2026 Incentive Company Market Report

This RRN annual market report on the incentive industry highlights the key trends from the point of view of the leading incentive companies. Buyers see measurable results, personal experiences and more responsive programs.

Methodology: Combining Executive Perspectives and LinkedIn Content
Measurement Moves Beyond Participation and Satisfaction
Personalization Includes Goals, Choices and the Reward Experience
AI and Integration Must Translate Information Into Action
Travel and Merchandise Must Preserve Their Human Value
Broader Engagement Requires Specific Expertise
Incentive Company Themes and LinkedIn Directory
Trends Shaping Incentive and Engagement Programs

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Incentive and engagement buyers are asking providers to connect meaningful experiences with measurable business results while controlling costs and responding faster to change. Interviews with the CEOs of leading incentives companies and a review of 13 providers’ LinkedIn content identify five connected priorities: stronger impact measurement, more personalized rewards, integrated technology and practical AI, incentives that influence the full participant journey, and broader engagement support backed by specialized expertise.

The common challenge is to preserve the human value of recognition and rewards while making their contribution to organizational performance clearer.

Methodology: Combining Executive Perspectives and LinkedIn Content

RRN reached out to the CEOs of all the leading incentive companies listed below. This report combines written responses supplied to RRN by the management of multiple incentive companies as well as perspectives these companies have shared publicly accessible LinkedIn posts, company updates and articles located for Nov. 6, 2025–Nov. 6, 2026. Product capabilities and results described by contributors remain attributed company claims and not an endorsement by the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, publisher of RRN.

Measurement Moves Beyond Participation and Satisfaction

“Measurement has been the topic of the year for us,” says Richelle Suver, Managing Director, Travel & Events at One10, headquartered in Minnetonka, MN, in her written responses to RRN. Her distinction is between measuring financial return when client data are available and assessing the experience itself when those connections are harder to establish. One10’s Xperience Index, she says, examines behavioral, relationship, emotional and brand dimensions. The objective is to give program owners information that matters to senior stakeholders, rather than relying primarily on questions about food, destinations or transportation. That approach also appears in One10’s published explanation of its Return on Experience framework, which connects experience measures with the reasons executives invest in meetings and incentive programs.

Ben Levenbaum, Chief Executive Officer of Xceleration, based in Charlotte, NC, describes a related change: “The biggest shift I see is that incentives and recognition are becoming an outcomes business.” In his written responses, he says CFO involvement is increasing pressure to explain how spending relates to retention and performance. Levenbaum distinguishes broad industry research from evidence about an individual employer. He says Xceleration’s Maslow Insights is intended to connect engagement activity with each client’s own history and workforce information. The objective is to show how a program aligns with metrics leadership already follows.

Carrie Hanichak, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of Engagement Solutions at Maritz, based in St. Louis, offers an important qualification: clients’ interest in measurement is longstanding. The obstacle has often been access to usable information across sales, marketing, point-of-sale and other systems.

Together, the contributions suggest that the change involves both greater scrutiny and improved opportunities to answer questions buyers have asked for years.

Personalization Includes Goals, Choices and the Reward Experience

Buyers’ expectations also extend beyond the size of a reward catalog. Levenbaum says clients have consistently emphasized participant experience, reward value and business outcomes over the past 12 to 18 months. “They want a program people enjoy using and rewards that feel meaningful and have good value, and they want to see that it’s actually changing behavior,” he explains. For Xceleration, that means transparent pricing, usable data and support that helps clients connect awards and redemptions with program objectives.

Hanichak describes changing participant demographics as another reason to revisit established assumptions. She reports audiences becoming younger, more female and more diverse. Some programs are expanding companion policies beyond spouses or significant others to include friends and family members. She also identifies demand for authentic experiences participants cannot readily arrange themselves.

For Suver, personalization is connected to understanding the behavior a client wants to encourage and examining programs that may have become stale. She says each client’s needs differ according to program maturity, making strategy and design important parts of the provider’s role.

A review of industry LinkedIn posts reinforces these perspectives. Motivation Excellence’s discussion of reward structures begins with understanding the audience, while Hinda Incentives emphasizes perceived value, meaningful choice and emotional impact.
The emerging expectation is broader than individualized merchandise selection: participants need relevant goals, understandable earning opportunities, suitable communications and rewards they consider worth pursuing.

AI and Integration Must Translate Information Into Action

All three contributors identify practical opportunities for AI, although their examples differ.
Suver describes improvements in research, budgeting and delivery speed that increase capacity while leaving more room for relationships and client service. She expects better reporting and more timely information about participant behavior and reward preferences. For her, technology creates space to focus on “the human element of relationships.”

Levenbaum describes operational efficiency and faster platform development, alongside AI-assisted analysis through Maslow Insights. He says the system can identify patterns such as declining recognition before an employee departure or uneven recognition across teams. These are signals for investigation; they should not automatically be interpreted as proof of cause and effect.

He also emphasizes the everyday importance of integration. Real-time connections to suppliers help keep merchandise current and available, while HR-system connections can support personalization and analysis. “Nothing undermines a reward faster than overpriced old inventory or an item that isn’t available after someone earned it,” he says.

