Case Study: How To Thank Staff That Live Around The World

By Dean Schwartz (SWAG Master): Running an international business presents a long list of difficulties – but rewarding your employees for their hard work shouldn’t be one of them. Luckily, SOBO makes that part as simple as possible. 

So when Wattpad wanted to create “thank you” SWAG then ship it directly to their international employees’ homes, they knew where to go to get it done all in one place. 

The Challenge

• Wattpad had recently been acquired and they wanted to show their gratitude to their employees by gifting them something that was loosely related to their business (an online publisher of stories) 
• The item needed to “wow” their employees when they opened the box – boring SWAG wasn’t going to cut it.
• They’re mostly in Canada, but they also have employees located in countries throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. 
• Everything needed to be shipped directly to each person’s home (and not get lost on the way) and all duties, taxes, and shipping expenses must be pre-paid.
• They also wanted to allow their employees to pick a second amazing gift from a bunch of different options (more about this in the upcoming Part 2 of our Wattpad Case Study)

The Solution

• After presenting various ideas for the main gift, a portable projector that could be connected to a phone or iPad was decided as the best fit. 
• The portable projector met the “wow” requirements, since it’s unique and useful, and it fit thematically with Wattpad’s mission to tell stories in interesting ways.
• We asked our China office to reach out to the factory directly, then shipped them to our custom boxing facility in the US.

• We all know that just seeing a gift arrive at your door is an amazing feeling. When that gift, however, comes in a bright orange box (Wattpad’s signature color) with a subtle repeating W pattern, it takes that experience to a whole new level. 
• To make things even more personal (and therefore more memorable for the recipient) we included a nice note from the CEO on top of the projector inside the box.

The Result

• We’ll let Wattpad’s employees speak for themselves:
  

Oftentimes, when a company gets sold or merges, the shareholders make money and employees are left feeling uneasy about their future with the company and unappreciated. Wattpad was determined to do things differently by showing their staff how important they are to their past and future success. 

The multiple messages they received showed just how much this gesture was appreciated. We were happy to help.

Make sure to check out a follow-up case study that discusses how we created a landing page from which employees could choose a second gift from 14 different options.

If you have similar needs or want to brainstorm an idea click here to get started.