PPAI's Greatest Companies to Work For list carries weight because employees decide it. Every honoree is nominated internally, and companies only qualify once they hit a minimum survey participation rate, so the results reflect what people experience day to day. 

This year, work/life balance topped the list of reasons employees gave for staying. Trust in leadership and alignment with company values followed closely behind, along with a simple, recurring theme. People want to feel heard, and they want their work noticed. 

For Stran, that tracks with how the company runs internally. Projects get staffed with care, feedback moves through the organization, and people are supported when things get busy. Those same instincts shape how Stran builds programs for clients. A team that feels trusted and heard tends to bring more care to the work it produces. 

PPAI recently unveiled a new strategic plan for the promotional products industry, and the timing says a lot. U.S. distributor growth has run just over 1% year-over-year, lagging inflation and continuing a years-long trend, steady but far from explosive. That backdrop is part of why the plan reads like an industry repositioning effort. 

At its center is a new vision statement, positioning branded merchandise as the premier marketing channel that powers lasting connections, placing merch alongside digital, social and other core channels that support measurable business growth.

The plan runs on three pillars: elevating the industry's positioning through research, advocacy and storytelling; strengthening community across distributors, suppliers and service providers; and equipping members with tools to compete and grow. It also commits to organizational excellence, plus two priorities that cut across everything: sustainability and responsible sourcing, and international partnerships

For marketers, HR teams and brand leaders working with merch, that's worth watching, since better data and a more unified voice should make ROI conversations easier to have.