TENNIS FANS FROM ALL around the world flocked to Flushing, NY, last month for the season’s final stop on the Grand Slam circuit, the U.S. Open. Sponsors lured attendees with games, contests and sweepstakes dangling chances to win memorabilia, vacations and automobiles in exchange for building brand awareness and gathering personal information to round out their databases.

While NASCAR racing and football may be the most-televised sports in the United States, the U.S. Open remains the single largest attended annual sporting event in the world. The final attendance of 631,800 in 2004 is the second-highest of all-time, and a new night session record of 23,226 was set on Sept 4. An all-time one-day attendance record of 58,538 was also set this year, on Labor Day.

And it’s not just locals making the trek to the tennis center. According to the U.S. Tennis Association, 42% of fans that attend the U.S. Open are from outside the New York metropolitan area, and fans from all 50 states attended the 2003 U.S. Open. Which makes the event an ideal place for sponsors to interact with customers and prospects.

Though the sport of tennis has a reputation of being an upscale, country-club activity, the U.S. Open offers an excellent opportunity to reach more than just a well-to-do, highbrow crowd.

The image of attendees is “somewhat of a misnomer,” says Rich Feldman, executive VP and managing partner of Westport, CT-based Source Marketing. “People of all persuasions and shapes attend. However, it has an audience of people taking time off from work, bringing their clients and coming out because of the mystique the U.S. Open brings.”

Feldman, whose company handled JPMorgan Chase’s scratch-off sweepstakes at the Open, added that many of the event’s attendees are successful people with big incomes who tend to be investors. “That is a very good audience match for us,” Feldman says.

The instant-win cards worked two fold for JPMorgan, winning lots of face time for its brand and gathering a little personal data at its Web site. The cards were handed to about 400,000 potential customers. Those not lucky enough to win instantly still had a second chance with a sweepstakes. Copy on the game card prompted players to go online to register and enter a code for a chance to win courtside seats to next-year’s U.S. Open, and become part of their database.

“We’re not counting on [data collection] as a primary focus of the sweepstakes, but are using it to get people to the Web site to see the product online,” Feldman says. “The primary goal is to gain awareness.”

Instant winners were sent to one of several JPMorgan Chase booths to redeem prizes, which included courtside tickets and gift cards. Should they want information, financial advisors were also on hand to educate consumers about JPMorgan Chase’s offerings.

Though JPMorgan Chase was the only sponsor on site with a scratch-and-win card, it had something in common with all the other data-collecting brands — it chose to be as unobtrusive to attendees as possible. Though JPMorgan Chase representatives did hand the cards out at strategic locations within the grounds, all other data gatherers chose to let the consumers come to them.

Reps for AOL for Broadband say at least 10,000 consumers per day visited its Smashzone, a state-of-the-art interactive showcase. Inside, fans clocked their serve with speed guns, tested their volleying skills, tried to beat the pros at their own game and experienced the wide array of content available via AOL for Broadband — including exclusive coverage of the U.S. Open. They could sign up to get additional information about the product or purchase the online enhancement on the spot.

While JPMorgan Chase saw the U.S. Open as a chance to introduce itself to a high-salaried demographic, AOL for Broadband said it was looking to cash in on the everyday sports fan.

“There are a lot of sports fanatics who follow certain sports during these big events” says AOL for Broadband spokesman Billy Kenny, adding that sports fanatics flock to the U.S. Open for the chance to be surrounded by a championship event atmosphere. “Someone may not follow cycling, but when the Tour de France is on they are going to watch it. It’s like the casual sports fans and the NCAA (basketball) Tournament.”

Continental Airlines lured consumers before they could even enter the complex from Shea Stadium’s parking lots, the Long Island Railroad and the 7 Train with a guess-the-number-of-tennis-balls contest. Attendees spotting the giant translucent globe outside the center filled with bright yellow tennis balls gave Continental Airlines their names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for a chance to win two tickets to any one of the airline’s destinations.

