Corporate Incentive Program - Employee Incentive

Writing Opportunities

CONTRIBUTING TO INCENTIVE
Our editorial coverage reports on the incentive industry in three major areas: program strategy, travel and merchandise. Travel coverage includes news relating to incentive-level hotels, new activities for incentive groups, new travel rules and developments, as well as coverage of domestic and international destinations. Merchandise coverage includes news and trends relating to products that can be carried in incentive programs; the largest merchandise areas are electronics, apparel, watches, sporting goods and food and beverage. Increasingly, gift and prepaid cards are expanding out of merchandise to become a distinct fourth coverage category, thanks to their extremely rapid growth as an incentive industry award over the past several years.

Beyond this, a smaller, secondary focus of Incentive is the consumer promotion market, which often uses tactics similar to the best practices corporate executives use on their employees (although these are generally on a much larger scale in the form of loyalty programs, coupons or sweepstakes) to motivate and strengthen the buying behavior of the consumers.

WRITING OPPORTUNITIES
We are interested in receiving articles of expert insight about motivating employees and using incentives. We may publish these on our Web site, in our monthly print magazine, newsletters or other editorial mediums.

We are open to a variety of styles but tailoring your pieces to fit into one of these six categories (or a combination of them) will increase your chances of publication:

How-to columns or "Primers" about the incentive industry and motivating employees with travel, merchandise, gift cards and/or recognition
Do's/Don'ts in running employee recognition and incentive programs
Case studies and examples of effective motivation programs
Discussions of particular types of employee rewards, including travel, merchandise and gift cards
Research about what motivates workers or boosts certain types of behavior
Responses to preexisting columns or articles, online or in print

All stories must be vendor-neutral in content, meaning the editorial content does not promote a particular company or the author (self, company, product or career) in any way. (Please avoid using first-person references, as these will be construed as self-promotional.) Please keep submissions under 1000 words (ideal length for features is 600-800 words). If copy flows over this limit, please consider penning two separate, shorter bylines, each focusing on a different aspect of the topic, which we can then cross-link together for extended feature coverage.

The writing format is flexible; however, checklists are always highly sought after for their ease of use and take-away factor. Not every piece lends itself to a checklist or step format, but although it is not required, it would be helpful to readers if you could include a brief summary of points, as many online readers tend to skim the articles for relevant content.

Please include an author bio with your piece. Limit the length to 40 words (or less) and be sure to include at least one way for readers to contact you, either a telephone number, a Web site, or an e-mail address. Also include any artwork you would like to accompany the piece (must be royalty free), but we reserve the right whether or not to use it.

FORMATTING

Write quotes in the present tense ("This is a great destination," Jones says.)
Only one space after periods, not two.
Italicize book, magazine, periodical, movie and television titles.

REPRINTING
Authors/PR representatives may promote the piece once it publishes online at Incentivemag.com (via title, abstract, byline and an excerpt of 200 words) by including links back to the piece at Incentivemag.com. These links may be included in mediums such as newsletters, blog entries and company sites. For full reprints, both digital and print, please contact our permissions department via e-mailing barbara.grieninger@nielsen.com and dana.parra@nielsen.com.

PAYMENT
Incentive does not pay for its unsolicited submissions. We do, however, give the author a byline at the beginning of the piece and a bio-box at the end. We also place the pieces in featured digital areas to promote the author and generate optimal exposure-these areas include newsletters, top stories categories, featured categories and in the rotating flash modules throughout Incentivemag.com and the ManageSmarter.com portal site. We may also feature the piece in our monthly print magazine, as an online redirect or in its entirety.

TERMS OF PUBLICATION
All authors must fill out and sign Incentive's contributing writer agreement (downloadable as a PDF, click here). This agreement simply states that you, as the author, give our company, Nielsen Business Media, the right to publish your work. It also verifies that the author retains the rights to his or her work at all times, to republish and reprint as he or she chooses. It does not transfer that right to our company at any time. Please download the PDF by clicking here, sign and return to us via e-mail scan to vince.alonzo@nielsen.com (preferred) or fax to ATTN: Vince Alonzo, Editor in Chief, Incentive at 646-654-7365 when you e-mail the piece.