How would you try to trigger innovation in your agency? How would you like to be motivated to do ground-breaking work?

CHI&Partners is doing that with bitcoins. The agency has launched a new staff incentive, an annual Bitcoin Bonus, to reward “truly ground-breaking work that helps drive change in the advertising industry by using technology in a new and inspiring way”.

The first Bitcoin Bonus, worth £10,000 (AU$16,954) at the time of purchase, will be bought by CHI&Partners this week, to be awarded in December 2018 to the team behind the agency’s most progressive, innovative work created in 2018.

The launch of the incentive will mark the beginning of CHI&Partners’ Magic & the Machines programme, running concurrently with CEO, Sarah Golding’s, industry-wide Magic & the Machines agenda, as President of the IPA.

Earlier this year, Golding hired James Miller from Facebook’s Creative Shop to help CHI&Partners launch its own innovation-focused production company, The Kitchen, which aims to break new ground in fields such as augmented reality, virtual reality and 360-degree advertising.

Now the agency is launching a series of tech, innovation and AI-focused training sessions and initiatives to encourage staff to embrace AI and innovation in creativity, supported by The Bitcoin Bonus incentive.

“We are on the lookout for the next generation of industry innovators,” Golding stated.

“And the Bitcoin Bonus is a great incentive for all those brilliant thinkers at CHI who can help us break new boundaries in creative innovation. This is a special bonus – for ideas that use technology in a new and inspiring way, that blend magic and the machines, that capture imaginations, solve problems and get our clients talked about in new ways that are transformative to their businesses.”

Submissions for the Bitcoin Bonus will be accepted from teams of up to five individuals across all departments at CHI&Partners from early next autumn.

They will be judged by a panel including Golding; joint executive creative directors, Yan Elliott and Micky Tudor; and joint managing directors, Sarah Clark and Gary Simmons. The award will go to the idea that has driven the most transformative results for clients, turned the heads of awards juries and made the most imaginative, inventive use of new technology.

Elliott explained, “Bitcoin epitomises everything that’s great about technological invention. It’s for digital adventurers, techy whizzkids and believers of all ages in a new era of financial democracy. And we’re only just starting to see bitcoin’s potential to transform lives, from giving rise to a new wave of techy millionaires to allowing early investors to realise their entrepreneurial dreams and everything in between. We look forward to seeing not just the groundbreaking work CHI&Partners creates with the Bitcoin Bonus in mind – but also how the winning team will benefit from this exciting incentive. Who knows how much those bitcoin could end up being worth?”

Bitcoin soared to another all-time high of $4,880 in September 2017 – with purchases worth $100 in September 2016 increasing in value to more than eight times that amount, at $850.