Two top incentive suppliers have just earned rewards of their own. Chicago-based
Hinda Incentives announced that Ingram Entertainment Inc. and
Coby Electronics Corp. are this year’s recipients of the firm’s Golden Carrot Awards, given each year to suppliers offering outstanding product offerings, innovation, and reliability. The awards will be formally presented at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Hinda’s Chicago headquarters.
Wholesale DVD and video game distributor Ingram Entertainment has been a partner of Hinda for five years but most recently was instrumental in helping Hinda launch the infinitE award program, stocking thousands of game and movie titles and maintaining an updated catalog of the newest releases.
“It lets us continue to stock the hardware and the games that are the hot tickets, but the other 10,000 items are shipped out by Ingram as quickly as we would [do it], without having 18 warehouses to hold them all in,” says Rick Bowen, merchandise manager for Hinda. “If someone’s looking for a particular movie, they can find it, where if I had to figure out what to stock, I wouldn't have the right one for every person to make sure they are satisfied.”
Bowen adds that more information about the company’s InfinitE redemption program, focused on movies and video games, will be unveiled at this year’s Motivation Show in Chicago. As it takes off, Hinda expects its partnership with Ingram will only deepen further.
Coby Electronics has also been a vendor of Hinda for several years but is now a growing player in the incentive electronics market. Bowen cites Coby's flat-screen televisions as showing especially strong growth, with Hinda’s business with Coby increasing exponentially in the past two years.
“Coby has the right products at the right price, for really strong redemption,” says Bowen. “When a company goes forward and takes those extra steps it really benefits both of us.”
Jeffrey Beck, director of interactive media sales for Ingram Entertainment, will be accepting the Golden Carrot on behalf of his company, while Craig Hassler, director of sales for Coby Electronics, will be accepting the other award.