GiftCard Partners Blog

I had the pleasure of attending the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) 12 Trends in Rewards & Recognition webinar last week. It was a truly well put together and extremely professional event; I don’t tend to take these attributes for granted these days. And the
post webinar white paper download is filled with survey results, studies, insights, economic climate conditions, mobile technology implications in the workplace, the latest engagement techniques, and so much more. During the webinar, they noted that they’d release 2 new studies about the use of prepaid cards as incentives and rewards and
11 new studies and white papers on the use of rewards, recognition, and motivational meetings in the workplace. Here are IRF’s top 12 Trends, do take the time to download the white paper; it’s a must read for employers involved with engagement, motivation, recognition, and rewards…the things that keep your business ticking!

Social health games have proven to be effective in the fight against obesity. Whether it is a friendly race, a push-up competition at the gym, or use of a health tracking application. These applications often provide rewards such as gift cards, and health tips to further the participants effort to live a healthy lifestyle. These games do not only provide a social component, which motivates individuals to continue with their healthy companions, but provides an easy opportunity to reward desired behavior. These games and mobile apps could be a great way for employers to engage their employees in a health and wellness program without having to invest the money to create the program. Encouraging a particular social health app or a particular regiment would bring employees camaraderie and shared motivation to work towards rewards, and a healthy lifestyle. These social health games could essentially act as a ready-made health and wellness program for your employees. The only cost that the company would incur would be small rewards such as gift cards to help maintain engagement in the program and promote ongoing healthy living. How does your company use social games to motivate employees to be healthy?
For more information on specific social health games and platforms check out this U.S. News and World Report article.

Prepaid and gift cards sales are amplified with new activity as technology paves the way to better than expected growth. Mercator Advisory Group recently reported that all segments of closed-loop prepaid exceeded their previous forecasts for 2010. In-store gift cards were forecasted at 4% growth for 2010, but total load volume hit $84.6 billion, up 10% from $76.9 in 2009. The B2B gift card market realizes much of this growth via gift card categories like digital-content (online games and social networking credit) and prepaid mobile; gift cards received more loads for these digital-content activities. Retailers are also doing a better job of integrating their gift cards with loyalty programs and other consumer promotions, which catches the attention of potential incentive and rewards buyers. “Loads on employee and partner incentive closed-loop cards increased 10% and loads on consumer-incentive cards also grew 10%”, states Digital Transactions in their Mercator report overview:
Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010 “On the whole, what we’re seeing is even the closed-loop market is showing some resilience in the face of the economy,” Jackson says. Consumers seem to be recognizing the true value of their gift cards, and “many retailers are doing a better job of integrating their gift cards with loyalty programs and other promotions, Jackson says. “They’re realizing that gift cards are not just a plastic version of paper gift certificates,” he says. Source:
Digital Transactions: Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010
 

At GiftCard Partners, we’ve been hearing a lot about how corporations are targeting gaming as a way to attract employees to workplace motivation and incentive programs. Interactive games are a fun and effective way to educate and train employees, and promote behavior changes. According to the National Training Laboratories, learners who engage with games as part of their educational process retain 75 % of the knowledge they acquire.