The results that come out of PPAI Research’s public data are the product of a rigorous, multi-pronged processes. There are surveys. There are calculations. There are statistics. Those statistics are double-checked. In most cases, the PPAI Media team runs these findings by industry leaders to get a better understanding of what they mean to the bigger picture. Eventually, they are presented and contextualized for our readers. PPAI Research is always evolving and improving, but the Association prides itself on getting things right.
This is… not that.
PPAI’s top number crunchers were not torn away from their regular projects to help determine the #Online18. This process is more about feel. We don’t so much pride ourselves on being right on this list as much as we are going with our gut. This is how the list has always been created, and if anyone asks us to change, we’re going to complain and be real huffy about it. But we did poll past #Online18 recipients for new nominations. And we did ask some of the people around the office with the prettiest Instagrams to weigh in.
By all means, tell us if we’re wrong. (But please be kind, we aren’t as tough as we look.)
SEE MORE: The 2024 #Online18
We know this is a community for which understanding the importance of a brand is fundamental to success, and while the promo industry is defined by physical products, a select few companies and individuals have truly harnessed their penchant for brand identity in the digital realm.
Next Tuesday, March 11, we will reveal this year’s list of the best individual accounts from promo pros. But today, we are focusing on the organization accounts that present their unique voices and values just about everywhere you look online. Their brands are presented cohesively. They provide value. And more importantly, they’re just fun, interesting, engaging follows.
If you want to see how your business should be doing it, follow along.
18. You Name It Specialties
Follow On: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 1K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
To put it in the social parlance of the young people (please don’t meme us), You Name It Specialties understands the assignment. Any successful distributor presumably has a lot going on in any given week. Our first entry on the list utilizes social media to let people know about those things. It sounds simple, but it takes a bit of discipline and follow-through. From employee birthdays to promoting blog posts to photographs and videos of products, that only scratches the surface of what you get if you follow You Name It Specialties’ accounts. The San Antonio-based company gets bonus points for having a Pinterest account. There’s a whole world out there of people who find their favorite products on Pinterest.
17. SnugZ USA
Follow On: Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn
Largest Account: Facebook – 7.4K Followers
2024: No. 1
Last year, SnugZ took the No. 1 spot in these rankings, and it’s hard to imagine a world where it doesn’t make the list. On one hand, the supplier remains committed to using social media to showcase its products in exciting ways that the catalogs of yesterday could never replicate. And of course, anyone who has walked The PPAI Expo trade floor knows that SnugZ likes to make a splash. The difference a year makes is the change in strategy. Maybe becoming more businesslike was good for business (and yeah, that’s kind of the point), but we miss the organization’s personality showing up more frequently.
16. Gemline
Follow On: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 18K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
Last year, Gemline updated its mission statement to “We Promote Community,” coinciding with its transition to both a B Corp Certified and a State of Massachusetts Public Benefit Corporation. Coincidentally, that also describes the ethos of its social platforms. Regular LinkedIn posts to its nearly 20,000 followers keep its name, brand, products and values top of mind. The supplier also takes the extra step with its own YouTube channel to provide video breakdowns of individual products.
15. Promotional Products Professionals of Canada
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 2K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
With trade relations between the U.S. and Canada entering unprecedented territory, it’s important that promo companies north and south of the border remained engaged and transparent. Fortunately, the PPPC social accounts are a great window into the association, which continues to partner with PPAI to strengthen the industry as a whole. Led by president and CEO Jonathan Strauss, expect PPPC to keep its members and the entire promo community informed with developments.
14. PCNA
Follow On: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Youtube
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 25K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
PCNA’s product offering isn’t exactly small potatoes. There’s a lot to comb through if you have the time. The supplier’s social pages are for those who don’t have the time. “Product of the Week” posts are great spotlights that give polished images and breakdowns of what could be great branding opportunities. PCNA’s social team also understands the way a well-executed infographic gets users to stop scrolling. The correct images accompanied by interesting information is how you get someone engaged with something they weren’t even looking for.
