The smell of buttered popcorn is in the air. In good times and bad, seeing a film still remains one of our favorite pastimes. Who doesn’t like watching movies? Not many. But the recent increase in ticket prices over the years has kept more Americans on their couches with remote in hand rather than trekking to the local theater.

When you need to motivate, nothing beats dinner and a movie. According to the Associated Press, it usually costs one person $8 to $10 to see a film. And concession stand prices don’t help. Add on another seven dollars for a medium popcorn and soda, and you’ve got yourself an expensive evening. So it makes sense to reward employees and customers with dining and entertainment awards. Whether it’s a night in or out on the town, dinner and a movie is an award they can’t refuse.

Play it Again

Curling up on the sofa with a movie or two doesn’t sound bad. According to the Princeton, N.J.-based Gallup Organization “State of the Movies” study, people (68 percent) like to watch movies at home.

For those who prefer to rent, movie gift certificates or cards are the perfect reward because recipients can rent or buy movies for free. Kevin Healey, director of sales for the Canton, Mass.-based Reebok, has used Blockbuster gift cards for three different incentive programs for the past four years. “I didn’t see anybody in our industry using that kind of incentive in their program, and it worked well for us,” he says. “When you have something for free it has a higher perceived value than if you put a dollar amount on it. If you gave someone a $5 gift card and one for a free movie rental, they would think that the free movie rental has a higher value. When we try to put programs together we have to be leery where the accounts are based, where the rooftops are. We have to provide the consumer with something that they can easily access. We try to find something that’s convenient, so we don’t have to worry about them getting something that they can’t use. You have to use something that ’s universal.”

Over the years, thousands of movie-rental cards have been given to sales representatives as an incentive and to consumers who purchase a particular Reebok product. However, one of the biggest programs has been for the in-store retailers. Reebok representatives conduct in-store visits to better educate retailers about the product they are selling. In return for their time and attention, the retailers receive free movie rental cards. “We’ve tried to upgrade the incentives for them to pay attention,” says Healey. “First there will be a question and answer session just to make sure that they’ve paid attention and understood everything related to the products, and we’ve used the card as an incentive for that.”

Paired Off

Dining is the perfect complement to any movie, be it on the big screen or your own TV. A large East Coast tobacco company used food items and dining certificates as an award for 120 of its loyal customers. Monthly fruit assortments were one of the gifts given out as part of a sweepstakes program. Other prizes included grills, steaks and travel.

Most people love to eat out, try new restaurants and see a film, but can’t afford to as often as they’d like these days. Three years ago, Stacy Weiss, marketing director for Chicago magazine, a city-wide guide to dining and entertainment, recognized this and worked on creating a dining and entertainment awards catalog. “The Best of Chicago,” to encourage subscribers to renew their subscriptions.

“We looked at the magazine and wrote down a list of restaurants and spas, and went to different locations to find some of the best places for them to go,” says Weiss. “A few years ago our subscribers weren’t really into the book and there were restaurants that they wouldn’t really go to, so we upgraded everything up a notch by asking the editor and Chicago locals for their suggestions.”

The catalog, produced by the Troy, Mich.-based Entertainment Publications, an awards catalog company, also includes a list of spas, theater events, movie tickets, discount coupons for Carnival Cruises. More than 50,000 catalogues are produced each year. According to Weiss, it’s easy to improve a reward program with a dining and entertainment-filled awards catalog because it offers variety and is easily updated. Weiss says the entertainment awards catalog made the consumer promotion a success. The fact that most of the 1.2 million readers get the magazine to find restaurants, spas, the latest movies and other events in the Chicago area doesn’t hurt, either.

“It’s Chicago magazine, so dining and entertainment awards pretty much tie into the interests of a majority of our readers,” says Weiss. “They’re buying the magazine specifically for that reason. They already get the magazine so we know those are their interests. As an incentive to renew with us again, we can also give them the opportunity to go out, save some of their money and still have some fun.”

Real Time

Whether it’s a free DVD or VHS purchase or rental, snack money or tickets to their local cinema with dinner included, food and entertainment awards are a perfect match. Reebok’s Healey says that movies work because watching a film is such a convenient, fun and relaxing pastime. “Even in good or bad times it’s something that people are always going to do,” he says. “Especially during the bad times, people tend to hunker down and stay in, and they need to do something while they’re at home. By the time you go to the movie, buy popcorn and a drink, you could have rented five or six movies for the same price.”

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