Magellan Receives PPAI Growth Award

Magellan Promotions Named PPAI High Marks For Growth 2025

August 14, 2025

Magellan Receives PPAI Growth Award We’re thrilled to share that Magellan Promotions has been recognized by PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) for outstanding growth in their recent report on top-performing companies in the branded merchandise industry. Out of 15,000 member companies, we were among just 47 companies highlighted for an exceptional growth rate. From 2021 to 2024, our revenue grew by 88%, a milestone that reflects our team’s dedication, our strategic direction, and the lasting trust of our clients. As we celebrate 20 years in business this year, this recognition

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2025 Future 50 Company

Magellan Promotions Named 2025 Future 50 Company Winner

August 14, 2025

2025 Future 50 Company We’re proud to share that Magellan Promotions has once again been named a Future 50 company by BizTimes Media, in partnership with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC). This marks our fourth time receiving the honor, a reflection of our sustained growth and the strength of the relationships we’ve built with our clients and partners. Now in its 36th year, the Future 50 program recognizes the fastest-growing privately owned companies in southeastern Wisconsin. The award highlights businesses that are creating jobs, fueling innovation, and making

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Annual Giving collectable merch strategy

Campaigns with Collectable Merch Boost Annual Giving

July 28, 2025

Annual Giving collectable merch strategy Building a successful donor campaign takes time, creativity, and coordination. Annual Giving often feels like reinventing the wheel with new themes, new merch, and new assets. So, what if your most effective campaign didn’t need to be reimagined every year? What if you could just refresh it and give your donors something to look forward to year after year? That’s exactly what happens when you treat your branded merch strategy as a collector series. By creating a set of limited-edition items that build off each

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yard signs outperform billboard advertising

How Yard Signs Outperform Traditional Billboard Advertising

July 8, 2025

yard signs outperform billboard advertising Often, the best ideas aren’t about spending more. They’re about spending smarter. That’s especially true when it comes to student recruitment. Colleges often ask us how to get their name in front of prospective students and families in a more effective way.  Many institutions invest heavily into billboards, and while they may offer high visibility, they also come with high costs, limited targeting, and short lifespans.  Our take is simple. Invest in a yard sign campaign.   Yard signs do exactly what billboards can’t. They generate

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automated donor merch mailings

Automating Donor Mailings with CRM Integration

June 29, 2025

To date, modern CRM’s have done a great job of creating powerful electronic communication flows with emails and texts. The CRM’s allow users to set it and have it automatically run. We believe the next step is to have this functionality with mailing merch. Merch is the only form of marketing that recipients are truly excited to receive. It builds positive affinity and is memorable and influential. Having merch mailings integrating into CRM campaign comm flows is a powerful combination. To date, we have been working with the CRM Slate,

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Parent engagement in college admissions

My Marketing Experience with My Son’s Recruitment Journey

June 13, 2025

Parent engagement in college admissions I just lived the experience of being a parent through the college recruitment process. With our company’s collegiate focus, my antenna was up as I paid attention to communication to my son and my wife and me. I have a few takeaways that I wanted to share for colleges to consider as they plan for the next cycle.  For context, my son applied to four colleges and we visited all of them his junior year. Since none of them were local, we did not attend

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Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”