Raise your hand if you've seen or used the new IMA membership marketing brochure created last year. If you haven't, take a few minutes to go to the IMRA website to check it out. We've posted a PDF copy of the brochure there for easy access. The brochure provides a cohesive picture of what the IMA and the SIGs and Chapters do, how they relate to each other, and how IMA members can help businesses improve.

IMRA is encouraging each member to think about the people you've met in the past month and reach out to one supplier or rep colleague who could benefit from IMRA membership. Send them a short email with a link to the brochure or download a copy and attach it to your email.

IMRA leaders have also been working with the IMA marketing staff to fine-tune and strengthen our messaging and increase our audience reach. For example, many of the stories featuring IMRA members and messages about the value of using IMRA reps and suppliers appear in industry trade publications. Through a new social media outreach effort we've been able to share those stories with a wider audience of business leaders, including small businesses and sales managers. We are monitoring results of the efforts, which include links back to resources on the IMRA website.

We're also encouraging members to support the silent auction at the IMRA Marketing Conference next month. This year's proceeds will help fund IMRA's marketing efforts to raise awareness of the important role of incentive merchandise in corporate gifting programs with public and related industry audiences such as the promotional products providers.

IMEX America 2017 planning is underway. Again, IMA is offering to share its booth with interested IMA members. Each year IMA and the companies who share our booth find great success at this event.

Last year nearly 12,000 visitors attended the IMEX America conference. Every one of our booth partners were able to pre-schedule one-on-one appointments with potential buyers. The IMA staff supported booth partners to ensure that they took full advantage of the promotional opportunities associated with exhibiting at IMEX.

If you are interested in participating in a booth with IMA, please email IMA's Executive Director, Karen Wesloh.

We've all heard it. Heard from our customers. Heard from our sales teams. Heard from end-users. "What's new? Show me something I haven't seen before."

Using merchandise for recognition and reward meetings is arguably the most exciting opportunity for incentive merchandise suppliers in the current market environment. For those who select rewards, merchandise used in conjunction with an award trip is a force multiplier in the goal of recognizing and rewarding top performers with a memorable experience. As we learned from the Incentive Marketing Association's "Participant's Study," it's all about the experience.

Read full article here

Over the years Pete Mitchell has shared his knowledge, time and wittiness with our industry.  IMRA has definitely benefited from his expertise and dedication.  Here are some parting words from Pete.  Let's send him some love and appreciation to petemitchell@sc.rr.com. 

Congratulations Mike Landry!


Message from Mike:

I am looking forward to chairing the IMA Circle of Excellence Awards Task Force. The task force plans to focus on continuing to build awareness of the awards and expanding the reach of the post-awards public relations. We look forward to showcasing the wonderful achievements of IMA members!

Seiko Corporation of America, is proud to announce the hiring of Marketing Motivators, Inc., joining the elite group of IMRA Reps that are a part of The Seiko Nation.  Marketing Motivators, Inc. is a manufacturer's representative firm serving the sales promotion industry throughout the Midwest.

Read full release here

Longtime account executive for the group's flagship brand, Sales & Marketing Management magazine, Gardner will bring strategic media and marketing expertise to advertisers, sponsors, and marketing partners. 

Read full release here

Spring is on the horizon and many are looking forward to being past the busy period of traveling to multiple industry shows.  Along with the general fatigue that comes with them and the work involved, some of us may even be just recovering from the colds we picked up earlier in the season.  After returning home, we have to try and get over these infections, and hopefully keep from infecting someone else in the family.  

One of the "threats" or "promises" of the Internet and technology in general as we have seen them progress over the past 25 years has been the doing away with the need to travel and attend big trade shows because the information previously gained from attending such shows would be able to be accessed right from your computer.  We have seen many attempts at making virtual trade shows a reality but most can agree they generally fall short in the experience they deliver. 

Two technologies have been getting some attention due to the progress being made on them recently, and are maturing in such a way that trade shows are just one possible use of their ability to transport you into a virtual world.  In Tech Trends we take a look at both VR and AR; Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.  These are two related but different technologies that may never be able to fully replace trade shows because there is nothing like being there to engage with people in person, they are worth taking a look at as they will be making a big impact on many areas of our lives in the next few years.  Trending at RepLink is a reminder about our monthly user group meetings and where to register for the next one.