Inside, Continental and five other sponsors lobbied for consumers’ attention under the baseline bleachers of Court 11. There, Continental joined marketing teams from the WTA Tour, USA Network, American Express, AOL for Broadband and ATP Tennis in separate initiatives designed to build their databases. Continental’s booth offered consumers a chance to win 1 million OnePass miles in its “Game. Set. Match.” sweepstakes. Consumers entered their information directly into one of three Internet kiosks for the chance to win.

Consumers hit the booth of U.S. Open broadcast partner USA Network to spin a wheel for prizes such as pins and key chains. They were also given a card directing them to the network’s online contest to register and play for a chance to win a prize package which included goodies from U.S. Open sponsors Wilson, Olympus, Fila and Evian.

AOL for Broadband also held a spin-for-a-prize trivia contest, and distributed free AOL for Broadband CD-ROMs. The WTA Tour and ATP Tennis also collected data (ATP Tennis just collected names and zip codes) for drawings that were conducted throughout the event.

American Express had its “Pose with the Pros” booth: A photo opportunity for tennis fans to obtain a souvenir postcard with an image of one of the featured athletes in the American Express “Official Card” advertising campaign.

American Express provided card members who presented their card at American Express Radio booths with a radio to hear the live broadcast of the matches from CBS Sports and USA Network. Card members had their Amex’s swiped before they could borrow the radios, building data on attendees for the credit-card marketer. However, Amex spokesperson Judy Tenzer would not say what the data would be used for.

Lincoln Mercury set up four stations in the United States Tennis Center to give fans up to four chances to win a 2005 Mercury Mariner SUV in its ADVANTAGE:YOU sweepstakes. Each time they hit a station, they had their courtside companion book scanned for an additional chance to win.

Consumers filled out personal information to receive the book, which contained info about the U.S. Open and Lincoln Mercury’s 2005 models. Attendees gave their names, addresses and phone numbers, but only had to give an e-mail address if they wanted a digital picture taken with a replica U.S. Open trophy, which was sent to that address.

“This event draws the type of customers who drive those products,” says Lincoln Mercury spokesman Todd Nissen. “It is a great way to show the new products we offer out to the public, in particular in front of a lot of people at a high profile event.” He said Lincoln Mercury did not have a target number in mind, but wanted to get information from a large number of people within that demographic.

At the Olympus booth, fans were given branded souvenir photos taken of them from high above Arthur Ashe Stadium with the World’s Fair globe in the background. The company says it had hoped to target consumers in a non-intrusive way to build brand awareness of its digital cameras and binoculars.

Olympus was, instead, targeting a more select group — pro photographers. The company met during the period with 300 credentialed photographers who pre-registered with the USTA with information about its all-digital SLR cameras. The photographers received a gift bag containing a branded lens cloth, cap and a survival kit of photographic essentials, along with the product info. Digital SLR cameras were made available for the photographers to try out during the tournament, and Olympus had computers onhand in its media center for downloading the images. And three versions of its digital cameras and one set of binoculars — all co-branded with the U.S. Open logo, were available for attendees at USTA’s gift shops.

“Most people come to the U.S. Open with a camera, but not with binoculars,” says Olympus director of brand marketing Mark Huggins. “And the demographics of the tennis consumer fits nicely with our product line.”

We need you to do more with less.” Maybe no CEO ever says those actual words to his or her managers, but the message is nevertheless being heard in conference rooms nationwide as the soft economy continues to affect corporate spending across the board.

In times of belt-tightening, one of the first things to get cut from corporate diets seems to be bonuses and incentives for employees. But if your managers already have a crew of overworked employees, and they’re under the gun to keep costs down, how can those managers keep their staff motivated? How can they efficiently match incentives to the interests and needs of their people?

