A Call for Entries: The Craft Beer Marketing Awards

This is a guest blog post written by Rahsaan Taylor.
Follow him at @saan1911

Decisions, decisions. The world is full of them. What to wear, what insurance to buy, the list goes on. A lot of these choices can be very stressful, but sometimes a decision can be fun, like when I go to pick up beer. 

I think a lot of people have had this experience. You go to your favorite bottle shop to see what’s new. If you’re like me, you pace over the rows of beer, carefully thinking about what will fit the mood you’re in. Suddenly, you look over and see it.

You try not to stare, but that can is calling you over. You pick it up and you marvel at the awesome label and decide, “this is the one.” You grab a few other brews, but you really are excited for that new brew that caught your eye. 

When you get home, you pop open that can, pour the contents out in your favorite glass, and then you know what comes next: the beer pic. You snap a few pics for IG and then it’s time. You put your lips to the glass and just stop in amazement. Pure joy, you picked a great beer. You pause, hold the can up, reread the packaging again and now you can really relax. 

The way a beer is packaged can really sway our purchasing, and it’s always great when all expectations are met. We all know that a sweet label doesn’t equal a great beer, but with all the choices out there, a brewery really needs to step it up to stand out.

I work in the design/marketing industry so it was very cool to find out that there are actually awards for beer marketing. A huge part of enjoying craft beer is the hunt, and when you come across something new with amazing art, it’s like you’ve found a treasure. The people behind The Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMA) know how much work is put into helping consumers make that choice and that amazing beer design is worth celebrating.

The CBMA is an awards competition was created to highlight the marketing efforts of the breweries, artists, and marketers behind some of your favorite packing design. It’s a simple mission “to honor the best beer marketing and design from across the world.” Breweries from over 5 regions around the world will be competing for over 40 awards, for the chance to bring home one of the many coveted “Crushies.”

Here’s the list of categories and the link to enter. Some of the categories include: best can design, best bottle design, best brand identity/logo design, best original video, best website design, best use of social media, best taproom design, best beer-related podcast, best cause marketing, and more.

When I look a look at last year’s entries, there were a lot of breweries that I recognized, but a ton more that I never heard of. I’m looking forward to seeing the entries. Maybe there will be some breweries that I recognize, or some new ones for me to hunt down.

And after looking at all the amazing beers on display, I walked over to the fridge, opened up a pale ale that I picked up partially because of the label art, and tried to find out how I could find some of the award winners. The hunt never ends…