By GREGORY ZELLER //
Organizers have tapped the keg on the latest installment of the beer-battered king of Long Island marketing-award programs.
The fourth Craft Beer Marketing Awards – an annual competition celebrating the very best in craft-beverage marketing and design founded by Jim McCune and Jackie DiBella, craft beverage executive director and account manager, respectively, at Melville’s EGC Group – is now accepting marketing and design entries from around the globe.
Discounted “early bird” entries are on tap through Oct. 28, with further entries pouring in through Jan. 27.
With a live awards ceremony scheduled during next May’s 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, the fourth-annual competition invites microbreweries, marketing agencies, solo artists and others to submit their best advertising and packaging work on craft beers, hard seltzers, ciders, meads and even ready-to-drink cocktails.
By design: Jim McCune (left) and Jackie DiBella crafted a winner.
As always, bottle, can, tap and logo designs will be in play, along with categories covering clever packaging, dynamic digital promotions and much more.
With longtime program partner Hillebrand back in the fold, EGC Group’s contest-related Marketing on Tap podcast steadily building an audience and a new look for the iconic Crushie – the competition’s unmistakable trophy – Round Four brings more significant growth and innovation to the CBMAs, according to McCune.
“The CBMAs have grown significantly as a unique global platform celebrating the beer industry’s incredible marketing and design,” the event co-founder said, noting craft-beverage packaging and promotion “wasn’t being recognized until now.”
The competition launched in 2019 and quickly found its footing. The second-annual contest, which spanned 2020 and 2021, attracted hundreds of competitors and judges from around the globe; by year three, the CBMAs included 39 different categories – including awards for original videos and snazziest merchandise – and separate divisions for U.S., UK and European entries.
Cheers: The Blue Point Brewing Co. episode of DWS Printing Associate’s “Face to Face, Coast to Coast” series was a hit.
Long Island microbreweries have traditionally performed well. During the third-annual awards ceremony this past May, 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.” The combined wins marked Blue Point’s second trip to the Crushie podium.
Other past Crushie winners include the North Fork Brewing Co. (three Gold Crushies in year one) and the digitally dazzling LIBeerGuide, an online review of the regional craft-beverage scene (a 2020 runner-up).
All told, 250 Crushie awards were presented to worldwide brewers, designers and marketing agencies in 2022. And with new categories recognizing industry suppliers and other partners – plus a beer-themed “Show Off Your Tatts” tattoo competition, with proceeds benefitting the grant-making Michael James Jackson Foundation – the 2023 contest figures to fill even more mugs, according to McCune.
“We’ll continue to award Crushies to the very best work in our industry,” he said. “And showcase that winning work, and the creative humans behind it.”