It’s impossible to ignore incentives, especially if your company is making cuts elsewhere. “Organizations that have downsized are often faced with demoralized and over-stressed staffs,” says Karen Renk, executive director, Incentive Marketing Association. “Well-designed incentive programs make the participants feel valued and appreciated and should be viewed as a sound investment in a business’s greatest asset — it’s employees.”

The overall message

Let’s not kid ourselves: money talks. There’s nothing like a big bonus check to keep your employees happily greasing the wheels of commerce. However, sometimes you just can’t cut the fat checks and you’ve got to be a little more creative in your thinking.

“We’ve always been a proponent of motivated messaging,” says Mike Casale, president, Leverage MarCom of Newtown, CT. “What message do you want to impart to your audience and how do you motivate them to that?” He cites the example of Coca Cola. “Coke was looking for an ‘everybody wins’ tag that people could get excited about at the end of a sales meeting. They had a limited budget, because they had sunk a lot of money into the meeting for 4,000 people.”

Casale’s staff came up with the Winning Momentum scratch-off game. At the end of the meeting, Coke asked attendees to fill out a 20-minute survey. As Casale notes, “I don’t know about you, but that would be my invitation to leave! But then they announced that if you fill out the survey, you get a scratch-off card with the opportunity to win Great Adventure, Yankees, or movie tickets.” Attendees sat down and scratched the game card to reveal such phrases as “Putting Our People First,” “A Great Place to Work” or “You Have Momentum,” which were the three main messages of the meeting. Matching any two messages won a prize. There was an astonishing 97% participation in the survey.

Coke was happy with the results, too. “We’re always seeking unique ideas to motivate the skills and talents of our diverse workforce, and the scratch-off game card has universal appeal,” says Harriet Tolve, public affairs manager, Coca-Cola Enterprises. “Everyone really sparked to it.” Leverage provided Coca-Cola with a low-cost add-on to their meeting, which helped to underscore the motivational messages that the beverage behemoth was looking to impart to their employees. “The scratch-off games are not really a stand-alone premium incentive; they need to be part of a larger campaign,” explains Casale. “Yet we’ve found them to be remarkably exciting and inexpensive, as well.”

Fun for the whole family

Most companies’ incentive motives are the same: unify employees, reinforce corporate messaging and maximize staff enthusiasm. And they don’t have a lot of money to spend.

That where creativity — and empathy with your employees — comes in. One low-cost incentive is to provide a “movie night” for employees. And as harried working parents across the world know, there’s nothing like popping a movie into the VCR to quiet the wee beasties in the house and create a little down time for Mom or Dad.

“Companies choose Blockbuster for employee incentives for a few different reasons,” explains Lisa Voellner, VP of partnership marketing, Blockbuster, Dallas, TX. “We offer quick turnaround, easy fulfillment and it’s something that has a halo effect: if parents get a Blockbuster card at work, they can share it with the whole family. It’s also a positive entertainment experience, as opposed to a gift card where they might buy a necessity that is not fun or entertaining. And with 5,300 locations, folks don’t have to go out of their way to enjoy it.”

Blockbuster works with companies of all sizes and offers $5 through $20 denominations on gift cards, or movie rental cards that can be used for one, five or 10 rentals that companies can use for inexpensive everyday incentives.

Cashing out

There are some who advocate holding back on the cash bonuses and incentives altogether and replacing them with gift certificates, for a number of reasons.

“People associate a gift certificate with buying something for themselves that they might not buy normally,” says Mike Ahern, Giftcertificate.com CEO. “Because of that, employees think more highly of the gift they receive. The other benefit over cash is that it’s insulting to cut an employee a check for $10 or $25. But if you give them a gift certificate that will take them to the movies, or let them have lunch out on the company, it’s entirely acceptable.”

Ahern says that gift certificates make the employee feel good about the recognition received, and then they feel good about the company. He or she might take it home and show it to their spouse — and then they get to choose the merchant they want to use, which is also a fun experience.

