The PSI Show, Europe’s largest trade show for the promotional products industry, wrapped in Düsseldorf, Germany, on January 11. It was the most international running of the three-day show yet, with almost 90 countries represented—58 percent of show attendees were from outside Germany, and one out of seven traveled from overseas.
Organizer Reed Exhibitions Deutschland reports 925 exhibitors from 37 countries at this year’s show, drawing 17,342 visitors, including 1,200 end users attending as distributors’ guests on the last day of the show.
PSI Director Michael Freter reports that this year’s show demonstrates that consumers, especially Millennials, are increasingly looking for authentic brand experiences, have fewer reservations and fears about identifying with brands, and are open to showing themselves with those brands. He says, “We’re currently seeing something in many areas that might best be described as an analogue or haptic revolution. These days, in the age of digital reproducibility and arbitrariness, people are looking for things they can experience in tangible and multisensory ways. This is a megatrend which of course has a positive impact on the promotional products industry.”
Europe’s promotional products market is expected to grow 3.5 percent in 2018, according to the current PSI Industry Barometer, a survey of nearly 1,000 promotional products distributors across Europe conducted by the PSI Institute ahead of the trade show. At the PSI Show, GWW, the umbrella association of the German promotional products industry, delivered an update on the industry’s health in the country. Its data showed that the industry exceed €3.5 billion ($4.29 billion) in sales last year, and one out of every five surveyed companies plan on investing more in promotional products in the future.
GWW President Frank Dangmann says, “Today, virtually every large company and 75 percent of all medium-sized companies in Germany deploy promotional products in their customer communication.”
The PSI Barometer also found that more than 90 percent of the surveyed promotional products suppliers and distributors now have certified or verifiably sustainable products in their assortments. For more than half of the suppliers and distributors, sustainable products exceed 30 percent of their complete range.
Among its trade show booths, education opportunities and industry announcements, The PSI Show featured several unique exhibits and platforms to showcase the promotional products field in all its variety, including the Walk of Cotton exhibit, the PSI Catwalk and the GUSTO pavilion. PSI Director Petra Lassahn notes, “Where our power to imagine the diversity of promotional products ends, the PSI Show begins.”
The PSI Show returns to Düsseldorf on January 8-10, 2019.