Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Unwrapit co-founders Peter Deitz and Linsay Moran. Both of them discussed the reasons for starting the business, the advantages of corporate gifting for employers who operate in remote or hybrid work environments, and how their company makes sure that the recipients of their gifts receive them wherever they are without having to worry about the logistics, and strategic suggestions for running a business with a social goal.
ABOUT LINSAY MORAN:
Linsay is an operational leader, committed to social impact businesses and with extensive experience in sponsorships and events. Prior to co-founding Unwrapit, Linsay played a key leadership role in a rapidly scaling engineering company. Linsay is passionate about supporting, mentoring and amplifying women, in all stages of their career. She was proud to manage the Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards as part of an extensive events portfolio across Canada and Ireland with the Women’s Executive Network. Linsay lives in Mississauga, minutes from Lake Ontario with her husband, two kids and a wild little puppy.
ABOUT PETER DEITZ:
Peter is a successful serial entrepreneur committed to creating enduring companies that have a deeply-rooted social and environmental purpose. Peter serves as a full-time co-founder of Unwrapit, a social purpose business that helps companies spark and maintain meaningful connections through a fun, innovative, and easy-to-use virtual gifting platform. Prior to Unwrapit, Peter co-founded Grantbook in 2012. He currently serves as Board Chair. Grantbook is a 25-person philanthropic advisory firm that helps foundations operationalize mission and vision by leveraging technology. Peter is based in Toronto, ON and is the proud father of two kids, two cats, and a cockapoo.
ABOUT UNWRAPIT:
Unwrapit is a B Corp certified, social purpose business; since its inception, they have developed the biggest catalogue of non-physical gifting options. The company aims to nudge the multibillion-dollar global corporate gifting industry to an environmentally conscious default.
What was the inspiration behind starting Unwrapit, a corporate gifting service for socially and ecologically concerned businesses?
We drew inspiration from the conversations we had with individuals every day, lamenting how wasteful corporate gifting can be. From the start, Unwrapit has been on a mission to help companies approach corporate gifting differently.
In place of branded water bottles, hoodies, and backpacks, we’ve curated a compelling collection of experiential, digital, and charitable gifts instead. We’ve done this because the corporate gifting industry has a major waste problem. Last year, according to an article in Forbes magazine, U.S. companies collectively spent $242 billion on their corporate gifting. According to a report from Coresight Research that number is projected to increase by 6% annually through to 2024. We know that the vast majority of that spend is channeled into physical gifts, often not wanted or needed and invariably, thrown away.
We set out to create a more sustainable corporate gifting solution, at scale but we knew that wouldn’t be compelling enough. We’re developed a brandable, recipient-first approach that offers corporations a way to give, and give thoughtfully, while keeping their brand front and centre. We’ve always given recipients a choice of gifts, recognizing that offering a curated choice of gifts is a powerful way of demonstrating thoughtfulness. And we also believe that curated choice IS the sustainable choice as individuals who will get a gift they actually use and appreciate.
How in your opinion Linsay, is corporate gifting beneficial for employers who operate in a remote or hybrid work environment?
Ensuring that employees know they are appreciated has always been a challenge, even when people worked together in person every day. Gifting can absolutely play a role in robust employee engagement programs and should be done thoughtfully and with intention.
A Gallup survey done in June of 2022 found that 8 in 10 people are working hybrid or remote, while only 2 in 10 are entirely on-site. And this trend continues – we don’t see people returning to the office anytime soon (or ever).
The logistics and expense of sending physical things to a distributed team is significant. We speak to customers every day that have lived the challenge of procuring, shipping, re-packaging, addressing and re-shipping gifts to team members and come to us looking for a less logistics-intensive solution for many different gifting occasions.
Where we’ve been so pleased to support customers has been in ongoing campaigns that happen throughout the year and acknowledge key milestones for employees. Anniversary or birthday campaigns are always appreciated and we see 85%+ claim rates with campaigns like this. We encourage our customers to offer practical gifts that their employees will appreciate. A non-monetary option that we’ve found to be popular is also the creation of a custom option such as “Take the Afternoon Off”.
Peter, do you believe that swag at IRL events is necessary? How might you suggest that organizers of virtual events best connect their recipients to the event given the inevitable digital distance?
We don’t believe that swag in the traditional sense is necessary at events. In fact, there was a recent Fast Company article that articulated this argument far better than we can! Essentially we would argue that there is room for thoughtful and sustainably-minded incentives at events. And that in fact, gifting something to less leads who are higher potential is better than the tried and true “give something cheap to everyone to hope that they’ll remember us and our brand.”
Event attendees are more conscious than ever and we would argue that giving away cheap, disposable and wasteful swag will at this point tarnish a brand’s reputation vs. bolster it. Conversely, being gifted something that’s practical, charitable or experiential will do the opposite and actually create a more positive connection to the brand.
On the virtual event front, using a digital solution like Unwrapit can create a seamless experience for virtual event attendees. In particular for events that are hybrid in nature, event organizers may want to ensure that those attending online get the same “feeling” of being at the in-person experience. In many cases it’s also key for sponsors to have the opportunity to feature throughout and as they are always looking for new and innovative ways to reach event audiences.
Linsay, how does your business ensure that the recipients receive their gifts where they are, without worrying about the logistics?
Because the gifts given through Unwrapit, are for the most part, not physical, the “delivery” is instant. And therefore the feeling of appreciation is also instant. Recipients within an unwrapping experience have the opportunity to choose from a curated list of gift options that are available to them in their jurisdiction.
Supporting our customers globally is something we do very well and we’re always thrilled when they realize how seamlessly our platform will give a gift to someone on the other side of the world in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
We’re fortunate to partner with incredible gift partners such as Covatar, Libro.FM, Atrifact, Mine’d, and many more. We’ve purposely sought out gifts that are digital in nature. Many of them, such as the ones listed here, offer a global solution as the recipient can be anywhere in the world and receive their gift in real time.
In view of the fact that consumers of Unwrapit can make donations to more than 1.8M organizations in Canada and the US, what are the strategic recommendations for managing a business with a social goal?
By our calculations, U.S. companies spend more than $10 on branded items and gift cards for every $1 they donate to charity. That’s a significant delta and it begs the question, what would happen if companies gave recipients a choice between receiving a physical corporate gift or making a donation with the money instead? Not everyone would choose the charitable option but even if a small fraction did, there would be a notable increase in charitable donations each year.
We encourage our customers to embrace the concept of social impact within their gifting. Many of them come to us and haven’t considered including a charitable option. But when they see how easily it can be integrated into their unwrapping experience they wholeheartedly embrace that as a gift choice.
It’s hard to be “all things to everyone” when it comes to having a social goal but we would encourage businesses to be mindful of whatever their ESG or CSR goals might be in every aspect of their business. On the micro level it may seem that gifting doesn’t have that much of an impact. But at the macro level it would make a momentous difference if companies consciously gave less physical items at events, to clients and to their team and in parallel, encouraged more charitable giving within their gifting efforts.
