PPAI 100 is, of course, a list. But from its initial conception, it was always intended to be more than that. The Association is meant to serve the promotional products industry and be the voice and force that advances the marketplace. Ranking companies, in and of itself, doesn’t advance the promo marketplace. Put together, those rankings need to inform the industry about itself, creating a roadmap for all members. “There’s a trail,” says Josh Ellis, PPAI’s publisher and editor-in-chief, who has overseen PPAI 100 since its creation in 2022. “There are reasons that the strongest companies in our industry are so successful.” In any given year, PPAI 100 aims to highlight those reasons. Over the course of many years, the Association hopes that it will tell a story of the evolution of what industry success looks like. So, whatever you might think about lists, try to consider PPAI 100 as more of a tool. It’s not always about who is better. It’s about what matters for our industry and the companies that are not only embodying that but helping determine it. ‘It Can’t Be A Vanity List’ The genesis of PPAI 100 goes back to PPAI’s former president and CEO, Dale Denham. The organization’s research department had been almost entirely scaled back during the early days of the pandemic. As it started to be reestablished going into 2022, Denham saw an opportunity for a new project that could help make research a hallmark of PPAI once again. “He wanted PPAI to be the most trusted list of industry revenue, but that’s not a new list in the industry,” says Ellis. Denham, Ellis and others considered the possibilities. Lists, by their very nature, might garner a certain degree of attention, which means that debuting one must be done with intention and thoughtfulness, or else not done at all. In other words, what are you trying to accomplish? “It can’t be a vanity list,” says Dawn Olds, who was the chair of the PPAI Board of Directors at the time. “It had to be substantial. It had to be objective.” At that point, PPAI had recently put a lot of effort toward narrowing in on big-picture tenets that were in the best interests of the industry to keep top of mind. Each was a core idea that PPAI would champion, but the member companies would eventually define each one. These ideas helped set the criteria for what would become PPAI 100, or as Olds put it, “What else drives success beyond revenue?” “What we aimed to do was create a list that was more meaningful and in alignment with the strategic goals of PPAI,” Ellis says. “Things like responsibility, digital transformation and getting your employees educated and certified. This is what goes into making a holistically great company.” These have become the criteria for PPAI 100: • Revenue • Growth • Industry Faith • Professional Development • Responsibility • Employee Happiness • Online Prescence • Innovation These things aren’t universally defined; they can mean different things in execution. Ultimately, the companies define them. PPAI 100 tells that story though its list of distributors and suppliers. ‘The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Stay Still’ The promo industry and the Association have existed for over a century. Of course, the terms “digital Elizabeth Wimbush Jessica Gibbons Rauch Dawn Olds Josh Ellis 58 • MAY 2025 • PPAI Must Read | Road To PPAI 100
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