IMA Circle of Excellence Award Winners Have International Flavor
Five companies are being honored with Incentive Marketing Association 2008 Circle of Excellence Awards on Sept. 23 during the 2008 Motivation Show at Chicago's McCormick Place. The winners are Subaru Canada Inc., Toyota Motor Corp. Australia, BigPond – TELSTRA of Sydney, Australia, LJ Hooker Financial Services of Alexandria, Australia, and Modis of Jacksonville, Fla.
Launched in 2000, the Circle of Excellence Award recognizes outstanding examples of successful customer and employee incentive programs that help the businesses soar. "In today's challenging economy, companies have to distinguish themselves from the competition by developing creative ways to entice and excite customers and employees alike," said Karen Renk, CAE, executive director of IMA. "The five winners -- together with their marketing incentive partners -- achieved great results for their efforts."
Subaru Canada's Impreza reward package, done with Carlton Group, Ltd. (Markham, Ontario), is a rewards club program for buyers of the Impreza WRX STI hatchback. New owners received a prepaid reward card valued at $2,500, redeemable for service, extended warranty, accessories, apparel, and Subaru-branded merchandise at any participating Subaru Canada dealer.
Australia's 224 Toyota dealers boosted sales by working with Synchro Marketing of Sydney to create the Toyota Sales Society, which recognizes dealer employees' performance and integrates the business goals of the dealers' new car, used car, and service departments.
LJ Hooker Financial Services and incentive professional Solterbeck (South Melbourne, Australia) designed a software program to link and manage a diverse network of real estate brokers, agents, and offices across multiple regions to drive home mortgage referrals and sales. The Achievers Program resulted in 19,000 referrals last year, 125 percent above 2004's total, and $2.1 billion in new business for LJ Hooker.
BigPond, an Internet hardware provider, teamed with incentive advisor ACCUMULATE (Port Melbourne, Australia) on a "BigPoints" incentive program to increase sales among retailers and call centers through online products and traditional merchandise. Today, BigPond has the highest new customer acquisition rate and a 48 percent market share among Australian Internet providers.
IT provider Modis, with USMOTIVATION of Atlanta, runs an annual sales incentive plan for The Breakers, a famed Palm Beach, Fla., resort. The program helped to boost North American sales to $513 million last year (from $472 million in 2006).
For more information about Naperville, Ill.-based IMA, visit www.incentivemarketing.org.