We have, thankfully, had the opportunity to design a few unique custom awards that are interactive. These interactive awards introduce a new element to recognition awards: the ability for the recipient to physically interact with the award.
These interactive awards provide a number of benefits. First, the interactive element may reinforce the design and communication objectives of the award (i.e., the interactive element of the award represents a key piece of what the award stands for). Second, the interactivity adds to the uniqueness and impact of the award. Finally, the ability for the recipient to interact with the award increases his or her connection to that award, making the intended presentation objective (reward and/or motivation) that much more effective.
One example of an interactive custom award that we have created is the Red Bull Pay for Performance Awards. These custom awards featured a set of moveable, interactive gears that connoted teamwork and synergy. The flat center surfaces of the gears were laser engraved with the Red Bull logo and program details. Each gear cog interacted with the other cogs – when one cog was spun, all of the other gear cogs spun in conjunction. Gears were used in the award as a metaphor for the amount of logistics and planning it takes to move a huge company forward. Each gear cog was equally important as the next; if you removed any gear section of the award, the remaining gears would be rendered static. Here is a video showing the interactivity:
A second example of an interactive custom award we created are the Levchin Prize awards. The Levchin Prize honors significant contributions to real-world cryptology. The award design was a “puzzle” that challenged recipients to solve it. The award design was in the shape of a cylinder, with rotating circular disks that, properly rotated and positioned, spelled out “LEVCHIN PRIZE”. Once the disks were rotated in the correct position, the award also revealed a secret inner chamber in the spindle of the cylinder. The inspiration for this award was loosely based on the Jefferson Disk wheel cypher and a Cryptex, coined from the fictional writings of Dan Brown of Leonardo da Vinci. A video demonstrating this in more detail can be viewed here:
The possibilities for including interactivity in your custom awards are virtually endless. If you think that an interactive element in your awards would help accomplish some of the objectives outlined above, we would love to work with you to help make this a reality!