👋 Welcome back to This Week in Print-on-Demand Presented by Brand Sauce, where we stir up the week’s spiciest insights in promotional merchandise, employee experience, HR trends, and more. This week we’re serving a flavor-packed blend: from A.I.-powered caricature swag at corporate events, to letting employees choose their own holiday gifts, to why you might literally be glowing at work. Some might say, a smorgasbord. Enjoy!

NEWS & NUGGETS: A DASH OF INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

 🎟️ Promo Industry Showdown: The promotional products world is gearing up for its biggest annual expo. PPAI Expo 2026 (Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas) will run Jan 12–15, and registration just opened this month. This is the industry’s largest trade show – tens of thousands of new swag products and 1,000+ exhibitors under one roof. It’s the launchpad for all the new trends and products each year. (You can bet Team Sauce will be there scouting the freshest merch for our clients!) You can get your tickets here.

🏢 Return-to-Office Reality Check: New data shows mandating 5 days in-office might backfire, big time. In a recent survey, only 44% of employees said they’d comply with a full return-to-office mandate; 41% would start job hunting, and 14% would outright quit. Yikes. Employers are feeling the consequences: 8 in 10 companies admit they’ve lost talent due to rigid RTO policies. The takeaway for HR? Flexibility isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s becoming non-negotiable if you want to hang onto your talent. Source.

🎨 Event Swag Gets Personal: Corporate events are leveling up with on-site caricatures. One new trend has an events team pre-branding swag (think luggage tags, keychains, etc.) and then using A.I. tools on the spot to print each guest’s cartoon avatar on their gift. The Insta-worthy experience is priceless… we’ve never seen a more fun way to generate buzz at a conference. Check it out here.

If you are interested in learning more about hosting an on-site giveaway like this email the P.O.D Guy at [email protected]

☕ National Coffee Day: Sept 29 is National Coffee Day in the U.S., followed by International Coffee Day on Oct 1. We’re curious, would you want coffee beans in your company store? Just reply to this email with “Coffee”, we’ve got something brewing for ya…

✨ Fun Fact: Humans literally glow in the dark. Our bodies emit tiny amounts of visible light via biochemical reactions. Researchers found the human body’s natural bioluminescence is about 1,000 times too faint for our eyes to detect. So the next time someone says you’re glowing, you quite literally are. Source.

🎉 Giveaway Winner Alert: Shout-out to the winners from last week: Leslie Koontz, and Michelle Lester. We’ve got another giveaway below!

SWAG INSIDERS

Q4 Holiday Gifting Coming 🔜

Can you believe Q4 is almost here? If the thought of organizing holiday gifts for employees/clients makes you break out in a sweat, we’ve got you covered. Our secret sauce for stress-free gifting: let them choose. Instead of guessing one gift to please everyone, give people options. Research shows that recipients appreciate getting to pick something they actually want, and it ensures your budget isn’t wasted on generic gifts that collect dust.

Here’s how we do it: Brand Sauce sets up a custom Holiday Gifting store for you. You hand-select a range of gift options, it could be 3, 9, or even 100 different items. We load them into your private online store. Then each employee, partner, or VIP gets an invite to claim one gift of their choice. They browse the goodies, pick their favorite, and we handle the rest (shipping, tracking, you name it). You only get charged for the gifts people actually redeem.

It’s basically the ultimate win-win: Recipients feel like kids in a candy store, and you get to sit back and relax. No spreadsheets, no guessing shirt sizes, no “one-size-fits-none” dilemmas.

The experience is fun and personalized for your team, and ridiculously easy for you. In fact, we’ve dubbed this approach our “Holiday Gifting Playbook” because it saves time, saves money, and spreads maximum cheer.

👉 Want a copy of the playbook? Respond to this email with “PLAYBOOK”, we’re happy to share our guide to doing holiday swag the smart way

WEEKLY POLL + GIVEAWAY

🎄 Giveaway Alert: Holiday “Desk Tree”

This week, we’re giving away 5 Holiday Desk Trees – yes, a living mini Christmas tree for your workspace!

