In Charlotte the local television station that covers the NFL Carolina Panthers promoted they would be giving a car away during the next game so tune in. They ran ads promoting the giveaway, had teases for fans at the game to see who the lucky recipient of the car would be, and then came The Big Moment.
The recipient chosen was the fan who dresses up in a blue-spiked wig and complete uniform. He never misses a Panther home game and is easily located by all fans in the stadium at his perch in the corner of the end zone. A car for the top fan -- what a great promotion! Cameras at the stadium focused in, and the image of the excited fan was projected on the big board -- what a great moment! Until they awarded him a toy handheld Porsche that wasn't a replica of what he was going to get, but was actually the car they had planned on giving away! A toy!
The television station says it was meant to be a joke. Oh really? Once the "joke" was exposed by a local sports writer, the local reaction was overwhelmingly critical that the station has misrepresented itself. In an effort to save face, the station decided to award the gentleman a pickup truck, which the fan said fit his needs better than the Porsche. Who's laughing now?
Think promotions through internally as well
Many companies enjoy offering internal competition incentives and excitingly promote the "contest." I've seen some contests go awry in a hurry when the incentives failed to meet the criteria for an effective internal promotion.
1. Be sure the "prize" is worthy of the promotion.
If you are hoping to increase sales significantly through a contest, and the upside for the company is thousands of dollars, don't be offering a pen and pencil set as the winning prize! You look cheap, disrespectful and in the eyes of employees, leadership loses credibility.
2. Be creative to make it memorable.
Working with a manufacturing company who was trying to reduce accidents, we created a promotion that really got employees' attention and made safety a topic of conversation, thus raising the awareness of safety.
The prior year the organization had 22 accidents reported. We created a sliding scale of awards beginning with, yes, a car give away. If the organization went a year without any accidents, all those eligible would be placed in a drawing for a brand new car at a participating dealership. This got everyone's attention!
Then if one accident happened, the award slid to a big screen TV, two accidents a gas grill, and so on. It kept the employees' interest and was effective in keeping awareness up and accidents were reduced measurably that year.
3. Be sure you are ready to award what you are offering!
One company I've worked with had an incentive that for every cost-saving idea an employee came up with and was implemented, the employee would receive 10 percent of the savings for one year. Pictures of the company president awarding $300 checks to employees for their ideas were running in the company newsletter. Then one employee came up with a fantastic payroll idea that would save the company over a million dollars a year.
The company suddenly dropped the incentive program, and the employee never got her award for the idea. Yes, her idea was implemented 12 months later. Once again, leadership had egg on their faces for holding back.
If you want to reward employees for ideas, don't lose sight of the bigger picture and the overall benefit the organization is receiving because you are blinded with the size of the award for the idea.
