How True It Is…

I have long held the belief that the incentive and performance improvement industry lags the advertising industry by about 10 years – give or take a few.  In the old days advertisers got 15% on their placements – getting paid for the tail – not the dog.  Clients got smart and said they’d pay for the creative and the work that goes into the development but they weren’t going to pay a percentage on the total placement.  That change really affected how agencies made their money – in many case significantly reducing their income.  And I’ll guess forced them to really look at where they added value in the relationship.

The incentive industry is the same – many current models charge a mark-up on the end deliverable – the award.  Again, the award is the tail – the appropriate design of the program is the dog.  If my premise is true the incentive and performance improvement industry is really going to have to invest in some hard-core soul-searching to find their real value. 

Take a look at this video – substitute "incentive company" for "advertiser" and "participant" for "consumer".  Besides a few of the comments the impact is exactly the same.  The best line in the video is:  "… I’ve changed but you haven’t."  I’d say that’s the story with the incentive and performance industry as well.  Our audiences have changed – but most of the leaders haven’t.  Check out the author, director, et. al. at his site:  Bring the love back.