PR agencies may collectively represent a $4 billion industry (and growing) but they don't hold a candle to the promotional products business when it comes to bowling for client
dollars. According to the Advertising Specialty Institute in Langhorne, Pa., makers of silk-screened stress balls, personalized key tags, logo T-shirts and other branded schwag
pulled in $15 billion in annual sales in 2000, with purchases from high-tech, pharmaceutical and hospitality companies accounting for $2 billion of that pie. Among the biggest
corporate tchotchke spenders:
- Pfizer ($86 million)
- GM ($81 million)
- AT&T ($59 million)
- PepsiCo ($53 million)
- P&G ($52 million)
- Sears ($45 million)
- IBM ($45 million)
- Intel ($45 million)
- Philip Morris ($44 million)
- J.C. Penney ($40 million)
(Advertising Specialty Institute, 800/326-7378)