Getting Creative With Incentives

Incentive travel is a rarefied segment where top producers, usually salespeople, are rewarded with lavish holiday experiences for their achievements. Many earned those awards for their 2019 achievements but of course are not traveling.

BCD Meetings & Events, whose incentive business comprises a significant percentage of its portfolio, decided it needed to offer an alternative during these times to reward their client’s winners and to maintain a presence in the market.

According to Christine Erickson, senior vice president, U.S. Event Solutions and BCD Sports, the company is working to offer alternatives to travel such as personal sessions with a celebrity chef or an exclusive performance by a musician – all streamed to the winner’s home or wherever they are observing the quarantine.

While believing that travel awards will continue to be the top motivator, Erickson said the company is working closely with clients who are open to new methods of engaging top performers so they remain motivated during this unusual time.

Many industries – ranging from automotive to health care to franchises – use incentives to motivate employees. BCD Meetings & Events puts together end-to-end solutions that include designing the program and criteria, communicating during the earning period and executing the travel experience.

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“We decided,” said Erickson, “to bring ideas to our customers around bringing an incentive experience to individuals’ homes.” She said the response has been “very positive” and there are two programs in development with hopes to execute them in the next few months. “We are trying to create a journey,” said Erickson, “that can be experienced in a person’s home and leaves an impression. “

The programs, said Erickson, will be elaborately produced, like a professional television broadcast. If it’s a celebrity chef, a kit might be sent to the winner’s home so they could cook along with the chef. The goal, said Erickson, would be to deliver an in-home dining experience. She said BCD Meetings & Events is talking to companies like Hello Fresh that might provide the food.

Whatever the award, Erickson said BCD Meetings & Events would provide the tools a winner would need to get on camera and “be pulled into” the streaming event. Then there would be a 20- to 30- minute intimate session with, say, a well-known entertainer. After the streamed event, the winner would be sent a gift or other recognition to commemorate that they were award winners for 2019.

There is precedence for this type of virtual platform, said Erickson. She explained there have been virtual site inspections as destination management companies and hoteliers jump on the virtual bandwagon to enable meeting and incentive planning for the future. In some cases, changes might become permanent – offering a cost-saving alternative to previous approaches.

Erickson said that customers have not given up on offering incentives for 2020, looking at ways to think differently when there is an inevitable lower-performing year.

Looking ahead, she said, there might be fewer winners or smaller groups on trips. “We will have to adjust just as the rest of the industry will,” said Erickson. Conversations are already underway about how to operate in the future – seeking ways to travel safely.

While some companies have already moved to offer monetary awards, “One thing we know is that a travel award and how it connects a company’s senior leaders to one another is so motivating. Cash is not always king and doesn’t create a memory or impression in the same way as travel,” Erickson concluded.