Driving People, Driving Profits - Why Incentive Programs Work

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Incentive programs go by many names -- President's Club, Chairman's Club, Overachievers Program -- but what's in a name is less important than what is behind that name. A motivated, committed workforce, recognized through incentive programs that reward excellent performance, grows while others stagnate.

Incentive programs can create a measurable competitive advantage, particularly when economic conditions require a demonstrated ROI.

The Appeal of the Reward

• Anticipation inspires participants to change their behavior in a positive way

• A travel award is unique because it's experiential; venturing beyond the beaten path and connecting with other cultures creates lasting memories

• According to The Society of Incentive Travel Executives International Foundation Study:

• Nine out of ten participants agree that an incentive program increased their sales efforts

• Nine out of ten participants say that they gained additional value by interacting with other attendees and program hosts

• Nearly all participants agree that travel is the most appealing award

Conversely

• Cash rewards are often absorbed into winners day-to-day budgets and forgotten about within days

• Although program participants may state that they prefer cash to non-cash rewards, research shows cash is a poor motivator due to its lack of "trophy value."

Road to Success

So how does a company create a program that reaps the rewards of metrics like those referenced above? There is a clearly defined roadmap to success:

• Create a program that is easy to understand and implement

• Educate all program participants thoroughly

• Plan an ongoing promotional campaign to kick the program off on a high note and  keep everyone focused and engaged

This is the approach we take with all of our clients, whether they have been with us for 10 years or are new partners:

• Treating each one as as a unique opportunity to assist them with their growth and maintain a highly energized sales organization.
• Listening and understanding their strategic needs and delivering tactical programs that guarantee results.

Everyone wants to be a winner -- part of the elite team that makes it to the top in a President's Club or other incentive program. Rewards reap rewards.

Empowering media: Ads boosting energy, maps boosting confidence

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Vitaminwater boosts your energy – with a 5-volt battery-powered USB port. Vitaminwater ads in bus shelters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston now allow consumers to charge their electronic devices and literally experience the “energy-boosting” effect of the drink. A smart concept and an ad that lives up to its promise - everyone riding the bus will just as literally “make the connection.”

Crowdsourcing for a safer environment for women – Egyptian women are using this concept with HarrasMap, a site on which the women report harassment, stating nature and location of the incident. This way, the site identifies “hot spots” on the searchable map, and a team of volunteers reaches out to the local community to discuss how it can make the neighborhood safer for women. Incidents can be reported by calling, texting, emailing or tweeting. This makes it easier for the women to overcome the shame and even blame that is often associated with an assault. When contacting HarrasMap, the victims also receive counsel on filing a police report, finding psychological help and taking self-defense classes.

The Murdoch Scandal: A Londoner’s Perspective

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Our PRGN (our global network of PR firms) partner in Philadelphia, Anne Buchanan of Buchanan Public Relations, interviewed Sara Pearson of London partner Spider PR, on the Murdoch hacking scandal.

With the media world hyper-focused on the phone-hacking media scandals in the United Kingdom, we were interested in getting an inside perspective. Sara Pearson, a former journalist, is now a London-based partner at Spider PR, the UK affiliate for the Public Relations Global Network, our global consortium of independent public relations agencies. We asked her opinion of several aspects of this fast-moving scandal.

Sara Pearson, Spider PR, London

What’s the reaction of the average “man on the street” to the wave of hacking scandals?

Actual tabloid readers seem pretty indifferent to it, although many are cross at the loss of their favourite Sunday paper (euphemistically known as the ‘News of the Screws’)!  The scandal is of much greater interest to non-tabloid consumers, who are intently following the story.

Read here for more.

It All Started With A Tweet: TechMunch Comes to Boston

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It all started with a tweet one year ago...

Bakespace.com, a social networking site for food people, was hosting a meetup for Boston bloggers. Being a hobbyist food blogger, I signed up, thinking that this would be a fun way to meet new like-minded people.

Little did I know that attending this event would lead to new friendships, speaking opportunities and the ability to bring a great food blogger and media conference to Boston -- which illustrates, on a small scale, the power of social media.

When I met Babette Pepaj, founder of Bakespace, I was impressed by the fact that this down-to-earth, genuinely warm person left her life as a television producer to start her company along with a series of food blogger conferences called Techmunch.

Since that night, I've spoken on Techmunch panels in other cities, met great people, and have become so enthusiastic about the event that I asked Babette if we could bring it to Boston.

So we are.

We're producing it on July 24 at the Boston University School of Hospitality. (For more information, click here.) It will be a great meeting of the minds of food media, bloggers and marketers, sharing best practices, opportunities and having fun.

The evolution from responding to a single tweet to bringing Techmunch to Boston illustrates the most important points about social media:

• There is unseen opportunity for everyone by participating in social media. Dive in, be yourself, find your tribes and good things will happen.
• You have to take online relationships offline, and vice versa. Social media is about connecting. Whether you are meeting new people on Twitter or you are engaging with your old friends on Facebook, it's about building and sustaining those relationships.
• Social media isn't something you do -- it's something that becomes a regular part of your daily professional and personal lives. Just as we all adapted to fervently checking email, engaging through social channels should be a part of your daily life.
• Setting up your social media channels isn't a thing that you do and "complete" -- there is something new to learn every day, a new question to answer, a new friend to make.

If you'd like to check out tweets on the Techmunch event, search #Techmunch.