My Best Promotion

This month for My Best Promotion, we'll be taking a look at an employee incentive program created for a large national credit union, submitted by Laura Zaukaite Silva, senior promotional marketing consultant for CMC Promos, San Francisco, Calif. The incentive program functioned through a point-based reward system, allowing employees to earn higher quality gifts the better and more frequently they met the programs goals. Below, Silva discusses the successes and struggles of the program, from bundling items to dealing with a large corporate committee as a collective client.

Promo Marketing: What was the promotion's goal? What did you do to make the goal happen?

Laura Zaukaite Silva: It was an internal program to show appreciation to employees participating in the data integration program. The program had a reward system, so employees were able to collect points for efficiency and accuracy and exchange the points for gifts. Our client's data transfer program was a big journey for them, so the promotion's theme was "Journey of the Gnome."

PM: What kinds of items did you use in the promotion, and why?

LZS: Our program had different "levels" of gifts, so employees that spent more time doing data integration were awarded with nicer and more gifts. Since the program had a journey theme, all the gifts were travel-related.

We presented a die-cut window journal book as a passport idea. Of course we decided to use the client's custom gnome for a die-cut, and Chameleon Like Inc. from Gilroy, Calif. did a wonderful job making sure that it was exactly what the client expected. In addition to journals we did backpacks, laptop sleeves, travel mugs and photo books.

PM: What made this a profitable promotion for you? Why?

LZS: This was a profitable promotion for us because we came up with item ideas and presented them as a package deal. It was a good and easy solution for our client. It went with their theme, it fit their budget and they knew that employees would appreciate and have use for the gifts.