By GREGORY ZELLER //
A born-on-Long Island global competition with a true “can-do” attitude has once again flexed some amazing art, mind-blowing marketing and fantastic fundraising.
The 2023 Craft Beer Marketing Awards came to a frothy head earlier this month in Nashville, focusing not on microbrew tastes and textures but on the packaging and promotions that help small-batch brewers stand can-to-can with the big boys.
All told, the fourth-annual competition doled out 305 awards to an international assortment of brewers, graphic designers and marketing agencies – the most individual Platinum, Gold and Global “Crushies” ever handed out, according to organizers.
Founded by Jim McCune and Jackie DiBella – craft beverage executive director and account manager, respectively, at Melville’s EGC Group – the first-of-their-kind CBMAs launched in 2019 and quickly found their footing, attracting hundreds of international entries for a second round spanning 2020 and 2021.
New look, same Crushie: The coveted trophies were redesigned for 2023.
By the third round in 2022, the annual competition included 39 different categories, including awards for original videos and snazziest merchandise and separate divisions for domestic and foreign entries.
This year’s winners were announced at the annual Craft Brewers Conference, held earlier this month in Nashville. With 600-plus international industry professionals judging entries, the United States took home the most Crushies on the global level, followed by Australia and Canada; domestically, Georgia innovators performed best, followed by makers in Texas, Colorado and Washington State.
While the contest was created on Long Island, this accident of birth has not provided regional microbrewers with a noticeable home-field advantage.
In 2022, Patchogue-based Blue Point Brewing Co. and advertising partner DWS Printing Associates of Deer Park earned a Global Crushie and a Gold Crushie for “Best Original Video/Storytelling,” marking Blue Point’s second trip to the Crushie podium. Other past Long Island-based winners include the North Fork Brewing Co. (three Gold Crushies in 2019) and the digitally dazzling LIBeerGuide, an online review of the regional craft-beverage scene (a 2020 runner-up).
Keenan Boyle: Aw, shucks.
This year, Long Island creators stepped it up, collecting a total of five Crushies.
Among them were a Gold Crushie in the Bigger Than Beer/Cause-Related Beer Project or Campaign category for Westhampton Beach-based Westhampton Beach Brewing Co., honored for its collaboration with New York Riptide professional lacrosse team and the Boomer Esiason Foundation.
Other awards flowing from Nashville to Long Island include a Platinum Crushie for Glen Cove-based Garvies Point Brewery & Restaurant (Best Can Design/16-20 ounces) and a Gold Crushie for Sayville-based oyster farmer Keenan Boyle, who partnered with upstate Altamont-based Indian Ladder Farms to create Tallmuthshucka Oyster Stout (and capture Best Ingredients Collaboration honors).
DWS Printing & Packaging returned to the podium, capturing a coveted Global Crushie with its popular “Face to Face, Coast to Coast” video series.
And the CBMAs themselves earned a Gold Crushie, for a collaboration with two Pennsylvania-based enterprises – beer gear pioneer First Sip Brew Box and beer label leader Hoot Design Studio – providing aid to residents of war-torn Ukraine.
Just like they designed it: McCune (left) and DiBella are thrilled with the growth of the CBMAs.
Also giving the annual competition a charitable aftertaste was the new “Show Us Your Favorite Tattoo” fundraiser category, which raised more than $6,000 for the Michael James Jackson Foundation. The national foundation funds academic scholarships for Black, Indigenous and people of color working within the brewing and distilling trades.
All told, the fourth CBMAs were the biggest and most successful to date, according to McCune, who continues to oversee the global sensation (Year Five kicks off in September) alongside cofounder DiBella.
“We were so impressed by the sheer creativity, innovation and caliber of marketing displayed in entries from around the world, in every category,” McCune said. “More than 600 industry-professional judges from around the world had their work cut out for them this year.”
