Incentive - February 2008 - (Page 44)

Business Rewards PAGE 46 Kick It Up a Notch! PAGE 66 Verizon rewards small businesses for their loyalty Emeril, Rachael and Giada’s houseware lines are both fun and practical Format Wars Has Blu-ray won its format battle with HD DVD? ith developments in technology, there are inevitably clashes over which particular format will become the industry standard. As each side pushes its product as the highest quality, or most consumerfriendly, the ups and downs can get as dramatic as a heated political campaign. And incentive planners are generally By Alex Palmer W Vegas, HD DVD was dealt a potentially lethal blow when Warner Home Video, the biggest player in the video market, announced that it would be shifting to Blu-ray for all of its films going forward. Without the thousands of Warner titles in its corner, HD DVD is impelled to keep an eye on these duels. The current rendition of the format wars has pitted the Blu-ray DVD format against high-definition HD DVDs. Both have made efforts to get themselves ahead, through advertising campaigns and getting the endorsements of DVD and DVD-player manufacturers. But at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las reduced to a much smaller customer base. A victor in this format war would be comforting to incentive planners, who have had to consider whether they are giving winners DVD players that might soon become obsolete. The mainstream press and Blu-ray Disc Association has been busy proclaiming the death of HD DVD, especially since consumer sales of Blu-ray discs and players spiked according to industry research, outselling HD DVD more than five to one in the weeks following Warner’s announcement. But not all experts are so sure. “The Warner announcement at CES did nothing more than stir up some excitement in the category,” says Donna Davis, purchasing manager of Rymax Inc. Marketing Services, which carries both formats’ hardware. “By no means did it declare a dominant format. I don’t believe there will be clear winner, as there is more than enough room in the category for both formats to have a strong presence.” Even the NDP Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.–based retail market research firm—whose figures tracking high-definition players led the New York Times to report on an HD-DVD player “sales plunge” in late January— sounded a note of caution, pointing out that one week’s sales figures do not make a trend. The firm pointed out that the time frame in question saw the end of an HD DVD rebate program and a couple of blockbusters released on Blu-ray. By The Numbers: Gift Cards $14 billion the amount gift card sales will grow by 2013 53% the number of gift card redeemers who will spend more than card value 35% the number of gift card buyers who say they plan to spend more on gift cards in 2008 9.1% the number of gift card buyers who will spend significantly more on them in 2008 Source: Packaged Facts, “The U.S. Market for Prepaid Cards with a Focus on Gift Cards” Corrections In our story “The Search for the Golden Gadget” in Incentive’s January issue, the Web address for Fujifilm should have been listed as www.fujifilmusa.com. 44 | Incentive | February 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.fujifilmusa.com http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Incentive - February 2008

Incentive Magazine - February 2008
Editor’s Note: Archie and the Boys
In The News
Cover Story: On The Ball Incentives
Incentive Primer: How to Use Sporting Events
Incentive Interview: Jim Avery on Doing the Right Thing
Employee Empowerment Motivates and Pays Dividends
Hospitals, Nurses Win With Flexible Scheduling
Legal Ease: Safety Programs and Unions
Case Study: The Weitz Company Retains Its Boomers
Potentials: Here and Now
Star Power in the Kitchen
Awards: Gift Card Trends for the New Year
Travel News
The Manhattanization of Las Vegas
Classics Renewed: Monaco and France
Advertiser Index
Off The Cuff: Tumi’s Mike Landry

Incentive - February 2008