These adorable Norfolk Pines (courtesy of our friends at Desk Plants) bring festive vibes and clean air to any desk. They even come with tiny ornaments for maximum vibes.

Psst: Everyone who participates will get early access to our upcoming Holiday Gifting Playbook (filled with tips to make your end-of-year gifting stress-free). Go ahead – cast your vote and you might win a desk tree to make your cubicle the talk of the office.

Details:

• Several lucky winners will get the Holiday “Desk Tree”

• Winner announced in next week’s newsletter.

👉 To enter, just answer this week’s poll below.

Good luck!

📊 Poll of the Week

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

🤝 Meet Certerra

Certerra is a national leader in materials engineering and testing – essentially the people who make sure the ground beneath our feet (and roads, bridges, and buildings) is safe and sound. They operate in 50+ locations across North America with over 1,800 employees, serving industries from transportation to manufacturing. Certerra’s motto is “Materially Better,” and they live it: Their team of engineers, geologists, and techs helps build and maintain infrastructure that lasts. From testing concrete and steel in high-tech labs to using ground-penetrating radar to map what’s underground, Certerra ensures that big construction projects go up on a solid foundation. They’re the quiet force behind the scenes, making sure our communities are built to last

📣 Our Collaboration

When Certerra came to us, they were on a hiring surge and wanted a fresh way to welcome new employees. We partnered with them to build a new hire onboarding store. When new hires join the team, they receive a welcome message, pick whichever gift they like best, and boom – it’s shipped to their doorstep. This initiative has been a hit! It makes newbies feel valued from day one, reinforces Certerra’s caring culture, and saves HR the headache of guessing shirt sizes or lugging swag to orientation sessions. We love that Certerra “gets it”, investing in employee experience right at the start. And as their swag partner, we’re thrilled to help make those first days a little more special for the folks who are building the future

🤝 Connect With Certerra

Shoot me a note at [email protected] to get connected with the team.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Around the Water Cooler With Ross AKA The P.O.D. Guy

We are not our Government

Last Sunday, our home was filled with laughter, stories, and the smell of brunch as we welcomed a few Israeli athletes around our table. Moments like this remind me why, 20 years ago, I founded The Israel Bridge, to give young Israeli athletes the chance to play college sports in the U.S. Today, nearly 500 of them are living that dream, and seeing a few of them in my home made it all come full circle.

But what struck me most wasn’t the food or the stories about sports. It was the reminder that people are so much more than the governments that represent them.

I love America, and I’m proud to be an American. But I don’t agree with everything our government does, and that’s okay. In fact, that’s the heart of being American: questioning, debating, and caring enough to hope for better. My Israeli friends feel the same way. Around our brunch table, different opinions were being shared. They didn’t all agree, but they all longed for peace, safety, and for the war to end.

And it breaks my heart to think that they face antisemitism simply because they are Israeli.

We’ve seen this story before. Russian tennis players were banned from competing because of their government’s war. How is that their fault? They didn’t choose it. They, too, are people with dreams, with families, with hopes for their future, and they need to make a living.

Here’s what brunch reminded me: when we take the time to know someone, to really sit with them, to listen, we often discover they’re not so different from us. Sometimes, they may even think more like us than we’d ever expect.

So my hope for all of us is simple: let’s not let politics build walls between people. Let’s meet others with open minds and, more importantly, open hearts.

Because around a table, sharing a meal, a story, a laugh, the labels fade away. What’s left is just people: human and hopeful, wanting a better life and future for their families.

THAT’S A WRAP

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition. We hope you found a few nuggets worth nibbling on. If you want to dive deeper or chat about anything, be sure to drop us a note.

Need help with holiday gifting? We’ve got a whole playbook ready – reply with “PLAYBOOK” and we’ll send you the sauce.

Curious about leveling up your company swag game? You can also book a 15-minute demo here to see how Brand Sauce can make magic for your team.

Until next time, stay saucy! 👋 

– Ross & the Brand Sauce Team.

© 2025 On Demand Global, LLC, DBA Brand Sauce