New ESP® Online Upgrade Integrates Member Recommendations

November 10, 2004, Trevose, PA – Advertising Specialty Institute, the largest member organization in the promotional products industry, today launched a powerful upgrade to ESP Online that incorporates breakthrough improvements to benefit both ASI distributors and ASI suppliers.

The upgrade, available at no charge to current subscribers, further demonstrates ASI’s commitment to provide opportunities for subscribers to efficiently do more business.

ASI distributor subscribers can now:

• Assign a “preferred” status to any ASI supplier to track business relationships by writing and storing notes directly in a supplier’s record, which may be kept private or shared with colleagues
• Search and view over 120,000 full supplier catalog pages instantly in a Web browser using ACE (All supplier Catalogs Electronically)
• Conduct searches by line name or supplier name using a single keyword

“As a distributor, the preferred supplier notes feature is extremely helpful and saves me time.  The single keyword search capability is a welcome addition and makes it easier to find what I need.  The product overall is great – even better with this upgrade,” said George Archer, purchasing manager for Paramount Industries, Inc. (asi/290305).

ASI supplier members now enjoy:

• ESP Online for Suppliers, providing exclusive access to view images of own product lines, product descriptions and pricing data (other suppliers’ data remains confidential and is not viewable)
• Greater visibility with more efficient single keyword searches performed by distributor sales representatives
• Increased exposure to buyers presented by capability of ACE (All supplier Catalogs Electronically) to display entire catalog pages for distributors instantly in a Web browser

“We viewed our products with ESP Online for Suppliers and find it extremely useful.  It helps us maintain our data integrity and I believe it is important that suppliers be able to verify pricing,” said Rob Robinson, CAS, advertising and trade show coordinator for Bullet Line (asi/42424).

ASI’s president, Timothy M. Andrews, said “We’re launching ESP Online for Suppliers so that they can see all the information available about their products electronically and in real time.  ESP Online for Suppliers has been used by several members since late summer as part of a market test, and the final version incorporates their feedback.  We have also created ACE, an incredibly efficient search tool that displays entire catalog pages and we also improved keyword search capability – both robust features for all users.”

To learn more about new features with ESP Online Upgrade and how to get a FREE trial, visit www.asicentral.com/ESP Online, 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.asicentral.com.