One way to make incentive travel feel fresh, relevant and exciting is to leverage pop cultural elements from trending TV shows, movies and viral memes.

It can be difficult to come up with new ideas that will capture the imagination — and spur the productivity of potential qualifiers — for incentive travel programs. One fun, and very effective, way to make rewards feel fresh and intriguing is to tap into what is currently resonating widely in pop culture. Pop cultural elements incentive planners can leverage can come from hot TV shows — “The White Lotus” is one show that is both widely popular and extraordinarily relevant for incentive travel programs — movies, music or whatever else everyone has been talking about around the (real or virtual) water cooler lately.

Pop culture incentives are becoming increasingly popular for corporate incentives as companies seek fresh ways to engage employees while also showing they’re up on current social trends. Among the factors driving the pop-culture incentive trend is the increasing need to provide personalized, relevant incentives that recognize what employees value outside of their work environment. Pop-culturally themed activities also are a fun way to boost morale and engagement, and they’re particularly appealing to the younger generations in the workforce, though Gen Z and Millennials may be drawn more to streaming, gaming and viral internet memes than traditional TV shows or movies riding the pop-culture wave.

One easy way to incorporate a pop-culture element into an incentive travel program is to choose a destination and/or host property that is featured in a hot movie or streamer. So many people tuned into “The White Lotus” for a little escapism during the pandemic and afterward that just booking the program into the hotels featured in the show — including the Four Seasons Resort Maui from season one, the Four Seasons Taormina in Sicily in season two, and some gorgeous properties in Thailand in season three, including the Villa Jacinta in Kho Samui — can make the trip a standout, especially for younger employees who are super motivated by travel that is experiential, current and shareable — all of which pop culture-themed programs can deliver.

Companies also can theme incentive trips around major concert tours, such as Taylor Swift’s recent Eras Tour, though that can be difficult to plan for larger groups since dates and cities aren’t always announced far enough in advance for incentive planning purposes. For larger groups, more practical, but still cool, options might be to time the incentive trip around festivals or sporting events — both the Summer and Winter Olympics are sure to be popular with incentive groups in the next few years, and awards shows like the Grammys and the Oscars also can be easier to plan around. Gen Z and Millennials tend to call this “gig-tripping,” and it’s something that resonates with younger generations as well as their older colleagues.

But don’t go too heavy on the theming, incentive pros advise, since not everyone will be in on the pop culture zeitgeist of a particular show. If you’re taking an incentive group to Rome, consider including an optional food tour around some of the places featured in “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” a highly popular food-travel show, as one of the activities you offer. Or you could create an opportunity for the fashionistas (or wannabes) in your group to have a fashion experience based on the show “Emily in Paris” while staying at the incentive-friendly Hôtel Plaza Athénée, which is also featured in that show.

If your budget allows, providing exclusive access and “money-can’t-buy” experiences related to pop cultural moments can boost the motivational value hugely. Think about behind-the-scenes tours, VIP passes to film sets, and private concerts — none of which are available to the general public, and all of which provide a sense of exclusivity by providing an experience that qualifiers could never do on their own.

Companies are increasingly leveraging pop culture elements in their incentives not just to reward, but also to deeply engage and connect their top performers. This makes the incentive travel experience more memorable — and more motivational — than ever.