Branded Drinkware Impressions Fell 59% in 3 Years

Branded drinkware generated an average of 3,162 impressions per item in 2023 — one of the highest figures in the promotional products category. By 2026, that average had fallen to 1,300, per publicly available ASI summaries from the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) 2026 and 2023 Ad Impressions Studies. The 59% decline is one of the sharpest category contractions in the longitudinal data over the same three-year period.

Did branded drinkware really lose 59% of its impression yield?

The data is consistent across ASI's longitudinal methodology, which uses the same recipient survey inputs in both study years to produce comparable category-level averages. Drinkware's 2023 figure of 3,162 impressions per item was among the category's strongest on record. The 2026 figure of 1,300 still clears many promotional product baselines, but the distance from its own prior peak is significant.

Per publicly available ASI summaries from the ASI 2026 and 2023 Ad Impressions Studies:

• Branded drinkware averaged 3,162 impressions per item in 2023
• The same category averaged 1,300 impressions per item in 2026
• The 59% decline is the largest proportional decrease among major tracked categories in the longitudinal data
• Drinkware has been surpassed on impression yield by health-category items (4,000 avg) and bags (4,900 avg) in the 2026 data

How drinkware's change compares against other major categories over the same period:

Per publicly available ASI summaries from the ASI 2026 and 2023 Ad Impressions Studies.

What's driving drinkware's impression decline?

Three explanations are consistent with the data, and they likely operate in combination.

Market saturation is the first and most straightforward driver. Drinkware became one of the dominant promotional product categories during the 2018–2022 period, when branded tumblers and insulated bottles surged in both retail popularity and promotional use. Recipients who now own multiple branded drinkware items spread their use across them — which means each individual branded item generates fewer impressions than it would in a household or office where it's the only branded bottle in circulation. The category's own success created density that dilutes per-item impression output.

Declining novelty is a second factor. When a recipient receives a branded tumbler today, it's unlikely to be the first, second, or third branded drinkware item they've received. Items that feel routine get used routinely — which means less active attention to the brand on the item and fewer conversational moments that would generate secondary impressions from observers. The impression ceiling on a routine item is lower than on one that prompts recipient engagement.

Context concentration is a third contributor. Drinkware is primarily a desk and kitchen item. It generates most of its impressions in a limited range of locations. Categories that have gained impression share since 2023 — bags, health items, power banks — are used across more daily contexts, which multiplies their impression surface. Drinkware's context profile hasn't changed; its category peers have expanded.

What it means for buyers planning drinkware programs

A 1,300-impression average still produces a positive promotional ROI. A $15 branded tumbler generating 1,300 impressions yields a cost-per-impression under $0.012 — competitive with mid-tier digital advertising and significantly better than radio or print at comparable spend levels. Drinkware is not a poor-performing category; it's a contracted one.

The issue for buyers is calibration. Programs designed around 2023-era drinkware impression data will underperform 2026 expectations. Buyers who project 3,000+ impressions per drinkware item when building cost-per-impression models are working from outdated figures. Adjusting projections to the 1,300 average is the correct starting point for 2026 program planning.

Drinkware still works as a program anchor when selected for fit rather than raw impression yield. A branded tumbler given as a client gift, an employee recognition item, or a conference anchor piece serves different objectives than a mass-distribution impression-volume play. For fit-based programs, the 1,300 average is context-specific — premium recipients in controlled distribution tend to generate more impressions per item than mass-distribution averages capture.

Where this fits in the category context

Drinkware's decline is part of a category-level rebalancing that the 2023→2026 longitudinal data makes visible. The branded merchandise trends for 2026 post covers the full consumer preference picture — including how category mix is shifting and which formats are gaining and losing program share among buyers.

For the complete longitudinal and cross-category data set, the industry research pillar indexes all research across the promotional products space.

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Sources

• Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) — Ad Impressions Study, January 2026. Member-gated. Drinkware impression data cited per publicly available ASI press release summaries.
• Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) — Ad Impressions Study, 2023. Baseline year longitudinal data for category impression comparisons.
• Promolistic — First-party catalog and buyer program data from 16,000+ SKU catalog.