Incentive Marketing Association’s Circle of Excellence Awards honors four firms for achievement in incentive campaigns

CHICAGO –Sept. 26, 2011 – Four companies, each with their own distinct business challenges, creatively used incentive campaigns to achieve successful results, winning the Incentive Marketing Association’s (IMA) 2011 Circle of Excellence Awards, to be presented Oct. 5, 2011 at the annual Motivation Show at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

This year’s award winners are Dex Imaging, Tampa Florida; Travel Tags, Inc., Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota; AstraZeneca Australia, North Hyde, New South Wales; and Europcar – Tattersall Rent a Car, Santiago, Chile.

Launched in 2000, the Circle of Excellence Awards identifies and recognizes outstanding examples of successful customer and employee incentive programs designed to help drive business. Both the company and the incentive marketing partner are recognized.

“This year’s winners, together with their incentive professionals, developed very creative and engaging incentive programs, which led to impressive business results,” said IMA Executive Director Karen Renk.

Here is a summary of the four winning programs and their successful results:

Dex Imaging offers sales team a “San Francisco Treat” – Dex Imaging, together with Dittman Incentive Marketing, launched its latest travel incentive program – “Dex – In the City by the Bay” for its sales team to drive sales during a traditional slow period and down market for their products. Winners were awarded a four-day, three-night trip to San Francisco for themselves and a guest, which included a large variety of city-based and regional food, wine, and entertainment experiences. The program was instrumental in helping to boost sales by 18.5 percent over year-earlier levels.

Travel Tags unified program rewards diverse workforce – Travel Tags, Inc. partnered with Anderson Performance Improvement Co. to create a simple, but powerful employee recognition system to improve business results and to reach out to a multi-cultural workforce representing six different languages. The online rewards program allowed the company’s diverse staff to choose from more than 4,500 merchandise and travel rewards. The program achieved an 88 percent participation rate, helped reduce safety incidents by 70 percent, and improved on-time delivery to more than 99 percent.

AstraZeneca goes all-inclusive with “myRecognition” – Seeking to build and expand a culture of recognition across the company, AstraZeneca Australia and its incentive partner, Accumulate, developed “MyRecognition,” a peer nomination and recognition program to include all 1,000 of its employees spanning all nine business divisions, its head office, sales and manufacturing locations. Participants were able to earn reward points toward more than 3,500 merchandise and travel awards. A year-long communication strategy was key to the success of the program, which had a 95 percent participation rate.

Europcar – Tattersall’s “Sales Adventure Trail” leads to sales boost – Despite the impact of an earthquake in Chile and the uncertainty of launching a new brand, Europcar – Tattersall Rent a Car and incentive partner Megaclub drove sales with an innovative employee incentive program that compared the challenge of meeting sales goals to the challenges of successfully scaling a mountain peak, shooting the rapids, and facing the dangers of the jungle. The multi-layered campaign led to a 115 point sales gain versus goal, with a 100 percent participation rate, and positioned the company’s new brand as a leading competitor in the rental car industry.

In-depth case studies of the 2011 Circle of Excellence winners will be available after Oct. 5, 2011 at www.returnonperformance.org and www.incentivemarketing.org. For information about the Motivation Show and to register for the Circle of Excellence Awards presentation, visit www.motivationshow.com.

About the Circle of Excellence Awards - Past Circle of Excellence Award winners have included noted companies such as GE Financial Services, Glaxo Smith Kline, Kohler, Kraft Foods, Purina, Microsoft Corp., and Sprint Communications. The growing archive of Circle of Excellence Award case studies illustrates the power of incentives, setting even higher standards for the incentive marketplace. Judging criteria includes overall success in meeting program objectives, program originality/creativity, appropriate incentive selection, perceived value of the incentive, and effectiveness of communication strategy and promotional materials.

About the Incentive Marketing Association
Business improves when employees and customers are recognized, rewarded, and engaged through effectively structured programs with defined goals and proven returns. The Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) is comprised of the companies who are leaders in the incentive industry. IMA provides education, resources and research to promote the use of incentive programs to the business community and is the umbrella organization for the Global Incentive Council (GIC), the Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC), the Incentive Manufacturers & Representatives Alliance (IMRA), the Incentive Travel Council, the Performance Improvement Council, the Promotional Products Provider Council, the Recognition Council, IMA-Australia Council, IMA-Canada Council and IMA-Europe Council.
More information about IMA and the incentive marketplace is available at www.incentivemarketing.org.

IMA
1601 North Bond St., Suite 303
Naperville, IL 60563
630.369.7780
info@incentivemarketing.org

Business improves when employees and customers are recognized, rewarded, and engaged through effectively structured programs with defined goals and proven returns. The Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) is comprised of the companies who are leaders in the incentive industry. IMA provides education, resources and research to promote the use of incentive programs to the business community and is the umbrella organization for the Global Incentive Council (GIC), the Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC), the Incentive Manufacturers & Representatives Alliance (IMRA), the Incentive Travel Council, the Performance Improvement Council, the Promotional Products Provider Council, the Recognition Council, IMA-Australia Council, IMA-Canada Council and IMA-Europe Council.
More information about IMA and the incentive marketplace is available at www.incentivemarketing.org.

1601 North Bond St., Suite 303
Naperville, IL 60563

This release was published on openPR.