Incentive - December 2007 - (Page 27)

“After doing this for twenty-six years, the demographics have changed a lot. We are doing a lot more individual activities. The younger people…even though they want to get together with the rest of the group, they want to be physically challenged.” For Boyd, this means considering how he can arrange an attention-grabbing event, like a regatta, road race or dogsledding competition, where in years past, he might have started by looking for a good golf destination. “Have you ever been dogsledding in your life? Of course, everyone says, ‘no.’ ” The demographic shift can work the other way, if your group retains a core of the same participants over time. “We’ve seen the group change in ten years,” says Light of the electronics group mentioned above. “We’ve seen them mature. They’ve become a little more sedate It’s a very social, but relaxed environment.” Keeping in tune with demographic changes is particularly important in merchandise programs, which have to keep up with tastes, often as they evolve through the year. To stay on top of this market, sometimes the best approach is just to get out and hit the stores. “You’re always trying to keep the mix as fresh as possible,” says Sales Performance Group’s Kolkjen of his company’s merchandise programs. He stays ahead of the curve by sending his team out into the field, and by being selective about the items included in his programs, adding distinctive handbags, pieces of jewelry or gift cards to stores beyond the usual roster of big-box chains. He selects items that he thinks will resonate with his clients in addition to the usual iPods and digital cameras. “We’re looking for things all the time that are out of the mainstream…The idea is to offer an unusual item that gets their attention, but is achievable.” Alternatively, sometimes the best approach is simply to let recipients tell you what they want most. This has worked well for Kolkjen, who offers a concierge service to fulfill any offbeat requests from clients. These have included everything from a new boat motor to credit at a grocery store near one employee’s fishing retreat, to a working gas forge for a weekend blacksmith. “We get a lot of mileage out of it in terms of the excitement and motivation,” he says. “People aren’t quiet about it when you make something like that happen for them.” Brainstorm a Theme A fourth tactic for stumped planners is to begin by setting a theme for your program. A theme can provide a point of orientation from which your imagination can run wild, but for repeat clients, especially ones who are well-traveled, the challenge will be to get away from concepts that are clichéd and overdone. “If you are just going to a beach resort, it’s hard to come up with new things every year,” says Barbara Blumhof, who manages trade shows and events for Citi. “But if you’re going somewhere with a long cultural history, you have more to work with.” This was the situation Blumhof faced a few years ago when designing back-to-back European trips for 60 qualifiers from a leasing sales group and their guests. Working with Impact Incentives, the group headed to Italy the first year, where a theme of “The Seven Hills of Rome” saw them jetting between a scavenger hunt, a pizza-making session and the aforementioned wine-crushing event. Though many of the attendees had been to Rome before, all agreed it was a unique window into the destination, and the trip set the bar high for the second act. Three quarters of the original group qualified for the second year. “When you see a lot of repeat people, you really want to spice it up and make it different, and you do that by thinking outside of the box,” says Impact’s Almeas. To top their previous success, Blumhof and Almeas considered how much participants had enjoyed the aspects of the Italian trip that made them feel that they were part of a family. This set the stage for a trip to Ireland, where the theme would be homecoming. Attendees were each assigned to one of 15 clans prior to their departure in a letter from a fictitious government official who welcomed them back to the country (whether or not they had been there before). They were encouraged to learn more about their individual clans in the archives of Trinity College during the trip, and were grouped with their fellow clan members for certain activities, including a road rallye out to Dromoland Castle and a dinner at a recreated Celtic village, where they were hosted by actual members of the family whose name they had taken for the trip. One of the highlights for participants was the specially designed clan hats each had to wear, identifying their family heritage. “They were all going, ‘Oh, no. Do we have to wear these funny things?’ but it didn’t take five minutes until they all had them on,” recalls Blumhof. For her, the cultural immersion aspect to the theme is what made the journey stand out from any other trip to Ireland the group could have taken. “You want to give them a good time, but you want to give them something they can take back,” she says. Plan Ahead There’s one way planners can avoid the panic of starting from scratch after pulling off a great program: be prepared. If you have a client who you think will be back for more, try mapping out a strategy that ensures you don’t use up all your best ideas in the first round. This can be of benefit both to you, the planner, and to the client, who wants to create anticipation within the pool of potential qualifiers. “We always sit down with the group to counsel them on long-range planning,” says Sunbelt’s Boyd. “If you want to keep your program exciting, we recommend building to a crescendo of programs, so that you start out small, and each year get better and better.” For a travel program, this can mean starting out with a regional, domestic destination, then building up to easy international locations like the Caribbean or Mexico, and eventually to more exotic destinations around the world. “In ten years you do have to start over again,” admits Boyd. “But by then you have a totally different demographic.” incentivemag.com | December 2007 | Incentive | 27 http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - December 2007

Incentive - December 2007 Contents Editor’s Note: Revved Up In the News Cover Story: Rolls-Royce Empowers Its Own Case Study: Booz Allen Hamilton Beating Your Best Incentive Primer: Add Value to Your Event Keeping Safety In Mind Incentive Interview Potentials Here and Now Research: Corporate Gifts Facts Report Tabletop Awards: Travel Gift Cards Travel News Viva Puerto Vallarta Indigenous Spas Advertiser Index Off the Cuff: Ambassador Christoph Bubb Luxury Brands Special Supplement

Incentive - December 2007

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