PPAI members and staff travel to Capitol Hill every spring for Legislative Education & Action Day, better known as LEAD, to advocate for the branded merchandise industry.
Our efforts produced some notable wins in 2025, and to build on that momentum, the Association planned a pilot sister event – LEAD ECHO, or Executive Capitol Hill Outreach – to connect a small cohort of PPAI 100 executives in targeted meetings with federal agency leadership and key members of Congress.
“LEAD ECHO is a powerful demonstration of what PPAI does best: ensuring our industry’s voice is not only heard, but influential,” says Drew Holmgreen, PPAI president & CEO. “By convening the biggest voices in branded merchandise at the national level, we’re shaping a stronger, more resilient future for our members and for the entire branded merchandise community, here and now.”
The government shutdown last fall forced PPAI to postpone ECHO, originally scheduled for early November. Fortunately, the brief partial shutdown earlier this week did not affect Congress or the agencies on the agenda for the rescheduled event, and executives from a dozen PPAI 100 firms took the industry’s concerns to leaders in the nation’s capital on Feb. 4:
- Danny Rosin, Brand Fuel, PPAI Board Chair
- Zack Ottenstein, The Image Group, PPAI Board Chair-Elect and Government Relations Action Council Chair
- Erin Reilly, Pop! Promos, PPAI Board Member
- Samantha Kates, Spector & Co., PPAI Board Member
- Debbie Abergel, Nadel
- John Bruellman, Showdown Displays
- David Geiger, Geiger
- Dan Jellinek, The Magnet Group
- Ira Neaman, Vantage Apparel
- CJ Schmidt, Hit Promotional Products
- Todd Sachs, Bamko
- Tej Shah, Overture
“I am so proud of PPAI’s commitment to aggressively approaching the best ways to effect change at the policy level in D.C.,” says PPAI Board Chair Danny Rosin, co-owner and co-president of Brand Fuel, PPAI 100’s No. 29 distributor. “It’s an investment that will pay dividends for members long-term.”
The group broke into teams to meet with seven Senate offices and one House office, as well as staff for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), before reuniting for a luncheon with the coalitions director for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R- Minn.). Members noted the flags, signs and other promo items decorating the doors of congressional offices.
“You cannot walk the halls of Congress without seeing promotional products,” said John Bruellman, CEO of Showdown Displays, PPAI 100’s No. 8 supplier.
In addition to a one-page summary about the industry and our concerns, attendees gave each staffer a PPAI-branded pen with an NFC chip in the clicker and demonstrated how to use it to link to PPAI’s Promo By The Numbers page with state-by-state information about the scope and economic impact of the industry. These were well received and helped demonstrate the potential of using branded merch to make meaningful connections.
“We used actual merch in our conversations by showing them the pen and creating a lightbulb moment,” said Samantha Kates, president of Spector, PPAI 100’s No. 18 supplier, and a PPAI Board member. “That helped them to have a more intimate connection with our industry.”
After lunch, the full cohort met with officials from the White House Office of Public Liaison and the Commerce Department to discuss the impacts of economic uncertainty caused by rapid changes in trade policy throughout 2025. Members urged federal leaders to consider the effects of these policies and changes on industry companies and workers and requested that the administration take a more predictable approach with longer implementation timelines to help provide stability in pricing and operations.
“We need to show up and have a presence,” said Erin Reilly, founder of Pop! Promos, PPAI 100’s No. 45 supplier and a PPAI Board member. “It’s important to be here and sharing our message, not only that I can be heard here, but also that our membership knows that we’re fighting the fight.”
Attendees also discussed the possibility of tariff carveouts for specific categories, such as manufacturing equipment, drinkware and apparel. They also explained the importance of decoration – much of which is done in the U.S. after a product is imported – and that the bulk of the value of branded products lies in the decoration and customization, much of which is performed by workers in the U.S.
For most of the attendees, LEAD ECHO was their first foray into advocacy.
“I came not knowing what to expect, and the level of engagement we were able to achieve was incredible,” said Tej Shah, CEO of Overture, PPAI 100’s No. 13 distributor. “We had really impactful meetings, the quality of folks we met with was pretty strong, and their level of interest was energizing.”
PPAI’s annual LEAD event is set for April 21, and interested members are encouraged to apply to attend LEAD 2026. Applications are open through February 15.
ICYMI: PPAI Advocacy Report Card: Expanded & Intensified Efforts In 2025
Coincidentally, PPAI scored another win for its advocacy goals this week as Congress voted to approve the renewal of trade preference programs for Africa and Haiti on Tuesday. Renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act – which lapsed on Sept. 30 after more than two decades – has been a key goal for the Association in the past few years, and on Tuesday, the House approved a $1.2 trillion spending package that includes a one-year extension.
Please contact Rachel Zoch, CAS, PPAI’s public affairs manager, at rachelz@ppai.org if you have any questions about regulatory issues or government affairs.
