The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) this week unveiled a new superhero of the promotional products industry to spread the word about a $17 billion industry that braved the recession and grew by 9.1 percent in 2010.

Promo Man speaks with authority on the promotional products industry and to ASI's global ad specialty survey, which provides proof that promo products beat prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available. Promo Man gets his superpowers from seemingly ordinary items like pens, T-shirts, caps and coffee mugs that are transformed into super promotional products when imprinted with a logo or slogan to promote a business, organization, product, service, achievement or event.

In his YouTube debut, "The Adventures of Promo Man," the superhero helps a struggling businesswoman by showing her the effectiveness of ad specialty items. Click here to watch the video and click here to check out Promo Man's website. Email the links to clients and prospects and include it on your company's email signature. In addition, comment, like, share and circulate the link wherever possible – including: Facebook. For those with Twitter accounts, Tweet the video using this shortened link: http://bit.ly/fkUqdA.

The video and subsequent marketing campaign are part of ASI's ongoing efforts to educate end-buyers and promote the ad specialty industry.

"To get the word out in this electronic age, we tapped the power of YouTube with a campaign that's as catchy as it is educational," said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. "By using a fun character like Promo Man, we capture the media's attention - and then hit them over the head with great industry statistics on the power of promotional products that demonstrate the business case for our industry. The end result is coverage of our industry that circulates a positive message to end-buyers everywhere."

The end-buyer education campaign consists of:

To date, the PR campaign has resulted in nationwide TV coverage, on news stations in Dallas, Winston-Salem, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego and Arizona. In addition, press releases circulated throughout 2010 resulted in pick-ups by websites, online publications and business journals with a total potential circulation of 411 million.