BHN Rewards announced an integration with Gorilla on October 18, 2022, linking online behavioural research tasks to digital participant incentives. Researchers could trigger gift-card and other rewards through their study workflow instead of sending each incentive manually. [S01]
The connection served researchers who recruit their own participants, including through social channels or existing communities. Using a separate reward platform did not require the study to source participants from a paid recruitment panel. [S01][S02]
Where the reward enters the study
Gorilla's integration guide describes a Reward Node connected to a configured BHN Rewards campaign. Researchers can assign campaigns to countries so the reward matches the participant's location, an important detail when a gift card is restricted to a national market. [S03]
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Gorilla research task | Runs the experiment and reaches the reward step |
| BHN Rewards campaign | Defines the incentive and manages delivery |
| Country configuration | Selects an appropriate regional reward |
Gorilla's own launch account described both immediate rewards after an activity and points accumulated towards a later reward. The latter model can support repeated participation, rather than treating every study interaction as a separate payment. [S02]
Reward administration and research data
The original announcement described a completion redirect that collects the email address needed for reward delivery separately from the research task. That separation can help a study avoid storing contact details alongside responses. It is a workflow feature, not a guarantee that every study is anonymous or automatically meets all of its governance requirements. [S01]
BHN Rewards also promoted refunds for unclaimed incentives and participant choice from gift cards, prepaid rewards and donations. Neither launch account supplied a controlled estimate of engagement improvement or time saved by the specific integration. [S01][S02]
Update, September 19, 2026: migration to Tango
Blackhawk Network now says BHN Rewards order processing will end in November 2026 as its rewards products consolidate into Tango. Its current migration FAQ says API users should work with the technical team on moving their integration. It does not establish that the Gorilla connection moves automatically or specify an exact November cutoff day. [S04]
The original integration remains part of the history of research incentives. An operator planning a study now needs to check the supported delivery route and migration arrangements, rather than rely solely on the 2022 launch instructions.
Sources and documents
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- [S01] Gorilla integration announcement, October 18, 2022 — BHN Rewards
- [S02] Partner account of BHN Rewards integration — Gorilla
- [S03] BHN Rewards integration guide — Gorilla
- [S04] Current BHN Rewards migration FAQ, checked September 19, 2026 — Blackhawk Network