PSI once again posted new records at the 55th event. In total, organiser Reed Exhibitions Deutschland counted 988 exhibitors (prior year: 932) and 18,094 visitors (prior year: 16,810). For the first time, industry customers invited by promotional products distributors were granted access to PSI on the last day of the event. Until now, the show had been reserved exclusively for promotional products professionals. "If you can’t find ideas here, you’ll have a hard time finding them at all”, Michael Freter, the visibly delighted PSI director, said at the end of the three-day exhibition.

With industry sales of €3.47 billion in the past fiscal year, the promotional products industry asserted itself as a stable fixture in the German advertising market, almost seamlessly continuing the run that led to the current record, which was set last year. Nearly half of all companies now deploy promotional products as part of their marketing campaigns, according to the Industry Barometer, the annual survey presented by the GWW, the umbrella organisation of the German promotional products industry. And the promotional products industry is looking to the future with optimism. The PSI’s latest European industry report, for which the PSI Institute surveyed 1,958 companies in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Italy and Spain, confirms that notion. Altogether, 76 per cent of suppliers (prior year: 62) and 67 per cent (60) of promotional products consultants in Europe recorded year-on-year sales increases in 2016. By contrast, 14 per cent of suppliers (24) and 15 per cent of distributors (20) registered a drop in sales. The majority of companies expect sales to grow over the course of the next five years. The figure for suppliers is 87 per cent (84), for promotional products consultants 84 per cent (83).

The next PSI Show will take place in Düsseldorf from 9 to 11 January 2018.