Beyond the medal: how to get a return on your drinks award investment

© iStock.com/Anatoly Kireev

From amplifying a win to choosing competitions that provide constructive feedback, there are several ways brands can maximise the value of an awards entry.

Entering awards has become a commonplace industry practice, but how can brands ensure their time, money and effort are rewarded? By Joe Bates

Entering one of the dozens of international drinks competitions is now a well-trodden path for drinks brands eager to stand out on a crowded supermarket shelf or the backbar.

Yet all too often, producers find that even a gold medal yields little more than a digital badge with a fleeting shelf life and brief bragging rights. In such cases, the return on investment of entering an awards programme is questionable at best.

Brand owners and producers need to take a selective approach to awards entries, recommends the president of US direct distributor network Mr Checkout Distributors, Joel Goldstein. His business comprises more than 1,100 distributors and wholesalers supplying over 50,000 independent grocery, convenience and pharmacy retailers across the US.

“A medal from a competition your category buyer does not recognise is decoration, not an argument,” Goldstein says. “Ask your distributor or broker which two or three awards come up in their buyer conversations and enter only those.”

He also advises checking entrants’ rights before paying the entrance fee. “Some competitions license the medal artwork separately, and a win you cannot legally put on-pack or on a shelf talker has almost no value at retail,” warns Goldstein.

French wine cooperative Plaimont follows a similarly targeted approach to awards. Mark Robbins, sales director for Northern Europe, says the Gascony-based co-op concentrates primarily on UK and US competitions, with select awards in markets such as Germany and Japan. “These are the only ones we feel have an actual outreach to the whole world,” he explains.

Herbert, senior manager at The Tasting Alliance, which runs the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition and other global judging events, urges companies to “amplify” their awards in multiple channels.

She told attendees at last year’s Bar Convent Brooklyn: “Announce that win in a press release, on social media and in email blasts. Send it to retailers that haven’t been responding to you. Go ahead and incorporate it into all your materials — your sales sheet, your POS materials and marketing campaigns. Then contextualise; tell the story behind the win. Is it a first win for a new category or a new product?”

The lifespan of a medal also needs serious consideration. Goldstein recommends keeping dated awards off your primary product label where possible, using more easily refreshed bottle collars, shelf talkers and other POS materials instead.

This is an area where the new Global Drinks Awards, launched by Global Drinks Intel, is seeking to differentiate itself with a forward-dated logo strategy. Results from the inaugural competition will be announced in November 2026, but will carry a 2027 date stamp, giving winners a longer period to use the accolade commercially.

GDI chief commercial officer James Houlder says the Global Drinks Awards have also been designed to provide entrants with detailed, anonymised judges’ feedback through a digital portal rather than simply a stark medal and score.

“One of the biggest frustrations producers have with awards is that they often receive little more than a medal or a score, leaving them with no understanding of why they succeeded or where they could improve,” he argues. “We wanted to change that.”

Judges’ feedback can be extremely valuable, says the founder of alcohol-free aperitif Bel Nada, Rebecca Coombe.

“On packaging, I’d value honest input on shelf standout: does the brand read as premium at distance, or does it require proximity to land the message?” she says. “And on positioning, any signal about which consumer the product resonated with most, that either confirms our current focus, or reveals an angle we haven’t explored.”

The real value of any drinks award is ultimately commercial, but which KPI’s should winners track? Coombe looks at whether an award improves B2B response rates, generates unsolicited references from prospective stockists or helps to accelerate a stalled deal.

Mr Checkout Distributors’ Goldstein, however, recommends tracking new accounts, reorder rates and units per store per week.

Belfast spirits supplier and distributor Drinksology Kirker Greer says that it’s important to track “longer-term value” — even though it can be harder to measure.

“Ultimately, we measure awards against the commercial objective behind entering,” says chief commercial & strategy officer Ryan McFarland. “If the objective was distribution, we measure distribution. If it was premiumisation, we look at value and positioning.”

The medal, it seems, may open the door, but it is what brands do with it afterwards that determines whether an award is worth the entry fee.

Want more insight like this? Join the drinks industry conversation at Bar Convent Berlin 2026.