Prize and Incentive Ideas People Actually Want

The trouble with most prizes is that they are either a gift card, which is forgotten by the following week, or a trip, which you can only award to one person once a year.

“Employee thank yous, employee anniversaries, you know, using it as a bonus as a sales reward or as a celebration that we won a big contract. We, you know, hit a target for a quarter, you know, sales competitions, you're in the top 10% on the sales team. You know, sometimes you win that, you know, trip to the Bahamas just as easily win that, you know, year long steak box subscription.”

Gray Shipley

That last line is the useful one. A trip is a prize for one person. A year of boxes can be a prize for a team, awarded more than once, and it keeps reminding the winner why they got it.

Why it works better than a gift card

A gift card gets absorbed into the week's shopping. A box arrives at the house, somebody asks what it is, and the winner gets to say they won it. That second conversation is the whole value of a prize.

“You know, you could give them a year long subscription where they're getting something from you every month. And, you know, they're, you're continuing to feed them throughout the year, just as they help feed you.”

Gray Shipley

Prize tiers that make sense

• Monthly or weekly. A single good box. Enough to be worth winning, small enough to award often.
• Quarterly. A larger box, or a short run of boxes.
• Annual. A year of recurring deliveries. This is the one people compete for.

Keep it winnable by everyone

“And then a lot of industries, you know, get squeamish about, well, you know, I may have vegetarians or I may have, you know, people with religious concerns, you know, where I don't want to send them a meat or a particular cut of meat or something. And then allergens, so there's sensitivity in a lot of industries.”

Gray Shipley

A prize somebody cannot accept is worse than no prize, so make the alternative explicit from the start. Offering a gift card as the equivalent option means nobody has to raise their hand about a dietary restriction in front of the team.

Award it when it will be noticed

“But when you get back in the office after new year's and that next week on Wednesday or Thursday, the steak box just shows up and there's not any other gifts sitting around the office. It stands out a little bit more and people recognize and remember it a little bit more. And you start the year with, you know, coming back to a special gift that kind of is meaningful and appreciated.”

Gray Shipley

The same logic that makes January a good month for gifts makes it a good month for prizes. Nothing else is arriving, and the thing stands on its own.

A gift that keeps turning up

Curated Family Pack

A recurring pack of everyday cuts. The gift is remembered every time it arrives, not just once.

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The one to send when it should feel like an occasion

The Steakhouse Box

Steaks, chosen so the person opening it knows immediately that someone spent thought rather than money.

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For the one who cooks outside in any weather

Curated Grill Master Box

A recurring box of grilling cuts. It arrives again and again, which a one-off gift cannot do.

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For recognition more broadly, employee and team gifts covers the occasions. On recurring boxes, here is what arrives and when.