Hanichak’s perspective links AI with speed and flexibility. She says clients increasingly need to adjust communications, promotions and program rules while initiatives are underway. However, she cautions that having data does not make it useful automatically. Providers still need to assemble information, interpret it and translate it into appropriate changes.

Public messaging shows similar distinctions. Augeo emphasizes AI-supported personalization and connected loyalty intelligence, while 360insights’ updates on partner content stress the context and human judgment needed to make AI output relevant.
The buying question is becoming more specific: which connection, insight or workflow makes the program more useful?

Travel and Merchandise Must Preserve Their Human Value

Cost pressure makes those questions particularly visible in incentive travel. Hanichak reports that transportation expenses can consume funds clients would prefer to spend on memorable destination experiences. Her concern is preserving the elements that make an incentive aspirational while managing unavoidable costs. She also sees individual travel as an opportunity to give participants greater control over experiences suited to their interests.

Levenbaum identifies individual travel through Xceleration’s Moments offering as the company’s fastest-growing category. He describes uses spanning sales contests, service anniversaries, retirement, top-performer awards and innovation. The attraction, in his view, is the opportunity for recipients to personalize something they will remember.

Suver places similar importance on relationships and connection. Her measurement approach asks what an experience changes in participant behavior, relationships or brand perception, extending evaluation beyond whether a trip ran smoothly.

The wider company sample adds operational context. Maritz’s travel benchmarking discussion examines destination, seasonality and trip-length tradeoffs, while Next Level Performance discusses premium-air availability and earlier planning. Merchandise remains part of the same experience equation. Hanichak emphasizes recognizable brands, appealing assortments and convenient fulfillment that resemble modern retail. She believes a tangible reward can preserve an emotional association with the achievement and sponsoring organization. Levenbaum’s emphasis on availability and value reinforces that expectation: fulfillment is part of the promise made to the participant.

Broader Engagement Requires Specific Expertise

The contributions also reveal opportunities—and limits—in expanding across engagement disciplines. Suver says clients expect One10 to bring forward solutions that support their wider objectives, including strategy, program design, measurement and reassessment of existing initiatives. Levenbaum reports expansion requests across recognition, sales incentives, top-performer rewards and customer programs, while emphasizing that clients often receive the most value from services close to Xceleration’s core capabilities.

Hanichak cautions that broader enterprise engagement is easier to describe than execute. Employee recognition, channel incentives and customer loyalty involve different audiences, objectives and operating environments. Effective expansion requires specialists who understand those differences.

Several providers’ public posts illustrate that specificity. Next Level Performance emphasizes the full sales pipeline, Xceleration discusses dealer market share and cross-selling, and Extu focuses on where incentives can generate additional growth.
Other emphases include Motivforce’s retention, learning and behavioral goals, BI WORLDWIDE EMEA’s partner trust and behavioral design, and Creative Group’s combination of audience insight and intentional experience design.

For buyers, these perspectives support evaluating providers against a defined business challenge: the audience to influence, the actions to encourage, the experience participants should receive and the evidence needed to assess progress.

Incentive Company Themes and LinkedIn Directory

To capture the views of the leading players, including the companies whose CEOs who did not respond to our request for info, here’s a summary of views gleaned from one year of Linkedin posts by the companies below.

Trends Shaping Incentive and Engagement Programs

Company / Organization	Trends in Focus	LinkedIn Posts
Incentive and Engagement Solution Providers (Incentive Marketing Association)	Measuring business outcomes; delivering instant digital rewards; using AI to personalize engagement.	View posts
Maritz	Managing incentive travel economics; adapting programs to changing conditions; connecting reward experiences with measurable results.	View posts
Augeo	Using AI for personalization; enabling real-time engagement; connecting loyalty experiences across programs.	View posts
ITA Group	Segmenting audiences; adapting programs through timely insights; demonstrating return on investment.	View posts
BI WORLDWIDE	Applying behavioral economics; strengthening partner trust; selecting rewards with personal meaning.	View posts
Motivforce	Applying behavioral science to retention and learning in channel engagement; personalizing participant journeys.	View posts
Next Level Performance	Using incentives to support the sales pipeline; targeting participant segments; measuring incremental results; enhancing incentive travel experiences.	View posts
Xceleration	Connecting programs to business outcomes; integrating data for personalization; emphasizing reward value and tailored travel experiences.	View posts
Extu	Using channel intelligence and segmentation to drive incremental growth; demonstrating program ROI.	View posts
Creative Group	Combining data with creative program design; creating purposeful experiences that strengthen human connection.	View posts
One10	Applying motivation science; personalizing experiences; measuring program impact.	View posts
360insights	Increasing accountability for incentive spending; connecting partner ecosystems; applying AI to practical program needs.	View posts
Motivation Excellence	Tailoring reward structures to specific audiences; expanding personalization; creating memorable incentive travel experiences.	View posts
Hinda Incentives	Emphasizing the emotional value of non-cash rewards; expanding participant choice; supporting reward delivery through fulfillment.	View posts

Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services

Celebrating our 17^th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:

1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:

ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards since 2020

2. Learning: Purpose Leadership and Stakeholder

Management Academy to enhance future equity value for your organization.

3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.

4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.

5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.

Contact: Bruce Bolger at TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230.