13. Maple Ridge Farms
Follow On: Facebook, X, Vimeo, Youtube, Instagram, Pintrest, LinkedIn
Largest Account: X – 4,443 Followers
2024: No. 4
If you’ve ever walked the trade floor of The PPAI Expo, you know that Maple Ridge Farms has something of an unfair advantage. There is no shortage of eye-popping products to stop you in your tracks, but the samples that the Wisconsin-based supplier offers up might make you want to put on a fake mustache and come back for seconds. There’s a similar advantage at play with Maple Ridge Farms’ social accounts. Is it creative? Definitely. Is it helpful? Sure. But it also just makes you hungry, and that’s an emotional connection.
12. PromoCorner
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X, Youtube, TikTok
Largest Account: Facebook – 5.5K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
PromoCorner has long been the most prolific podcast creator platform in the industry, but the content-focused business service provider doesn’t rest on that. A company that works with so many other promo organizations knows that a podcast upload is not a week’s worth of work in today’s landscape. There has to be more; long-form content supplemented with short-form content. With a footprint in every major social app, PromoCorner works within trends but never fails to center products first and foremost.
11. Aclymate
Follow On: LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 1K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
Aclymate is a resource for promo firms in the crucial mission to make this a more sustainable industry. We protect the planet for the future, and it is those next generations that will continue and advance upon the work of environmentalism that we focus on today. By that logic, it’s only sensible that social media messaging needs to connect with Gen Z. Acymate’s regular TikTok videos fit the mold. Effective messaging means taking your expertise and meeting your audience where they’re at.
@my.aclymate Revealing the truth about carbon offsets 🌱 #carbonoffset #offset #climatechange ♬ original sound – myAclymate
10. Boundless
Follow On: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 7K Followers
2024: No. 3
Promo companies know that consistent quality is its own kind of brand. That applies to social media as well, but it takes time, and it takes effort. Over time, Boundless has achieved that subliminal expectation of quality in their social accounts. The Austin-based distributor doesn’t ever just post photos; it uses its apps to create showcases.
9. Spectrum Designs
Follow On: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok
Largest Account: Instagram – 111K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
Spectrum Designs is a custom apparel and promo nonprofit business with more than 50% of its workforce on the Autism Spectrum and a mission to create opportunities for neurodivergent people. That type of mission requires regular and well-executed messaging to inspire, perhaps, but also to normalize that message for members of the public who might not have it top of mind. Guess what? It seems to be working for Spectrum Designs. With an enormous Instagram and Facebook following, and viral TikTok moments, the company is reaching people, and the promo industry is better for it.
@spectrumenterprises We are Spectrum designs, a business with a social mission – Employing Autistic adults! #autismacceptance #autism #employment #disabilityawareness #disabilityemployment #neurodiverse #autistic #nonprofit #screenprinting #neurodiversity #workhard #helpothers #disability #empower #neurodiversity #socialmission#inclusion #autismawareness #supportsmallbusiness #inclusiveworkplace #communityimpact #makeadifference #diversehiring #abilitynotdisability #changemakers #socialgood #equalopportunity #beyourself #autismspectrum #advocacy #jobswithpurpose ♬ original sound – Spectrum Enterprises
8. American Solutions For Business
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 8K Followers
2024: No. 5
This is ASB’s fourth straight year making the #Online18. The old adage is “Show, don’t tell.” Well, why not both? The distributor doesn’t try to be anything that it isn’t. Instead, it shows you who it is and tells you about its products. Leveraging known industry personalities within the company’s ranks, such as multi-time #Online18 member Taylor Borst, ASB lets its followers, and the industry at large, get familiar with its offerings and their purpose.
7. HALO
Follow On: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 21K Followers
2024: No. 12
#SayHALO is a good start, but it’s more than a hashtag that gets the distributor in the top seven. It helps when you can have themed product posts, like advent calendars, plus, a ton of great products to work with and employees able to double as influencer personalities. Go to HALO’s Instagram page and you might see corporate branding consultant Cat Gagliardo, or as some know her, Branded by Cat, doing an unboxing video of something unexpected.