“So you’ve got multiple touch points where they’re feeling good about the company, as opposed to the traditional check, which just gets deposited into the household account,” Ahern explains. “We can customize the presentation, with a logo on the card, include a customized message, and we put it in a nice package and send it out. One trend is that more and more of these are being sent out by email, which also represents a cost saving.”

Managers can also use such gifts as spot bonuses, by keeping a few in the drawer, and handing them out with a little ceremony when an employee does something noteworthy.

“Motivation is tough right now, and companies are looking for ways to give smaller gifts that are still meaningful,” Ahern continues. His company provides gift certificates, good on their Web site for over 300 merchants, for clients that range from Fortune 500 companies with hundreds of employees to local doctor’s offices that want to recognize their four or five staffers. On a general monthly basis, about 66% of Giftcertificate.com’s corporate sales are repeat business. “The repeat business shows that the incentives are definitely working,” Ahern concludes.

Tying into consumer deals

Another cost-efficient way to motivate employees is to piggyback an incentive onto a customer promotion. This is a win-win for everyone — it excites the employees about activating a promotion at retail when they can also win prizes, and it’s just a small incremental cost in your promotion budget. And you already know that when an employee is excited about a promotion is translates to the customer.

With Alamo Rent-a-Car, it was essential to the successful launch of a new campaign. “We partnered with Foote, Cone Belding to present the Drive Happy campaign,” says Mike Casale. “On the consumer side, we had a scratch-off game that revealed messages like ‘A Clean Car,’ ‘Quicksilver Service,’ or ‘Unlimited Smileage’ and awarded airline miles. On the employee side, we had a similar game that revealed messages like ‘Be Courteous.’ and reinforced what they needed to do to make the customer happy. We then gave employees a chance to win. By having a companion piece that allowed the employee to win air miles and other low-level prizes, it mitigated the frustration that an employee might feel when he hands someone a ticket worth $50,000.”

Such programs also have the bonus of costing only a few extra pennies when the production of the employee piece is added to the consumer piece.

Some companies are even going out of their way to motivate other company’s employees. “One trend we’re seeing is from clients like cell phone companies. All such brands get sold at places like Radio Shack, so we created a Web site where every time a salesperson sells a phone from a particular carrier they can enter the phone number and at the end of the month they’ll get a $5 certificate for every phone they’ve sold,” explains Ahern. “This is just motivating non-employees to keep your product top of mind.”

You can ring their bells

Bell Canada finds that re-loadable gift cards from American Express Incentive Services (AEIS) can be a powerful motivational tool. The company’s 5,000 call center employees were stressed out, morale was low and turnover was high. The communications giant had tried all the typical rewards in the past — food, candy, pizza, logoed merchandise, catalog programs — but nothing was working at the level the company needed.

Finally, it did an in-house focus group and found that a universal type gift certificate might be the ticket. Bell Canada now sets performance goals it wants its employees to reach, and when these are achieved, the employee’s gift card is immediately reloaded with more buying power, redeemable wherever American Express is accepted.

Results were immediate and dramatic: before the AEIS incentive program was launched, goals were met 50% of the time. After the program launched, the company hit goals 12 out of 12 months. “This reward program saves me time and money because I only have one program to manage,” says Jason Fisher, rewards and recognition manager, Bell Canada.

AMEX and distribution partner SCA Promotions of Dallas, TX, offer another twist to gift certificate programs, as Bob Hamman, SCA president explains: “You can use filters to target certain merchants, which makes it possible for the employer to get a little more bang for their buck, with discounts that accrue to the benefit of the employer. This also supports employers’ co-marketing and trade marketing efforts.”

So it’s still possible to keep employees motivated in tough times, if you just take a creative approach to the whole process. Use smaller incentives more frequently or excite your employees by letting them earn and choose their own rewards. By doing what you can, when you can, you’ll be helping to keep your workforce happier in uncertain times.

Brian W. Kelly is a freelance journalist and researcher specializing in marketing topics. He is based in Brookfield, CT.