Incentive - June 2008 - (Page 21)

Pamela Valdez, Millennium Broadway; Damon Riddle, Suzuki; Steve Maselko, Marriott; Brian Martenis, Incentive Worldwide Travel Norma Jean Knollenberg, Top Brands Inc. budgetary considerations are important, these resorts become more desirable. B M: I just did a program in Mexico. The Barceló Maya Palace just opened in December. My group was there in January. We were the nailbiters, but with the gamble the payoff is phenomenal—I got this place so cheap you just would not believe it. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. The quality of the food was phenomenal. Q Spas and golf. Are they still the big kahunas? B M : I did St. Andrews in Scotland, and it was probably one of the best trips that we ever ran. Outrageous. Not cheap but well priced, if you go at the right time, like after November 1st, and the weather isn’t bad, and golfers will golf in anything. Very, very successful for golf. G L : I find that I have to select a hotel with a spa on the premises. If they don’t have it on the premises, at least it’s nearby. It’s always available. LOOKING AT GIFT CARDS Q For a couple of years people have been saying gift cards are going to reach a saturation point. Are they still a quickly growing segment of this market? M K : I think what individuals and companies are looking for is to provide as much choice in the [award] selection as possible because, again, when they look at the return on their money, they’re trying to figure out, “How can I provide the most value to my recipients?” So we continue to see the gift card [segment] growing pretty rapidly. D B : Besides being an incentive company, since 1992, we have managed the gift card business for Foot Locker, and we also manage ESPN gift cards. The Sharper Image [bankruptcy and subsequent refusal to honor gift cards] that occurred earlier this year did get our phones ringing quite frequently. The choices they made regarding how they would treat cash—that they were very thankful for taking in—and then shutting it off for those that were going to redeem made it difficult for a lot of other specialty retailers like Foot Locker. Anyway, the Sharper Image thing did cause us a little problem. I know I’ve talked to other gift card suppliers, and they, too, were supplying stock [valuations], and information on the financials before people renewed to put gift cards into the program this year. However, I must say that three, four months into the year we’re way up over last year, and we were way up last year over the year before, so if there’s a decline at Foot Locker and ESPN, we’re not seeing it. M A : We actually had a client that has a small number of our gift cards in their program remove them. So, that was their reaction. M K : That may be a reason why the stronger brands are probably doing well still, because they are a lot stronger, whether it’s Amazon.com or any of the other brands out there. I think that’s part of the importance of the gift card: understanding what the value of that brand can do to your program. If you’re talking about ROI and driving behavior, those brands can drive behavior. LOOKING AT MERCHANDISE Q What’s the next big thing in the incentive merchandise market? N J K : I think it’s going to continue to be electronics—the greatest and the hottest thing in electronics. M A : Taking a look at the consumer electronics market, during the past few incentivemag.com | June 2008 | Incentive | 21 http://www.Amazon.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - June 2008

Incentive - June 2008 Contents Editor’s Note In The News Cover Story: Seventh Annual Industry Roundtable Incentive Interview Case Study Soft Incentives Empowerment and Engagement The Incentive Career Incentive Primer Travel News: Where To Go and What To Do The Cook Islands Field Report: Bermuda Potentials: Here and Now 50 Top Motivators: The Best of the Best Electronics: High-end Audio Equipment Gift Cards: Should One Be Enough? Advertiser Index Off The Cuff

Incentive - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.