| With the cost of living rising and mums and dads spending more time at work, incentives for all of the family are proving popular with promoters.
This month – on February 27 to be exact – Britons start to get paid for the hours they actually work each year. This date is being “celebrated” by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) with its annual Work Your Proper Hours Day, when it highlights how UK employees work, on average, an extra seven hours and six minutes each week unpaid – the equivalent of nearly two months of the year. With the country in recession, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber predicts that inevitably “people will be putting in extra hours if they think it can help protect against redundancy or keep their employer in business”.
This long-hours culture impacts on people’s work-life balance and family life, but employers themselves can compensate through the incentives offered in motivation programmes.
With less free time and the cost of living going up, treats for all the family are likely to be one of the first casualties. “Family experiences and gifts have always been very popular incentives and, with tougher economical times ahead, prizes such as family holidays are going to have even greater appeal,” says Justine Clement, managing director of Unmissable, which has worked on promotions targeting families. These have included a joint campaign for an Italian cooking sauce and a women’s magazine to promote family health and fitness, including a chance to win mountain bikes for all the family.
Clement points out that promoters should bear in mind that there is no such thing as a typical family, with a wide range of different structures and ages. “Know your audience – take into account whether the brand is high-end or low-end, and the income level of the families you are aiming the incentives at,” she says. “Know what’s new on the market, what are the latest trends and must-haves, what appeals to kids now, with both the rise in their use of technology and the ‘back to basics’ ethos that the current financial crisis brings.”
- ENDS -
|
