Speed, efficiency and accuracy are everything in today’s competitive promotional products market, where client expectations are higher than ever. Not surprisingly, the firms leading PPAI 100’s Innovation category – those earning High Marks – take a deliberate approach to technology, staying ahead of the curve rather than being reactive.
More often than not, that intentional leadership begins in the C-suite.
At leading companies, digital transformation isn’t simply a job for IT. It’s a leadership priority – one that requires the full weight of executive vision, organizational alignment and a willingness to play the long game.
It Starts At The Top
“Digital transformation can’t live in a silo,” says Jeanelle Harris, CEO of the No. 30 supplier in PPAI 100, Outdoor Cap. “It takes the entire business working together to make meaningful progress.”
Jeanelle Harris
CEO, Outdoor Cap
That includes leadership. Harris says that even with a strong technology team in place – including experts in infrastructure and security, application development, data, and support– she remains directly involved. “As CEO, I stay engaged in shaping and aligning strategies that serve our employees, our customers and our overall security.”
Rob Watson, CEO of Vantage Apparel, sees it the same way. “It’s critically important for me, as a CEO, to be personally involved in driving digital progress,” he says. “Not in terms of writing code or selecting software stacks, but in setting the vision, priorities and culture that make any transformation successful.”
Vantage Apparel ranked No. 14 among PPAI 100 suppliers for 2025. Without executive engagement, Watson says, technology initiatives risk becoming siloed efforts instead of company-wide strategies. “If left solely to a CTO or CXO, digital efforts risk becoming ‘tech projects’ instead of company-wide strategy.”
Placing Bets
With new tools and platforms constantly emerging, the harder question might be: Where do you invest?
For the 2025 PPAI 100, suppliers were measured for their commitment in a number of areas: integrations through PDX or PromoStandards, online payment options, security, data decentralization, transformation readiness and more.
At Outdoor Cap, Harris says the company is always balancing four key areas – improving current systems, integrating platforms, innovating for the future and deciding whether to build or buy.
“Every one of those decisions is anchored in how it will impact both employee and customer experience,” she says. “Tech may move fast, but real transformation takes time.” She points to the recent launch of Compass, the company’s self-service portal, which took nearly three years to go from idea to execution.
Watson says Vantage relies on a set of clear criteria for evaluating any tech investment: Does it improve the customer experience? Does it reduce operational friction? Does it unlock new revenue? And does it support the brand promise?
Rob Watson
CEO, Vantage Apparel
“Every tech investment is designed to make it easier for our customers to do business with us,” Watson says.
At The Magnet Group, ranked the No. 9 leading supplier in the industry, Chief Revenue Officer Dan Jellinek takes a pragmatic approach. “Be smart, be active, be current while having vision toward the future,” he says. The company recently rolled out a new ERP/CRM platform and is prioritizing the accuracy of product data on SAGE and PromoStandards. “I do feel AI will play more of a role in the future,” he adds. “And I do see dollars spent there.”
Beyond Efficiency
For all three companies, the clearest payoff comes in customer experience. Technology helps streamline workflows, speed up turnaround times and reduce friction in ordering and fulfillment.
“Over the last 12 months especially, we have seen the amount of electronic orders grow tremendously,” Jellinek says. “My feelings are the easier we make it for a customer to send us an order, the better. And the better translates to driving revenue.”
Internally, automation and smarter systems allow teams to focus on higher-value work. “It allows us to automate routine processes, make smarter decisions with data, and empower our teams to focus on higher-value work,” Watson says. “Whether that’s simplifying decoration workflows, improving inventory forecasting or modernizing our showrooms, we’re constantly looking for ways to do more – and do it better – with the same or fewer resources.
That’s especially critical as companies look to counter the impact of rising costs and tighter margins. “We’re all dealing with the ‘T’ word [tariffs] and the reality of price increases,” Jellinek says. “If we can all be more efficient, this might help to mitigate or ease some of these increases.”
Dan Jellinek
Chief Revenue Officer, The Magnet Group
More Than IT
Still, all three leaders emphasize that technology alone isn’t enough. Understanding the nuances of the promotional products space – and building or licensing systems that reflect them – is just as important as the tech itself.
“Most technologists don’t come in understanding what it really takes to deliver in this space,” Harris says. “There’s a learning curve when it comes to reducing friction, increasing efficiency and meeting tight customer timelines.”
That’s why, she says, cross-functional collaboration is essential: “Technical skill alone isn’t enough.”
And no matter what the system or initiative, security stays front and center. “Protecting customer data and business infrastructure is just as important as the experience itself,” Harris says.
For PPAI 100’s top performers in Innovation, technology isn’t a department – it is, as Watson puts it, a strategic mindset.
Increasingly, that defines leadership.
