60 seconds with… Top Banana’s Elliott Grant

inVOYAGE catches up with Top Banana’s new Director of Incentives Elliott Grant on why incentive travel is the ultimate reward, becoming a banana, and which destinations top his wish list…

Are you excited to get stuck back into agency life?
I have really missed it the last year and a half. I have missed the whole industry – not just being part of a team and the day to day interactions that you don’t get when you’re working for yourself – but catching up with and meeting industry friends and colleagues regularly. I loved Imex and had a renewed energy for it after a break. I had back-to-back meetings for three whole days and everyone was so welcoming and supportive of my new role.

So why Top Banana?
I was looking at a few different companies and I know Richard [Bridge, Top Banana MD] and the guys very well. I have always respected and liked the culture they have at the company, the way they do business and their relentless pursuit of creativity and doing things a bit differently – even down to their tone of voice. Plus, the opportunity to set up an incentive arm from scratch really appealed to me.

What do you want to achieve with the new division in the next three years?
I’d like Top Banana Incentives to be regarded as at the cutting edge of the incentive industry, from a thought-leadership point of view and getting the industry and our clients to focus on the higher strategic values of business goals, not just the trip itself. I want us to lead the way not only with the actual incentives – the destinations, the technology, and the communications side, but also forging ahead with the integrated solutions of the wider business.

What are the benefits of incentive travel experiences over other staff rewards?
There is no doubt that incentive travel has a bigger impact than a financial or monetary reward. Financial rewards are in the moment and are great to receive – but there is no legacy to them. Your ROI is exactly the money you provide.

With an incentive trip, it’s so much more – it helps you create a journey throughout the incentive calendar – bonding people to your brand, bonding managers to the team, and the legacy afterwards with employees spreading the good feeling and motivation they have received. That’s what we are really trying to focus on Top Banana. So, it’s less about well done, here’s a nice holiday, and more about focusing on these other elements. Anyone can book a nice holiday – it’s creating these moments and memories – that exponentially increase the ROI that people get on these trips.

We know from research that millennials love experiences – will incentive travel become an increasingly important tool for employee engagement as millennials make up a bigger proportion of the workforce?
I hope that millennials will drive growth in incentives. But ultimately, it’s part of our job as agencies to encourage and educate businesses that there is a better way to spend their money than on cash rewards. It’s not just a great trip – there are so many more supplementary benefits and we need to communicate those.

There’s been lots of talk about importance of providing authentic experiences and personalisation in incentives – how do you make sure you nail those trends?
It’s about having great partners who are clever with how they spend your budgets. Hotels are getting much more involved too – now they have whole event teams and creative teams within the hotels who can help you with that experience.

What destinations do you expect to see emerge as real contenders over the next couple of years?
Nepal is big for me, it’s my favourite country in the world. It’s an incredible destination. Also Southern Africa, so places like Zimbabwe, Namibia and Madagascar are opening up now. There are some incredible properties to be found in Tanzania and Uganda too. In terms of new destinations, Columbia – I’ve never been but it looks incredible and I’ve heard great thinks. Myanmar seems just about ready to take some groups too.

What’s been your favourite incentive of all those you have run so far?
I have two favourites – the first was Nepal, which was an incredible trip. It was so unique and creative, and I had people in the group saying to me that they wanted to go home, quit their jobs and move back to live there. The second was riding Harley Davidsons from Las Vegas to LA via Death Valley with a Hells Angel escort down the Las Vegas Strip – that was pretty awesome.

What would be your dream itinerary?
Can I say Nepal again? Not many people have been there, the hotels are improving all the time, and the quality of the experience is amazing. I think Rwanda also looks beautiful and the Gorilla trekking looks awesome.

What’s on your personal bucket list?
I’d like to go to Uganda, Rwanda and South America. Plus, I want climb some mountains so I can take on Everest in a few years.