Named the Best in the World: EVT's Mercedes Ibbett Wins the IMA Incentive Influencer Award

There are nights in business that you do not forget. For the EVT team, the evening of the 2026 IMA Summit Awards in Baltimore, Maryland, was one of them.

The Incentive Marketing Association Summit Awards are the most prestigious recognition in our industry globally. Every year, the best agencies, programs, and individuals from around the world are put forward, judged by a panel of senior industry leaders, and recognised for work that has genuinely moved the needle. To be in the room is an honour. To win is something else entirely.

This year, EVT Incentive Marketing's Managing Director, Mercedes Ibbett, was named the winner of the IMA Incentive Influencer Award, one of the most significant individual recognitions in the global incentive industry. The team back in Sydney was on a call together, watching the night unfold from the other side of the world. When Mercedes' name was announced, the reaction said everything.

Being recognised at a global level, for work that has been quietly building for the better part of two decades, is the kind of moment that makes you pause and feel genuinely proud of what this industry stands for.

About the IMA Incentive Influencer Award

The Incentive Influencer Award is not given for a single campaign or a standout year. It recognises an individual who has shaped the wider incentive industry over time: someone who has influenced how the profession thinks and operates, served as a genuine ambassador for the discipline, inspired colleagues and peers, and maintained the highest standards of practice across their career.

It is, in other words, a recognition of sustained contribution. And that is precisely what makes it such a fitting acknowledgement for Mercedes.

The Journey That Brought Us Here

EVT Incentive Marketing was founded in Sydney in 1985 by Virginia Trautwein, a pioneer of the Australian incentive industry and Mercedes' mother and greatest mentor. When Virginia passed away in 2009, Mercedes stepped into the Managing Director role at the age of 25. The business was 24 years old, the economy was in the grip of the Global Financial Crisis, and there was no roadmap for what came next.

What followed was a decade of rebuilding with focus and patience. Mercedes secured the cornerstone client relationships that formed the foundation for EVT's next phase of growth. The business more than doubled. The team grew by 35%, and as the agency expanded, EVT outgrew its surroundings more than once, relocating and rebranding to reflect the business it was becoming. One of the most significant investments of that period was the development of EVT's proprietary Incentive and Recognition Platform, built from the ground up to power the full delivery of client programs, giving EVT a level of control and customisation that off-the-shelf solutions simply could not match.

By 2020, EVT was on track for its strongest revenue year on record. Then COVID-19 arrived.

Leading Through Uncertainty

When the industry effectively shut down in 2020, the decisions Mercedes made during that period revealed a great deal about how she leads. EVT retained every member of its team throughout the pandemic. For a boutique agency facing an uncertain revenue outlook, that was not a foregone conclusion. It was a deliberate choice, grounded in the belief that the relationships and capability within the team were worth protecting for the long term.

At the same time, Mercedes used the period to innovate. EVT developed Platinum Concierge, a fully bespoke reward offering for top achievers built around personal consultation rather than a standard catalogue. Recipients work with EVT's concierge team to choose anything they want, to suit their life and reward them their way. Custom greenhouses, car hoists, one-of-a-kind kitchen builds, motorcycles. There is no template. Platinum Concierge was born from the creative thinking the team applied when the industry's usual tools were taken away, and it has since become one of EVT's most distinctive and valued offerings.

Mercedes also chose to share what she was learning in real time. Through LinkedIn and a webinar series co-developed with International SOS, she spoke openly about how the incentive industry was adapting and how businesses could keep their programs delivering results. Industry colleagues still reference that content today as something that genuinely helped them navigate an incredibly uncertain period.

What carried us through was a belief that the relationships and the team we had built were worth protecting, no matter what the short-term pressure looked like.

A Voice for the Industry

The IMA Influencer Award is not awarded for being good at your job. It is awarded for what you give back to the profession beyond your own business. And this is where Mercedes' contribution becomes particularly remarkable.

For more than 15 years, she has been a consistent and credible voice in the broader incentive industry. Her articles and thought leadership have appeared in mainstream national publications including the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Adelaide Advertiser, as well as in specialist industry titles over a body of work stretching back to 2008. She has spoken at industry events across Australia and New Zealand, reaching audiences from within the incentive profession and well beyond it, including at a veterinary industry conference where her expertise in motivating people and driving performance was recognised as relevant far outside our sector.

In 2025, she joined the SITE ANZ Board as Vice President of Marketing, a voluntary role she took on because she believed in raising the profile of incentive travel and incentive marketing across Australia and New Zealand. In her first year, she formalised SITE ANZ's marketing and communications, launched SITE Sessions (an educational series tackling real industry barriers including Fringe Benefits Tax), and grew the organisation's overall following by 25%.

She has also been a committed advocate for the next generation. Incentive marketing does not appear in any university or college marketing curriculum in Australia. There is no structured pathway into the profession. Mercedes has been quietly working to change that for years, presenting to marketing students at colleges and universities, mentoring emerging practitioners, and making a deliberate practice of recruiting people from outside the industry into the EVT team to bring new energy and perspective into a profession that can sometimes be reluctant to look outward.

Forty Years and Counting

In 2025, EVT Incentive Marketing turned 40, making us the longest-standing privately owned incentive agency in Australia. To mark the occasion, Mercedes brought together the people who had been part of the journey: current and former clients, current and former team members, suppliers, and industry colleagues. It was an evening that celebrated where EVT had come from and looked forward to everything still ahead.

An average client tenure of 10 years. A team that has grown by 35%. A proprietary technology platform built from scratch. A portfolio of programs spanning every major industry sector in Australia. And through it all, not a single employee lost during the industry's hardest period. That is what four decades of values-led leadership looks like in practice.

What This Award Means to Us

Awards matter not because of the trophy, but because of what they represent. The IMA Incentive Influencer Award is a recognition that the work Mercedes has been doing quietly and consistently, for nearly two decades, has made a difference. To EVT. To our clients. And to an industry that is stronger because she chose to invest in it.

We are so proud of her. And we are proud of the team, the clients, the partners, and the community that has been part of this story.

EVT was built on the belief that exceptional rewards and experiences move people in ways that nothing else can. That belief has not changed in 40 years. If anything, nights like this one remind us exactly why we do what we do.

About EVT Incentive Marketing

Founded in Sydney in 1985, EVT Incentive Marketing is Australia's longest-standing privately owned incentive agency. A boutique, female-led agency operating across Australia and New Zealand, EVT specialises in channel incentive programs, incentive travel, and reward and recognition platforms. Our purpose is to help businesses grow by motivating exceptional people with exceptional rewards and experiences.

evtmarketing.com.au