GIFT CARD IQ
Turning It Around
By Leo Jakobson
Illustration by Eric Westbrook
The number of big-budget programs increase over 2010
Big-budget incentive programs and their gift card and gift certificate
components both showed signs
of revival in Incentive’s 2011 Gift
Card IQ survey.
The number of respondents
with incentive gift card and
certificate budgets of more than
$100,000 nearly doubled to 15
percent this year, compared
with 7. 8 percent in 2010. The
most dramatic gain was in programs with budgets between
$250,000 and $499,999, which
jumped from 0.4 percent to 3. 9
percent—nearly 10 times the
number seen in 2010.
The number of low-budget gift
card programs shrank, however.
Programs with budgets of less
than $1,000 dropped more than
10 percent, from nearly a third of
the programs reported in 2010 to
just 21. 7 percent this year.
The same trend was seen in
the overall incentive program
budgets reported in this sur-
vey: the number of incentive
programs with budgets of less
than $25,000 shrank nearly 10
percent compared to last year,
while the five largest program
categories—from the $75,000-
to-$149,999 range to the $1
million-or-more range—all
increased. Nineteen percent had
annual budgets of more than
$250,000, and 10. 6 percent
spend $1 million or more.
For the complete results of Incentive’s 2011 Gift Card IQ survey, visit http://bit.ly/inc2011GiftCardIQ
What is your company’s annual budget for all incentive/recognition/reward
programs for 2011?
2011 2010
• Less than $25,000................................ 53.6%............................. 62.3%
• $25,000-$49,999.................................. 12.4%............................. 8.7%
• $50,000-$74,999.................................. 5.3%............................... 6.6%
• $75,000-$149,999................................ 4.9%............................... 4.7%
• $150,000-$249,999.............................. 4.8%............................... 3.8%
• $250,000-$499,999.............................. 4.9%............................... 3.2%
• $500,000-$999,999.............................. 3.5%...............................2.6%
• $1,000,000 or more............................. 10.6%............................. 8.1%
What is your company’s annual budget for all gift certificates/gift cards
in incentive programs for 2011?
2011 2010
• Less than $1,000....................................... 21.7%........................... 32.0%
• $1,000 to $9,999....................................... 37.9%........................... 33.0%
• $10,000 to $24,999.................................. 14.7%........................... 11.8%
• $25,000 to 49,999 .................................... 3.9%............................. 8.8%
• $50,000 to $99,999.................................. 6.8%............................. 6.6%
• $100,000 to $249,999............................. 5.0%............................. 2.6%
• $250,000 to $499,000............................. 3.9%............................. 0.4%
