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Practical Favorites
The economy favors movies, video
games, and conveniences in dining
and entertainment gift cards
Incentive Magazine - May 2010
By William Ng
Dining and entertainment gift cards redeem well in good
times, but in lean times, they garner an even higher profile
in corporate recognition and reward programs.
Still-challenging business conditions have forced budgets to
remain taut and companies to tier down programs to get
more employees engaged earlier, thus favoring practical type
and everyday-spend gift cards with lower denominations, such
as movie cards. Apple's iTunes and casual-dining cards, such
as those from Applebee's, continue to be mainstays, but
quick-service restaurant cards and video-game cards have
trended higher, says Joan Travelstead, vice president of
business development for National Gift Card, a prominent
card reseller and fulfillment house in the incentive market.
And denominations have continued to trend down, she adds.
Travelstead identifies the following gift cards as
current hot-sellers at National Gift Card:
Subway:
The sandwich chain has 24,000 North American locations,
making the quick-service restaurant's gift cards highly
popular. Subway is one of our best-sellers,
Travelstead
notes. It's very popular in Carlson Marketing, Maritz,
and Fortune 500 programs. It's also very popular in the
fund-raising industry. Denominations begin at $5
and top out at $100, and clients can specify reloadable
cards.
GameStop:
The volume of gift cards from the video-game and
entertainment software retailer has seen a tremendous
jump in volume, with people nesting, says Travelstead.
There are 4,500 worldwide GameStop stores, and the gift
cards are also redeemable at EB Games stores. Denominations
begin at $10 and end at $500.
Fandango:
The nation's largest movie-ticketing service entered the
incentive channel last year and offers $10, $15, $20, $25,
$50, and $100 gift cards, certificates, and promotional
codes. Much of Fandango's incentive business has been $10,
$20, and $50 cards, and all card redemption takes place
online at www. fandango.com. It's been a great seller,Â
says
Travelstead.
P.F. Chang's:
Starting at $25, with custom non-standard denominations up
to $500 available, P.F. Chang's gift cards rolled into the
incentive market last fall and quickly found their way into
large, high-volume corporate programs they're already being
placed in this year's Christmas programs. Orders were
in the hundreds of thousands of cards, says
Travelstead, who adds that incentive clients were
starved for something new in the casual-dining segment. A
$1,000 purchase qualifies for a 10 percent discount.
iTunes:
The longstanding favorite from Apple, iTunes cards are
available in $10, $15, $25, $50, and $100 denominations,
which translate to plenty of music downloads to the iPods
and iPhones of high-performing employees.
The popularity of practical-type gift cards in the recession
has led to some criticism that such cards lack motivational
appeal. So, to make the cards more memorable and boost their
trophy value for employees, National Gift Card can
provide fulfillment with greeting cards, cardholders, and
letter carriers. The company can deliver cards to planners
or directly to card recipients.
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