Moving On

My father and I started this magazine 15 years ago to bring some order to the chaos that characterized the marketing business in the late 1980s.

Back then, marketers were shifting their budgets into direct marketing, sales promotion, trade deals, and other areas that put their messages and incentives into the hands of customers most likely to buy their products or services. At the same time, retailers were beginning to consolidate and were putting pressure on marketers to allocate greater amounts of their budgets to trade incentives and other programs that impacted business at the point of sale.

Standing on the sidelines of this exciting game, my father and I realized that there was no publication covering this revolution in marketing — in which (gasp!) money was being taken out of advertising and plugged into more accountable marketing initiatives, i.e., promotion. We figured that if marketers were going to be devoting more money to this area, they were going to need an objective resource to help them figure out how to do it. Hence, PROMO was born in December of 1987.

It’s been personally gratifying and fun to have played a role in the development of the promotion profession over the years. Starting a magazine and trade show in an industry with an identity crisis was a difficult and scary proposition, especially for two entrepreneurs who didn’t know anything about the magazine business.

But thanks to some good timing, the support of industry people eager to have light shone on their wonderfully creative work, and the efforts of many dedicated employees, we made it happen.

Being part of Primedia for the past six years has also been a wonderful experience. Here I’ve had the opportunity to expand my responsibilities beyond PROMO to a whole group of business publications, and I’ve learned a great deal along the way. In the process, I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the most talented people in the publishing business.

I’m happy to announce that one of those talented people will be running PROMO now that I’ve decided to jump back into the entrepreneurial world. Lisa Vested, who has been the publisher of PROMO’s sister magazine, Special Events, takes the helm this month as publisher of PROMO. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lisa for the past 18 months, and she’s a true pro and a wonderful person. I ask everyone out there (and you know who you are!) to please be nice to her.

While not having a “Kerry” on the masthead (my father and I share the name) might seem a bit odd to some of our longtime readers and advertisers, let me assure you that the magazine is in very capable hands. The dedicated team that puts out this magazine each month has an average tenure at PROMO of six years. That speaks volumes about their dedication to the industry that PROMO serves, and has everything to do with the continued support of all of our readers and advertisers.

Thanks for 15 years of challenges and excitement. And thanks most of all for your support and encouragement. Without that, you wouldn’t be holding this magazine today.

P.S. You can reach me at [email protected].