issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . october 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message this article relies largely or entirely upon a single source . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . october 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message advertising specialty institute type privately held company headquarters trevose pa united states of america key people norman cohn chairman timothy andrews president and ceo website asicentral.com the advertising specialty institute asi is a for profit organization serving the advertising specialty industry which mainly creates and distributes promotional products . 1 members of asi include both manufacturers and suppliers of promotional merchandise as well as promotional product distributors such as howard roe gift solutions www.howardroe.com . asi s main business is organizing and classifying suppliers products in catalogs allowing for easy reference by promotional product distributors and sales people . both parties join asi for a substantial fee . asi is part of the norman cohn group of companies norman cohn is a philadelphia pa . resident . in addition to its cataloging service asi publishes magazines and informational literature for the promotional products industry and also holds conventions each year . the asi show is held in a few major u.s. cities throughout the year and features a keynote address by a well known marketer celebrity or other well known figure . contents 1 history 2 asi numbers 3 other asi features 3.1 asi show 3.2 publications 4 references history edit before asi there was no paper based resource for finding promotional products or their suppliers . small sales people relied on separate paper catalogs from individuals from each individual supplier . in 1950 promotional product salesman joseph segel created his own directory called the advertising specialty register and started the company advertising specialty institute . in 1964 the company was sold to maurice cohn whose family still owns the company today . 2 asi numbers edit asi numbers are an optional identification code assigned to paying asi members by the asi organization . it provides an easy way for distributors to classify and record different promotional products and suppliers in their sales records and serves as proof of activity as a verified supplier or distributor in the industry . other asi features edit asi show edit started in 1998 the asi show is one of the many annual industry trade shows that brings together suppliers and distributors together to showcase the latest promotional products of the year . 3 asi also brings in keynote speakers and holds workshops and seminars for asi members . asi shows are held in orlando dallas long beach new york and chicago . publications edit asi publishes several magazines for the advertising specialty industry and has created other online educational and new resources for promotional products companies . 4 counselor is its flagship magazine covering the entire promotional products industry . advantages is a magazine for promotional products sales people . stitches is a magazine for the custom embroidery industry . wearables is a magazine for the promotional apparel industry . references edit what is asi . asi . retrieved 10 october 2011 . history of asi . asi . the asi show about . asi . retrieved 10 october 2011 . magazines . asi . retrieved 10 october 2011 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title advertising specialty institute & oldid 740877407 categories advertising organizationshidden categories articles with a promotional tone from october 2011all articles with a promotional tonearticles needing additional references from october 2011all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 23 september 2016 at 22 15 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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