6. Hasseman Marketing
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube
Largest Account: Facebook – 1.6K Followers
2024: Not Ranked
In past years, you’ve seen Kirby Hasseman, CEO of Hasseman Marketing, on the #Online18’s list of top promo pros. He’s got the experience. He’s become a known entity. And he has built platforms for not only himself but the promo industry, largely through his savvy in the digital world. But the patriarch has some competition in that regard these days, and a closer collaborator than even Bill Petrie. Hasseman’s daughter, Jade Crider, a sales rep with the distributor, has brought the Gen Z perspective to the promo posting. Her commitment to following in her father’s footsteps, but with her own twist, has made the two of them, and Hasseman Marketing, a family formidable in the art of digital content.
5. RUPT
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, LinkedIn
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 4K Followers
2024 – Not Ranked
Between all the sustainable products, the acquisitions and winning The Pitch at The PPAI Expo 2025, RUPT has had no shortage of things to post about. The team has made good use of its material. In the short time since its founding, RUPT has managed to convey a sleek, modern design, not just with its products but with its overall brand. It’s the cohesiveness of that presentation in the digital space, most impressively on Instagram, that earns the company a top 5 spot on this year’s list. That has plenty to do with its leadership’s dedication to controlling the aesthetics and narrative behind everything RUPT does.
4. HPG
Follow On: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 5K Followers
2024: No. 10
Last year was Jenna Quaranta’s first full year with HPG. Once again a member of this year’s #Online18 list of individual promo pros (oops, RETROACTIVE SPOILER ALERT), Quaranta is an example how so many of HPG’s key players seem willing and eager to share their enthusiasm with the world. And it truly is an ensemble cast these days. Newly added Community Marketing Manager Jacob Gray has fit into the mix well, serving as a sort of host across many of the channels, and keeping the focus on the company and its offerings. These are big shoes to fill, naturally. HPG has a strong reputation for quality, but anyone who follows along sees a large collection of people who believe in what they do and care about creating good experiences for partners, clients and end users.
3. commonsku
Follow On: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 5K Followers
2024: No. 6
The session for Bobby Lehew, commonsku’s chief content officer, was standing room only at The PPAI Expo Conference. That’s a pretty good testament to the reach of the Canadian business service provider’s content. A big part of commonsku’s reputation and social success is because, along with Lehew, the company’s founders and leaders, Mark and Catherine Graham, are always willing to be hands-on with the public image of their organization and provide a friendly voice to what’s new with commonsku. Most of the industry has faces in mind when they think of commonsku. Its social channels help make that possible.
2. Brand Fuel
Follow On: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, YouTube
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 6K Followers
2024: No. 2
This is Brand Fuel’s second straight year holding down the No. 2 spot in the #Online18. (PROACTIVE SPOLER ALERT) We also have it on good authority that president and co-founder Danny Rosin has made the #Online18’s individual promo pros list. Brand Fuel calls itself a “free spirited” brand merchandising agency, and that tag seems to fit its social channels. For a company of its size, the distributor manages to convey the image of your well-intentioned local business down the street, whether that’s by petitioning for a more progressive flag in the company’s city or giving its employees off on Valentine’s Day. That starts with leadership, sure, but it reaches people through social channels.
1. SAGE
Follow On: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Largest Account: LinkedIn – 7K Followers
2024: No. 9
Look, we know what you’re thinking. But it’s not like that. Honest. The truth is that SAGE has developed the most professional approach to video content in the industry, and video is where it’s at these days. SAGE serves up high-quality content with its Promo Perspectives series, now produced weekly, it churns out useful research materials and makes those and other resources easily accessible via its social channels. Yeah, SAGE is PPAI’s official technology partner, but we can still admire how the company has created its own media ecosystem. And while most social channels for most businesses are meant to serve as promotion, SAGE largely sees its accounts as opportunities to continue its service of helping promo companies with strategic advice, new features and statistics. Someone fresh to promo might do well to follow SAGE’s social accounts to get a good grip of what’s new. That certainly warrants recognition as the No. 1 promo organization to follow on social media in 2025.
See more from the #Online18 on social media. Follow PPAI on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
