechanical printing press.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Gutenberg

Commemorative buttons are believed to be the first promotional product.  Soon after George Washington was sworn in as the first president of the United States in 1789, enterprising craftsmen of the day made and sold a variety of these buttons with patriotic designs.  https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/collections-holdings/the-material-culture-of-the-presidency/inaugural-buttons

A few decades later in 1887, Jasper Meek, a newspaper printer, decided to use his printing press to print advertisements on burlap bags for a local shoe store.  He was subsequently labelled the “Father of Promotional Products”.  https://www.printglobe.com/blog/2019/08/15/the-history-of-promotional-products/

Let’s skip ahead to the 20th century.  In 1934, Forrest P. Gill was operating from the basement of his flat.  In 1946 he opened a screen-printing shop and founded Gill Studios.  Here they made bumper stickers, although it was much more difficult that it is today since they used paint and self-adhesive paper!  The bumper stickers were widely used as promo for national elections.  Gill Studios is still operating today.  https://www.gill-line.com/info/about_us

Remember the fidget spinner craze of 2017?  The toys were used as an aid for children with anxiety and ADHD and became a huge branding opportunity   FYI – The fidget spinner was created in 1993 by Catherine Hettinger.  https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/history-of-fidget-spinners/

Today, the promotional product industry’s market size in Canada is $1.3 billion CAD.