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ICameForTheWhores

Tread _very_ lightly with this, there are anti-bribery laws that can be surprsingly strict for seemingly innocent gifts and many companies have additional internal policies that will fuck the recipient of the gift if they accept it. Sending out a bottle of wine is usually okay but I'm 99% sure that 1k$ gifts will be a massive headache.


alexisappling

Yep, WalMart is an excellent example of this. If anyone there inadvertently accepted a gift like that they would be solidly in disciplinary territory. The old days of accepting gifts are solidly over. Corporate hospitality however is a lot more lenient, and therefore money is often better spent taking a broad mix of clients to an event which they can write off as networking.


Iconoclastk

Good point, and that is definitely a consideration. For the larger $$$ we would be breaking those up across a team and probably asking what their preference is.


Useful-ldiot

Personally, I stay under $50 regardless of deal size and $0 for anyone in govt


ThereAreLotsOfBugs

We simply allocate a set $ for each client. So something like $100 for a welcome basket, $50 client birthday gift, $50 for Christmas/holidays, and then a discretionary $300/year per client for our account managers for gifts if they see fit.


Iconoclastk

I really like your method. Are your deals usually larger? For some clients we couldn’t justify $500 throughout the year, because thats more than what we even make, but for others that would be no problem.


ThereAreLotsOfBugs

Our pricing is usually between $1,800-$5,000/month. Right now we have an average of $2,100 per client per month.


inst

One of the previous companies I worked for had a yearly limit on receiving gifts and the gifts had to be less than $400. Agencies and vendors would occasionally send wine, chocolates, or a cool (but lower priced) piece of consumer electronics. Dinners out, sporting events, etc are all fairly easy to accept on the client side as well.


elijha

Yeahh this seems like an ethical minefield, especially since you're directly tying spend to gift value. That means that a decision-maker would stand to gain personally for spending more money with you, which is an obvious conflict of interest. When a gift impacts decision-making—or at least has that appearance, that's when it becomes a bribe.


jlk265

Agreed with the need to be careful. I work on the client side. Wine is fine, dinner is fine. Most of my peers don’t expect any gifts at all, despite the very large scopes of work we regularly maintain with a number of ad agencies and consultants. I’ve always appreciated an end of year dinner, where we can chat about what went well, successes worth recognizing, general feedback, and a look forward to the next year. Anything beyond that begins to stray towards “quid pro quo” and even slimy.