I had a fascinating meeting.
I sat in on a creative session with Don Draper. You should know Don from Mad Men. He was the ultimate creative director on the TV series. The man I sat with was not Don, but he was the head creative director for two of the three largest ad agencies from the 1960s through the 1990s. He also started his own successful agency.
We were kicking around ideas for a new external website designed to bring people to our community to look at homes. We are a 55+ community and now face immense competition in the Charlotte, NC area. So our conversation centered on our competitive advantage.
We went back and forth for about ten minutes and agreed that our advantage was the lifestyle we offer. If a couple wants a brand-new home, kitchen, and bathroom, that’s not us - we only have resales. However, if a couple wants the most incredible lifestyle, we can’t be beat. One member of our creative team blurted out, “We have a lot of shit here.”
The man I called Don Draper took that phrase and typed the following into one of the many AI programs:
“Give me different ways of saying: we have a lot of shit here.”
Almost instantaneously, the program gave us a dozen synonym-type phrases. We read them all. None were perfect, but there was a theme we noticed in the AI responses - the frequent use of the word “more.”
Once we focused on that word, it took only a minute to land on our catchphrase: Simply More.
We are on our way with:
Simply more trails.
Simply more amenities.
Simply more clubs.
Simply more entertainment.
Simply more sports.
Simply more easy access to shopping - and so on.
The phrase runs as a theme from page to page.
I’m writing about this because of the genesis of those two words. It proved to me - someone who somewhat egotistically believes he is creative - that AI can collaborate with a single person to derive creative text, illustrations, products, and proposals. You drop in the nucleus of your problem and start the dialogue that drives the creative development.
Let’s eliminate the big guys for a moment - the large suppliers and big distributors. They employ a lot of people who can sit in creative sessions. The small-to-medium companies are the ones with limited resources. For them, AI can function as an agency or partner in the creative process.
AI was not around during my 60-year career. For those in the industry today, it vaults you onto a stage where you can compete with the best.
Like most businesses, we are inundated with subscription offers for a gazillion AI programs. But what do we really need - beyond the free tools we already use on a limited basis?
Running a promotional products business in 2026 means you have access to “agentic” workflows - AI tools that don’t just draft text but can build entire campaigns or design systems for you.
To help you choose, here are several top-rated apps categorized by creative function:
Jasper - It can take a thought and build it into a cross-platform campaign.
Copy.ai - Similar to Jasper. It helps build internal capability that would normally require a graphic department and marketing team.
Canva Creative OS - A drag-and-drop platform that is extremely easy to use. It can create designs for bags, email blasts, logos, and more. To access the full range of features, you’ll need a professional subscription.
Pebblely – Perfect for product selling. Upload a photo of a plain promotional item and it places it in a realistic setting (for example, a branded water bottle on a gym bench). Add a logo—or not. If the item is meant for a picnic, place it on a bench, add a few ants, and suddenly you have a product shown in use.
Synthesia – Uses AI avatars to “speak” your script. It’s great for creating professional product tutorials or “how-to” guides without needing to be on camera.
There are dozens more. I suggest exploring the free trials with the same challenge and then scaling everything down to fit your needs and budget.
AI is a long-term challenge for society. But it is an asset to harness for your business today. It can increase sales, decrease creative time, reduce the need for outside intervention, and it can truly blow your mind when it gets to know you and your company.
The more it learns about you, the more it can help you.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds “I was a distributor.” He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is a frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.