Award Employees

Incentive Gift Card Data for 2011

There is some interesting data that has come out of the 2011 gift card survey of subscribers to Incentive magazine.   

First, the number of responses from large budget incentive users has nearly doubled over 2010 figures.  Traditionally companies with these large programs who have used other forms of awards for their programs now seem to be embracing gift cards as their award of choice.  One reason we believe is the value and choice given by gift cards that was not readily apparent in the traditional merchandise awards.  This trend has been increasing for several years, but 2011 seemed to be a peak.  According to the survey: 

“Of special note to gift card suppliers are the survey responses that place more value on gift cards than merchandise – gift cards are overwhelmingly seen as a more influential incentive or reward than other options.  Since 57 % of respondents said their budgets were untouched for 2001, the outlook for gift card suppliers is even brighter this year.” 

A significant survey question was: 

How gift cards compared to traditional merchandise awards? 

• 59.6 % said more effective
• 27.6% said equally effective
• 5.7% said less effective
• 7% didn’t use merchandise. 

These types of responses would have been unheard of twenty years ago.  Traditional merchandise awards had been the backbone of the incentive awards industry because they drove all the profit.  There was only a small handful of suppliers selling gift cards and only to a limited market.  Today gift cards are very well accepted as an award that will drive performance.  They no longer have that “impersonal” label that was given to them by all the traditional merchandise suppliers when faced with them as competition.