Consolidated Marketing Services Acquires
Award-Winning Promotional Merchandise Agency
Progressive Promotions
Merger creates one of nation’s largest women-owned branded merchandise agencies
Somerville, Mass. (February 4, 2021) — Consolidated Marketing Services (CMS) is thrilled to announce the acquisition of award-winning promotional merchandise agency Progressive Promotions. Progressive, which was founded in 1987 and which had its strongest year ever in 2020, will retain its Englewood, New Jersey office, personnel and contact information, and will henceforth be known as “Progressive Promotions, powered by Consolidated Marketing Services.”
The merger creates one of the largest certified women-owned promotional merchandise agencies in the United States and a powerhouse international provider of custom and e-commerce promotional programs that help companies, governments and institutions build brands, grow sales and profits, engage employees and achieve their cost savings and ROI goals.
The combination of CMS, an industry leader in in-house developed e-commerce programs enhanced by kitting and fulfillment via a network of company-owned warehouses, and Progressive Promotions, whose creative custom programs serve a wide variety of blue-chip clients, makes CMS/Progressive one of the most formidable agencies in the space. Clients both existing and new will benefit from expanded capacity and a wide variety of new products and services that each bring to the other organization.
“Combining services and sharing our breadth of expertise with another like-minded, industry-leading, woman-owned business only solidifies our position as the go-to for marketing and promotional products for enterprise-level clients,” said Charleen Smotrycz, President of CMS. “This acquisition will further allow us to attract additional blue-chip clients and large, complex projects on a national and global scale.”
“In today’s constantly-evolving digital world, reliable and consistent technology is crucial to the overall success of a company, and CMS’ technology team proves that,” said Julie Levi, CEO and founder of Progressive Promotions. “We were attracted to CMS for their best-in-class, enterprise-grade, e-commerce services offerings, which is a perfect complement to the innovative products and services we currently offer.”
Levi continued, “In CMS we saw many synergies between our two companies. Culturally we knew they would value our employees and help take them to the next level professionally. Globally, we knew they would enhance our presence and enable seamless expansion to many countries. Additionally, their in-house design, data analytics, and sophisticated print management teams will help create a one-stop shop for our clients’ marketing execution needs.”
Progressive Promotions and Consolidated Marketing Services’ combined client roster includes American Express, ADP, Avis Budget Group, Baxter, KraftHeinz, John Hancock, Levi’s, MetLife, MassMutual, PGA, PNC Bank, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Tommy Hilfiger/Calvin Klein, and dozens more.
About Progressive Promotions
Progressive Promotions is an award-winning global promotional merchandise agency that provides programs that generate strong, measurable results and support clients’ brands and growth objectives via high touch customer service and e-commerce solutions. For more information, please visit www.progressivepromotions.com.
About Consolidated Marketing Services
CMS is a nationally certified women-owned business enterprise (WBENC), servicing a wide range of national and global customers from a variety of industries. As a leader in special event merchandising, identity apparel programs, branding and developing products, pop-up experience shops, and e-commerce programs, CMS’ relentless focus on creativity and customer service enables their clients to differentiate themselves from the rest of the marketplace. For more information, please visit www.cmsassociates.com.