Defending the interests of associated wholesalers, importers, manufacturers and printers of promotional items. This is the firm purpose for which, 23 years ago today, AIMFAP, the Association of Importers, Wholesalers and Manufacturers of Promotional Items, was born.
Since then, the association has not stopped growing and adding companies that enjoy all the services and resources that AIMFAP puts at their disposal to contribute to the promotion of each brand and to the attention of their needs.
At ID GAMAX we wanted to talk with its president, Emilio Estellés-Zanón, to celebrate more than two decades of AIMFAP in the promotional gift sector and to recognise the important role that the association has played, since its beginnings, for all its members and for the sector in general.
AIMFAP was set up on 15th June 1999 with the aim of defending the interests of its members. Emilio, explain to us when did you detect this need and how did you decide to create the association?
At that time, the advertising gift sector was beginning to have a certain entity and was going through an interesting moment: pioneering companies with increasingly consolidated purchases in Asian markets, alongside small companies that were being set up and joining the sector, which led us to consider creating a platform that would bring together only importers, manufacturers and wholesalers of advertising gifts. That is how AIMFAP appeared.
It has been 23 years since then. What objectives did you set at the beginning of AIMFAP? Have these objectives been maintained over the years or have they changed?
AIMFAP has always aimed to defend the interests of its members and to try to provide a consensual voice in the sector in an association in which all its members can contribute their proposals and opinions to make the sector stronger.
What services do you currently offer and what advantages can your members enjoy?
AIMFAP offers advisory services in legislative matters, communication with customers through the newsletter service, as well as the organisation of road shows to bring members closer to their customers in different parts of Spain. In addition, AIMFAP wants to support our associates in their internationalisation process with our presence in the main international fairs of the sector and through our agreement with the main European fairs to obtain discounts in them.
Since the birth of AIMFAP, how has the promotional objects sector evolved over the last 23 years? What major achievements would you highlight?
I think it has been the access to information from suppliers. At the beginning, it was a very closed sector in which it was difficult to enter. The emergence of the internet and social networks has meant that new companies are joining our sector every year. The contract between AIMFAP and FYVAR with IFEMA for the promotion of PROMOGIFT as a strong fair in the sector, without fissures, has been what has allowed the sector to develop significantly in Spain, so that we have large companies in the advertising gift sector at an international level.
From your point of view, what are the main challenges facing the promotional gift sector and what are the keys to achieving them successfully?
Online sales are undoubtedly changing the sector and the way we will relate to our customers in the future. If a few years ago the printed catalogue was the main working tool, new technologies, internet, e-commerce and digital marketing are the keys to face the near future.
How do you evaluate the return of trade shows, fairs and other face-to-face events in the sector after the pause caused by the Covid-19 pandemic?
Contact with the customer always opens up the possibility of doing business, and trade fairs and road shows have proved to be fundamental in our sector, and even more so after the pandemic.
The advertising object sector, like so many others, has experienced a great acceleration in its digitalisation processes as a result of the pandemic. Can digital systems and traditional processes coexist will digital inevitably gain more and more ground?
The irruption of digitalisation is, in many cases, silent. The new digital processes are entering our daily lives and they are here to stay. They will gradually replace traditional systems, which will become obsolete. Dynamic, interactive and permanently updatable digital catalogues will replace paper catalogues, and digital marketing will progressively replace the commercial actions that are currently carried out.
In this sense, despite the growing trend towards digitalisation of advertising campaigns and commercial strategies, is the promotional object still an ally of brands in their marketing strategies?
There is no doubt that, despite all the circumstances, the promotional object is still one of the main options when it comes to designing marketing strategies. In fact, in the period post-pandemic, we have seen a recovery in sales of the “classics”: pens, key-rings, caps and T-shirts, with demand higher than in the pre-pandemic era.
Let’s talk about another rising trend: What does personalisation bring to the promotional gift sector, and have you noticed an increase in the number of proposals from brands?
It is obvious that the personalisation of promotional items brings differentiation to companies. In an increasingly fast-moving and immediate world, those companies with the capacity to provide a global response (product + personalisation) will have a clear advantage over their competitors. New digital printing techniques are changing the world of personalisation as we know it, beginning to displace traditional printing processes such as screen printing and pad printing.
And in terms of sustainability, how is the industry facing the challenge?
On one hand, there is a clear trend with an important presence of eco-friendly and environmentally-friendly products resulting from the popularisation of the use of recycled material fibres. On the other hand, companies are starting to make a clear commitment to sustainability, with the use of renewable and clean energies, as well as the reduction of waste and its recycling.
ID GAMAX receives the AIFAP IDE Award for Innovation, Development and Strategy | promo gift 2020
Every year, AIMFAP awards a prize for Innovation, Development and Strategy among its associates. In 2020, precisely, we received this recognition in ID GAMAX during the celebration of the Promogift Show. What role does the promotion of these values play for AIMFAP in the development of the promotional gift sector?
Since we began our presidency of AIMFAP, we have always been committed to highlighting those companies that stand out for doing something different that involves research, product development and innovative marketing strategies. Thus, the creation of the AIMFAP IDE awards, we believe, is the tool to recognise the efforts of some companies in the sector to innovate, while at the same time serving as a stimulus for many others to advance along this path.
From your position as an association that looks after the interests of the sector, what message would you like to send out?
I would simply like to encourage non-member companies to get to know our association and become part of it, so that we can all work together, from a common position, for the future of the advertising gift sector. At the same time, we must be opened to collaboration with other associations in the sector in order to have a united sector that can be taken into consideration in all institutional spheres.
Happy 23 years looking after the interests of the promotional gift sector AIMFAP!