The Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) presented its 2021 Excellence Awards during the IMA Summit Awards ceremony at the 2021 IMA Summit this week.

The IMA Excellence Awards recognize development and delivery of outstanding non-cash incentive programs that motivate employees, win customers and improve sales.

2021 IMA Excellence Awards Winners

• Sales Incentives– 212F, Plus Factor Program for Plumbing Plus
• Consumer Promotion − Agência Digi, Esse Momento é Meu (This is my Moment) Program for Vigor
• Dealer/Distributor Incentive− Motivforce, Lenovo Elevate Program for Lenovo
• Employee Incentive Program− HMI Performance Incentives, Reward Zone Program for Wesco/Anixter
• Merchandise in an Incentive Program− Motivforce, Know Your IBM Program for IBM
• Gift Cards in an Incentive Program− Panera Bread, Panera Connects Program for Panera Connects
• Social Responsibility− Bonago Incentive Marketing Group, GmbH; Corona Tests for Companies Program for FMS Field Marketing + Sales Service
• Recognition− Synchro Marketing, Recognize Me Program for Sodexo Australia
• Innovation & Technology− WorkStride, Lexmark Program for Lexmark International

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Award Category – Sales Incentives
212F, “Plus Factor” Program for Plumbing Plus

212F helped develop an incentive program to sustain and differentiate Plumbing Plus in a market where B2B rebates are expected, and loyalty seems to depend on how big the rebate is. The rebate values stayed the same, while the program connected stores with customers personally and emotionally. Plumbing Plus store operators have not only increased sales and business client engagement through a new rebate model and personalized rewards, but plumbers say there is now more value in the rebate than what they’ve bargained for with Plus Factor.

The Plus Factor is a concept that suggests plumbers have an edge. This edge is their partnership with a Plumbing Plus store where they hold an account. The program name Plus Factor is also a way to explain that Plumbing Plus delivers value. Not only do they provide great offers, a rebate and a better incentive than others; they also provide rewards that can be taken as an individual (for themselves or family) or as a business.

Award Category – Consumer Promotion
Agência Digi, Esse Momento é Meu (This is my Moment) Program for Vigor

Agência Digi helped Vigor develop the “This is My Moment” promotion, which was carried out at the time of the reopening of the market. The campaign was created to help stimulate the growth of points of sale and boost sales for Vigor’s Grego product line. It consisted of the purchase of four products, registration on the promotion website and then registering invoices through a QR code. When invoices met the campaign criteria, they generated coupons for two different drawings. The results exceeded expectations for the brand’s initiative by creating a promotion to support the market at the time of resumption and reopening in a challenging scenario.

Award Category – Dealer/Distributor Incentive
Motivforce, Lenovo Elevate Program for Lenovo

Motivforce helped Lenovo develop Lenovo Elevate, which targets Lenovo data center group authorized partner/reseller firms in Lenovo’s distribution channel in the EMEA. The aim of the Elevate program is to incentivize authorized partners to join a rewards program at the firm level, grow their sales and generate revenue sufficiently in order to convert these firms to higher tier resellers. Once they have reached higher sales targets, they are elevated to a higher tier and transferred to other rewards programs such as Lenovo’s Leap program. Motivforce also operates this program, thus leveraging existing infrastructure for sales reporting, SSO and rebate payments.

Award Category – Employee Incentive Program
HMI Performance Incentives, Reward Zone Program for Wesco/Anixter

HMI Performance Incentives worked with Wesco/Anixter to develop an incentive rewards platform to host all vendor and company sales program incentive fund (Spiff) campaigns for their salespeople. Anixter requires all their vendors to post any Spiff campaigns on the platform and rewards are awarded in a standard point value. The program design focused on three objectives: consolidate all vendor and company Spiffs into one format and one platform, engage sales reps and district managers to use the tool to plan and create their Spiffs and provide a rewarding experience to the sales rep globally.

HMI Award developed a robust incentive program where Anixter managers and vendors can market their Spiff campaigns to Anixter salespeople. The platform design was flexible enough to accommodate the cohort’s structural differences quickly and efficiently. Initially the program was rolled out to the North American region, but was expanded to Europe/Mediterranean, Caribbean/South American and the Asia Pacific regions.