By David Boodey

Even if you are not a major sci-fi fan it would be hard not to be familiar with the show Star Trek's idea of a holodeck; an empty room into which you can step and with the assistance of a computer generating images and other sensory influences, feel like you are somewhere else.  The holodeck remains science fiction for now, but Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies are being developed to help bring some of its promise to reality.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are related but different.  Virtual Reality is more similar to the idea of the holodeck, where you are entering into and interacting with a world completely separate from your own.  Augmented Reality is about taking the world around you and "augmenting" or adding to it in order to enhance and enable your experience.  Augmented Reality seems to be getting more traction and attention due to its more immediate applications but both technologies are finally starting to come into their own.  It is believed that in the next 5 years both consumer and professional implementations will be common and accepted as every day normal - not just cutting edge toys used by a few.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is generally implemented with some sort of eye covering, replacing your real-life view with computer aided stimulus for your eyes and at times your ears.  Currently the eye covering takes the form of large goggles that are placed on the head and over the eyes of the person experiencing the new world.  Some sort of glove or other controller is also provided to enable interacting with what one is seeing.

There are applications for Virtual Reality in almost any area including the Military, Education, Healthcare, Entertainment, Fashion, Business, Engineering, Sports, Media, Telecommunications, Construction, and Film.  Many of the examples of applications in each of these industries center around training of one sort or another, from Flight and Surgical simulations without the risk of injury or damage to 360 degree view and experience of products.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Apple and many more are working hard to bring the first solutions to you today and pushing the technology to come up with the next big thing with VR that is easy and powerful enough to grab the attention of people and make it common place. 

The most well-known recent attempts at bringing VR to the consumer are Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, and Samsung Gear VR.  These are all gadgets available to the public at reasonable costs.  More advanced and costly products are being developed for industry specific uses, like flight and medical simulations.  While not available to the public right now, advances in these higher end devices are quickly trickling down to more accessible products.
Look here for more info on what these and other companies are doing with VR.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) seems to have come after the beginnings of Virtual Reality.  It is odd that is the case because in some ways it may seem AR is a subset or is less ambitious than Virtual Reality.  The truth is, that in by doing "less", AR finds it strength.  Rather than block out your current world, AR enhances it by providing additional information about the real world around you.

Professional sports are all using AR in the broadcasts of their games.  Examples include highlighting the first down line in football to making it easier to spot the puck and ball in hockey and golf by making them glow or adding tracking lines to the screen.  In a way, these are easier than offering personal experiences as there is a set "field" that can be equipped with special cameras and computers focused on bringing a very specific augmentation to many viewers with in a single view.  

Day to day personal uses of AR include having some sort of glasses or monocle with ability to overlay information that changes as you look at different objects or directions.   Imagine someone walking up to you at a work event that you may not remember, but their image is stored in your contacts and as they approach and the computer connected with your glasses identifies them, it displays their name and other information for you to see.  Being a tourist will become more informative with AR as applications identify places and things as you look at them to provide you with background, history and other useful information.  Another good example of AR is their use in automobile windshields with Heads Up Displays that provide additional information about the road around the driver with minimal distraction and no need to look down, away from the road.

Microsoft has directed much of its efforts in the VR/AR space to AR and their implementation of it in their headset they call Hololens.  There is an interesting video that demonstrates the possibilities of AR. On this page Microsoft references Mixed Reality, yet another term.  Mixed Reality is really AR+ where in addition to layering on top of existing objects in your world, new objects are created and added to your view of your reality.

Game Changer

Whichever form of altered reality makes it to the public consciousness and everyday use first, in whole with VR or in part with AR, the signs are there that indicate in a few short years we will be interacting with our devices and the world around us in a much different way than we are today. 

Trending at Remember we are having our regular user group meetings every month.  Check your RepLink home page for the link to register.  New features and additions are being introduced each month at the meetings, don't miss them.  If you do, a link to the recording of the latest one is posted on your home page for at least a few days after each month. As always, if you need any help with RepLink, email help@replink.com or call 877-757-4321 Ext. 1