2020 has been a crazy year full of changes and surprises. In the incentive industry, some interesting things have been happening. The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) recently released their report on the Industry Outlook for 2021, which included some trends from 2020 and what they are predicting for 2021. When IRF conducted their 2019, 85% of companies expected to have a strong financial performance in 2020. The IRF’s new study showed that only 64% believe their companies will have a strong financial performance in 2021 and 50% think that the U.S. economic outlook is strong for 2021. These percentages are still reasonably optimistic, considering the situation with COVID-19.  There was a 10% rise in incentive program cancellations in 2019 from 18% to 28%. The rate of incentive program cancellation in 2020 remained fairly steady at 29%. The IRF study showed an increase in preference for gift cards and merchandise, but a sharp, but not unexpected, decrease in offerings of experiential rewards. Many people still desire experiential rewards, but most program managers have chosen to exercise caution in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IRF believes that the distribution and adoption of COVID-19 vaccines may cause these trends to change in […]

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