Ben Griffith (left) and Lincoln Smith, winners of the IMA Excellence Award in the Employee Incentive category
The Incentive Marketing Association revealed the winners of
its Excellence Awards during the organization’s annual summit, held Aug. 8-10
at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. The annual awards recognize outstanding incentive programs
that either motivate employees, build customer loyalty or improve sales.
Following are recipients of the 2021 IMA Excellence Award.
- Sales Incentive category: Motivation firm 212F
helped develop an incentive program, Plus Factor, that helped Plumbing Plus
store operators increase sales and build client engagement through rebates and
personalized rewards.
- Consumer Promotion category: Agência Digi created "This is My Moment"
promotion, which was created to help stimulate sales for Vigor’s Grego
yogurt line.
- Dealer/Distributor Incentive category: Motivforce and tech
firm Lenovo developed Lenovo Elevate, to
incentivize Lenovo’s authorized partners to join the company’s rewards program,
grow their sales and move those partners to a higher-tier reseller category.
- Employee Incentive Program category: HMI Performance
Incentives worked with corporate supplier Wesco/Anixter
to develop an incentive-rewards platform that consolidated
all vendor and company incentive programs into one format, and engage sales reps
and district managers to use the tool to plan and create rewarding experiences for
the global sales force.
- Merchandise in an Incentive Program category: Motivforce
and IBM created the Know Your IBM program that targeted
small- and mid-size nongovernment resellers of IBM products and services in
131 countries with 14 languages.
- Gift Cards in an Incentive Program category: Panera Bread
was honored for the program it developed for event organizers to simply and
safely cater Panera meals for remote meeting attendees.
- Social Responsibility category: Bonago Incentive Marketing Group partnered
with health-testing firm Novogenia to develop
Covid-19 testing for German firm Field Marketing + Sales Services, which
enabled the company to test employees on a monthly basis and helped maintain operations
and protect employees, customers, partners and their families during the pandemic.
- Recognition category: Synchro Marketing
worked with food-service firm Sodexo Australia to
develop the Recognize Me program, which demonstrates appreciation in a timely
and personal manner to everyone who displays the desired behaviors.
- Innovation & Technology category: WorkStride and printer firm
Lexmark were honored for the sophisticated software program they developed for Lexmark's dealer/distributor engagement and incentive programs.
The IMA also honored eight individuals during the summit. Barb Hendrickson, CPIM, president of Visible
Communication, received the Karen Renk Award; Heather Abbott, gift-card consultant and director of partnership marketing, Powerhouse Brands, was presented with the IMA President's Award; and retired incentive professionals Bill Hicks and Bob Jolley were given IMA Lifetime Achievement awards.
The recipients of the recipients of IMA Spirit awards were Peter Cannon, president of TicketJones; Scott Robinson, vice president of client services for Mint Advertising; Ted Moravec, CPIM, vice president of business development for Stark Enterprises; and Greg Trzaska, president of Breakaway Card Services.