Award Category – Merchandise in an Incentive Program
Motivforce, Know Your IBM Program for IBM

Motivforce helped IBM develop a rewards program to differentiate IBM’s products and services from competitors’ offerings in a crowded marketplace. The Know Your IBM program targeted small and mid-size non-government resellers in 131 countries with 14 languages. Know Your IBM is delivered by a bespoke web portal with desktop or mobile access via a single sign on. The program is structured around two key components: Learn and Earn, which provides incentives and rewards for undertaking a variety of e-learning activities and Sell and Earn where points are awarded for claiming sales of eligible IBM products/services. Participants redeem their points via the website for one of the widest choices of merchandise, gift cards and experiences in any B2B incentive program. Know Your IBM is a long-running loyalty program, challenging Motivforce to keep the program agile, refreshed and engaging year after year.

Award Category – Gift Cards in an Incentive Program
Panera Bread, Panera Connects Program for Panera Connects

Panera Connects is Panera Bread’s new meal delivery program for virtual team meetings, customer presentations, appreciation or recognition events and more. In response to the ongoing pandemic, Panera developed a first-to-market program for event organizers to cater Panera meals simply and safely for remote meeting attendees. Regardless of group size, event type, or number of delivery locations, Panera connects enables clients to issue digital stored-value codes redeemable by their employees and customers. Since its Q1 2021 launch, the Panera Connects program has fulfilled more than 800 client orders for nearly 25,000 remote event attendees.

Award Category – Social Responsibility
Bonago Incentive Marketing Group, GmbH; Corona Tests for Companies Program for
FMS Field Marketing + Sales Service

Bonago combined their expertise with Novogenia, an Australian biotechnology company, to develop COVID-19 tests for Field Marketing + Sales Services (FMS). Together, Bonago and Novogenia developed a reliable, cost-effective and fast dual-track system using PCR technology that meets all requirements on the German market. Since October, FMS has tested all 40 of their Leipzig employees on a monthly basis. This has helped maintain operational capability, and protect employees, customers, partners and their families.

Award Category – Recognition
Synchro Marketing, “Recognize Me” Program for Sodexo Australia

Synchro Marketing helped Sodexo Australia develop the Recognize Me program, which has successfully met the challenge of bringing to life Sodexo’s employee value proposition. Sodexo realized they needed to do more to recognize their employees and sought the help of Synchro Marketing to do this. A comprehensive range of emails are facilitated through Recognize Me, thus allowing Sodexo to demonstrate appreciation in a timely and personal manner to everyone who displays the desired behaviors. The program makes high-profile recognition and reward central to Sodexo’s work culture and relationship with all its employees.

Award Category – Innovation & Technology
WorkStride, Lexmark Program for Lexmark International

WorkStride worked with Lexmark to develop a dealer/distributor program that has received significant results in two years. Lexmark’s ability to meet expected incentive standards in their industry, while also flexing greatly to meet their more specific needs, is an exemplary use of innovative incentive technology to drive positive impact on loyalty and engagement. The program demands of Lexmark did not fit a conventional box for a plug-and-play program, so they needed a powerful and flexible software to take on the heavy core program administrative functions in an automated way. They focused on getting creative and differentiating how the program functions, communicates, engages, and incentivizes. This has made the Lexmark program stand out in its marketplace among more traditional competitive programs that run Spiffs for the same dealer/distributor audiences as Lexmark.

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Judges and Sponsors
Special thanks to the IMA Excellence Award judges who give of their time and support to make it possible to recognize and honor the great work of IMA members.

• Judges – Mike Donnelly, CPIM, president, Hinda Incentives; Brian Dunne, FCMA, FIH, CPIM, MBA, Fellow IMA, chief executive officer, Giftcard Consulting; Lisa Grimaldi, editor, Incentive magazine and editor, Incentives & Destinations, Northstar Meetings Group; Mark Herbert, president & CEO, Incentive Solutions Inc.; Rich Killian, CPIM, president, RK Incentives; Cristiano Miano, CPIM, chairman, Grupo Digi; Cindy Mielke, CPIM, director, channel marketing: incentives, Tango Card; Paul Nolan, editor, Sales and Marketing Management magazine; Lore Rincon, sales manager, Continental Premium Corp; Rob Purdy, founder and chief executive officer, CarltonOne Engagement; Len Sadek, CPIM, director of gift card sales & marketing, Landry’s Inc.; Hollis Thornton, CPIM, partner account executive, Meta Payments; Robert Ward, CPIM, president, Rowards.com; Sean Wilkinson, chairman, 360Insights.
• Sponsor – Blackhawk Network