Reward & Recognition events – creating those goosebump moments

Reward and Recognition events are all about saying thank you. Thank you for your contribution. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you for being part of our success. But, of course, for an event to be truly engaging and memorable to attendees and for them to feel truly valued as individuals, there’s much more that we need to consider. There is a lot of psychology and behavioural science behind the most successful events, and that’s what we’re going to dive into in this blog.

One of the things we love about designing events is building in what we call ‘goosebump moments’. Things that create excitement, that send a frisson round the room, that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. They lead to cheers, laughter, even tears (in a good way!). These are the moments that people remember and talk about long after the event.

These goosebump moments can be simple and low cost right through to major, high-impact productions. They will vary depending on your company values and your audience – who are they? How are they feeling? The key is to create an emotional response from nominees, award winners and the wider audience. They invariably include an element of surprise – without it, you don’t get goosebumps. We talked about surprise in some detail in our recent Reward & Recognition webinar (catch it here on demand) and in our Top Tips article. If you haven’t seen those yet, make sure you go back and take a look to get the full picture.

What we would like to do today is share some of our favourite goosebump moments from the last couple of years. The idea of sharing these is to spark your imagination, to inspire you to incorporate these moments into your next event. While you are reading through them, keep thinking how something like this could elevate future reward and recognition events, making them something that is eagerly anticipated and talked about before and long after the day itself.

Tiny Noticeable Things

We’ve spoken before about TNTs. Tiny Noticeable Things. These are small acts that show people their efforts do not go unnoticed. There are so many ways to weave TNTs into recognition events, and they don’t have to cost the earth.?

Often, the majority of attendees at an event are not nominees or winners. They are there to support and shout out to their colleagues – but this doesn’t mean they haven’t all played a part in the company’s success.

A new client didn’t want to disengage their attendees by making it all about the winners so that nobody else mattered. They wanted something that would touch everyone at the event. So, we came up with an idea to make everyone feel included that set the atmosphere for the evening. When people sat down to dinner, at their place setting was a thank you card. So far, so normal. However, instead of the usual, generic thank you, it was a personalised note from each person’s line manager. It was real, it was personal and it evoked real emotion. It also doubled up as a lovely keepsake to take away. It cost next to nothing but made everyone feel part of the bigger picture.?

Be sneaky

For another client, one TNT we incorporated was aimed at award winners as a small, unexpected surprise. Being a bit sneaky at the RSVP point, we asked about dietary requirements but also asked what was their favourite drink. When the winners came back from accepting their award, there on the table in front of them was their favourite tipple as an extra thank you. It was a cherry on the top of their win. Simple, easy to administer and cost effective.?

More than just work

This lovely surprise was a bigger production and it certainly caused a lot of happy tears on the evening. We secretly interviewed and filmed family and friends, asking them what was special about the award winners – a bit like they do on Bake Off. It’s a fantastic way to find out about the person and tell the story of how important they are in other people’s lives, not just at work.

In a similar vein, we have also asked people (again, at the RSVP stage) to tell us something they had done in the last 12 months that they were really proud of; getting engaged, adopting a dog, buying a house, running a marathon… Whatever it was, we asked them to attach a picture to represent that moment. We then pulled that information together and compiled it into a really rousing opening video. The CEO came up, did his opening, thanked everyone, then the room went dark and this video started. Words can’t describe the ripple effect across the room. You could see people sit up taller when their picture came on. The smiles were incredible. They were nudging each other and mouthing ‘well done’ messages across the room. Everyone felt valued and included, like a giant group hug.

Both of these were real goosebump moments. They were a twist on the usual. Each one was so special because they weren’t just about the company saying thanks for what people do at work. It was about who they were as individuals, saying, ‘We want to know about you, we want to celebrate you and we’re proud of you’.?

Delve deeper

Another simple idea, although it ended up being quite challenging logistically, was a balloon pop. This was a client that runs award ceremonies regularly. Talking to them, we realised that nobody ever knew why they had been nominated for an award. It was great to be nominated but part of the story was missing. So, we had a balloon for every nominee. Inside that balloon we popped a message saying what they had done to deserve a nomination. Then we filled the balloons with glitter, confetti, all that sort of stuff, inflated them and attached the nominee’s name to the balloon.

The nominees were assembled and each had to find their own balloon, pop it and read the heartfelt, personal message inside. It was confetti-fuelled chaos but the reactions were more than we could ever have hoped for. People had been nominated by their peers and they were running over to each other, laughing, hugging, more tears. The power of peer appreciation, plus the personalisation, multiplied by the element of surprise, made it absolutely magical. And the cleanup crew loved us!

Creating the unexpected

These are just a few of our favourites and there are loads of other examples we can share. You will notice, however, that the two important themes running through all these goosebump moments are personalisation and the element of surprise. Whatever you do in terms of recognition and reward, you have to make every individual feel special. Make it about them, not the role they perform. If you can sprinkle in a surprise along the way, it intensifies the emotional experience by a whopping 400%. This is something we talked about in the webinar and if you want to find out even more, just give us a call. It’s amazing what a bit of behavioural psychology can do.

simply better ?

experts in goosebump moments

At simplybetter, we are all about creating those goosebump moments, helping brands around the world to design and deliver stunning events and experiences. Every event we create is unique and designed to inspire, excite and provide long-lasting behavioural change. To find out what makes a really great event, check out our resources page for ideas, innovations and examples. Call us for a chat or drop us a DM about your next reward and recognition event – or watch the webinar to hear more about our favourite goosebump moments.