They’re often referred to as “trinkets and trash,” but their official name is promotional products and they are treasure for Walter Hill Jr.
He’s co-founder and president of brand marketing company Icon Blue. The Miracle Mile company has long specialized in branded merchandise, such as pens and notebooks with company logos on them, often given away by companies at trade shows.
In recent years, he’s pushed his business into a new direction by distributing such items as uniforms and chairs and other so-called supply items.
The change proved transformative and he now is increasing his staff of 10 to 15, and plans to move into a larger space in Los Angeles by the end of this year.
“The supply business is very sustainable,” Hill said. “Customers order year round whereas promotional products are usually event driven.”
The transformation started with American Honda Motor Co. in Torrance, which has been a client of Icon Blue for 10 years. It is a relationship that started with a $300 order for pens and evolved into business worth more than $2 million a year.
Charles Harmon, senior manager of corporate procurement and corporate services for American Honda, said because of Hill’s expertise, American Honda asked Icon Blue to produce “portfolios” – owners’ manuals given to car dealers that go inside new Honda cars.
“You have a number of people who are in this business and you try to work with them,” Harmon said. “It’s hit and miss, but Walter has never let me down.”
Another of Icon Blue’s clients is Live Nation Entertainment Inc., a live-events company in Beverly Hills. Live Nation approached Hill four years ago to design and manufacture fold-out chairs, imprinted with “Rented” on the back; concertgoers can rent them at outdoor performances.
Hill said Live Nation came to him after experiencing quality and delivery issues with a manufacturer. He had never distributed chairs before, but he did have designers he contracts with in India and a network of manufacturers in China, so he was able to fill the order.
“It’s not considered a promotional product, but we ended up manufacturing thousands of chairs,” Hill said.
Licensing veteran
Hill and his wife, Bonnie, who serves in a supportive role, founded Icon Blue in 1998 with three employees. Before that, he had worked in the licensing business from the early 1980s and into the early ’90s. He was an Olympic Games licensee in 1984, creating the first Olympic athlete trading cards, and worked with Coca-Cola Co. to feature the cards as cutouts on Coca-Cola packages.
Mementos of Hill’s work such as a “Star Wars” mug from the ’70s and a John Wayne calendar for the former Federated Department Stores, now Macy’s Inc., are on display inside a glass case inside Hill’s office on the sixth floor of a Wilshire Boulevard high-rise on the Miracle Mile.
Clients who want promotional items – still the majority of business for the company – can choose from Icon Blue’s library of more than 50,000 products ranging from ceramic coffee mugs to eco-friendly tote bags.
The company averages 4,000 orders a year. Larger orders, which cost more than $5,000, are manufactured in China. Small orders, those less than $500, are made in the United States.
Macy’s is one of Icon Blue’s major clients and places about 1,000 orders a year, sometimes distributing 20,000 products to 800 Macy’s stores across the country.
Promotional marketing is a growing industry, with sales of $19.4 billion in 2012, up 5.2 percent from 2011. But it’s highly competitive, said Dave Claunch, executive vice president of sales at Activate Promotions and Marketing in Charlotte, N.C.
“You have thousands and thousands of smaller companies buying from the same manufacturer and competing for the same market,” he said. “There are few barriers for entry. It doesn’t take a lot of capital to get started.”
In addition to American Honda, Macy’s and Live Nation, Hill’s client list includes Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Fox Television and Smashbox Cosmetics.
Once he gets new office space, Hill intends to purchase larger computer monitors for conducting video conferences with his manufacturers in China and designers in India. Also, he’ll furnish a staff lounge to create a more fun environment with games such as darts and maybe even a pingpong table.
But they’ll still take the work seriously. Icon Blue created a mailer for JPMorgan in New York to promote a campaign for “a better way to save for college.”
The mailer was fashioned like a large book. Inside, a broker receiving the mailer found a silver and blue ballpoint pen, a notepad that also functions as a mouse pad, a USB drive keychain featuring a 30-second pitch about the program, along with a sleeve containing a brochure. All of the merchandise was branded with JPMorgan’s name.
The average readership of a mailer is 2 percent to 3 percent, said Hill, but the JPMorgan mailers received a readership of 80 percent to 85 percent. The basic focus is still brand awareness.
“It’s not going to work miracles,” Hill said. “All it does is help people remember. It triggers recall. That’s all, but that’s enough.”
