Celebrating the best marketers and campaigns in the industry.

2018: Thatchers Cider Company

Thatchers needed to maintain everything that was good about having a loyal, regional heritage while balancing that with the need to attract drinkers nationally with a more modern approach. This TV ad takes a truth about the company and treats it in a gently humorous fashion.

2017: Bombardier – ‘March to Your Own Drum’

Charles Wells developed a new campaign for Bombardier to dramatically reposition the beer away from its previous associations of knockabout humour and militaristic Englishness towards something more modern, premium and discerning, with a focus on quality and flavour. The TV execution establishes the idea of ‘March to Your Own Drum,’ using intense footage of blind drummer Roy Turnham.

2016: Greene King IPA - ‘To The Pub’.

The campaign reconnected the brand with the pub – the best place to drink beer. It did so by commissioning 50 films from 50 pubs, telling unscripted stories of pub life.

2015: Shepherd Neame Spitfire - 'Bottle of Britain'

Proving there is still a role for good old-fashioned, entertaining telly ads, Shepherd Neame succeeded in revitalising the campaign that made it a national brand but was increasingly showing its age. Now it feels fresh and funny again, relevant and appealing to 21st century drinkers.

2018: No Prize Awarded

2017: Britain’s Beer Alliance – There’s a Beer for That

There’s A Beer For That used a partnership with the Daily Telegraph to promote the idea of beer as a natural pairing with food as part of its strategy to reignite Britain’s love affair with beer. This was a long-term relationship with the paper featuring press ads, online presence and a special supplement on celebrating the British summer with beer.

2016: No Prize Awarded

2015: Fuller's London Pride - 'Made of London'

An elegant, crafted campaign that succeeds in one of the most difficult jobs in beer marketing: re-presenting a traditional, long-established brand as more modern and contemporary without abandoning its roots.

2018: Fuller's Brewery

As the oldest brand in the dynamic craft beer capital, Fuller’s faces a constant challenge to remain relevant and meaningful. It celebrated February in London by creating an online campaign whereby if people tweeted Fuller’s when it started raining, they would get a free pint. It made the judges laugh, and it did so while taking advantage of the opportunities presented by digital media, clearly delivering its message, and getting results.

2017: Tennents Lager, with Bright Signals

Tennents needed to maintain its relevance to its core 18-24 year-old male target in the face of ever-increasing competition. It used social media, mainly Facebook, to target these people with three brand pillars: football, music and slice-of-life. They were looking not just for impressions or hits, but active engagement and involvement.

2016: Diageo/Guinness/AMV BBDO – Rugby World Cup activity.

A single-minded idea, very well executed, that demonstrated Diageo had thought carefully about their media and how it could be used, rather than approaching it frivolously - which so much digital and social work does.

2015: BrewDog - #Mashtag.

The brand that has built itself through social media still has an assured touch. #MashTag allowed fans to design a new BrewDog beer for commercial launch, their involvement generating conversation, deeper relationships with the brand, and of course, instant demand.

2018: Old Mout Cider

As a brand that originated in New Zealand, Old Mout committed to the charity Kiwis for Kiwi, which is attempting to save the now-endangered species. They raised awareness by creating ‘the Kiwi Wild Show’, reuniting TV presenters Michaela Strachan and Chris Packham to create a mini-documentary. There was a real integrity to this idea. The execution was fun and the results in terms of coverage of the charity and sales uplift for the brand were impressive.

2017: Kronenbourg 1664 & Cow – Alsatian Service

Kronenbourg amplified the creative idea of its TV ad – which focused on the brand’s origins in Alsace – by creating a bar in which beer was delivered to customers by Alsatian dogs.

2016: Kronenbourg 1664 - #LeBigSwim

Used social and traditional media for a tongue-in-cheek campaign designed to create stand-out for the brand. The judges thought Kronenbourg’s campaign was fun and fresh, and amplified the core messages about the brand effectively.

2015: Greene King Old Speckled Hen - 'Old Speckled Christmas'

Providing a space for weary Christmas shoppers to have a beer and a slice of cake is a beautifully simple and inspired way of getting the brand talked about.

2018: North Brewing Co and Refold

After a favourable reaction from core consumers, North wanted to position the brand as one of the leading craft beer brands in the UK, appealing to both aficionados and newcomers to craft. In 2017 North came close with some stunning work that fell short in clearly communicating what it was actually selling. This year, losing none of the design flair, the communication side has been fixed with a few elegant tweaks.

2017: Camden Town Brewery and Studio Juice

Camden Town needed to rebrand in a way that reflected the brand’s growing stature without losing touch with its roots. The result was a bold, colourful and clear typographic route that retained some elements of fun.

2016: Thirst Craft for Loch Ness Brewery

Loch Ness looks great, and makes a little budget go a long way. They’ve obviously had fun with it; it has a bit of soul, a really strong aesthetic and stands out from the crowd.

2015: Beavertown – cans

These bold can designs broke every rule in the design book and succeeded in revolutionising cans as a premium format.

2018: St Austell Tribute

In a tough market, St Austell needed to build on existing perceptions of Tribute and amplify them to create a clear premium positioning among trade and consumers, old and new. The breadth with which St Austell executed its campaign was truly stunning. It wasn’t just a question of getting the brand to look the same wherever it crops up: it was about the quality, premium message being consistent at every single touchpoint with both the consumer and the trade.

2017: Wainright – Find Your Mountain – Marston’s Beer Co.

To make the leap from a regional to a national brand, Wainright needed to modernise. The mountains of the Lake District were given a new perspective with the challenge to drinkers to ‘find your mountain’ – a goal which deserved Wainright as reward. The campaign was executed consistently across advertising, social media, trade marketing, packaging and sponsorship.

2016: Britain’s Beer Alliance – There’s A Beer For That

A campaign to drive reappraisal of the entire beer category among people who think beer isn’t as special as other drinks, led by positioning beer as a perfect match for food. There’s A Beer For That triumphed because it’s a single idea, consistently executed across different media, which becomes much greater than the sum of its parts.

2015: Winner: Marston's Pedigree - ‘Live a Life of Pedigree’

This campaign was integrated in every way: it targeted drinkers, pubs and internal stakeholders, aiming to rejuvenate the brand and restate its core values. It was the sheer number of layers to this campaign that impressed the judges, especially given a relatively modest budget.

2018: Camden Town Brewery – Beer School

Camden wanted to a make sure its beers were served by people who were as knowledgeable and passionate as the brewers themselves. So they created Beer School, an immersive, day-long education programme in the brewery. Camden shows true creativity matched by a depth of commitment in delivery in tackling arguably the biggest problem facing beer and cider in the on-trade – ensuring the product is served in perfect condition by knowledgeable staff who actually care.

2017: Britain`s Beer Alliance – There’s A Beer For That

The B2B angle of this year’s There’s A Beer For That campaign was focused on getting beer more exposure in the off-trade, increasing visibility, presence and relevance with displays, tastings and events. It was a concerted effort to have beer appear in food aisles, reinforcing beer’s suitability with food.

2016: Carlsberg UK – Crafted

An informative campaign to give free trade pubs and bars all they need to know about stocking craft beer. All shortlisted entries this year were tangible objects rather than digital, something to be shared with staff and therefore useful. ‘Crafted’ felt like it had an independent spirit and demonstrated a category leadership approach.

2015: Heineken – Our Shout

Three outstanding campaigns each gave real benefit to the trade rather than talking down to them. Our winner eventually triumphed with a programme that rewards licensees for their custom with practical help such as setting up Facebook pages or advertising the pub in local media.

2018: Hawkes

2017: Toast Ale

Toast Ale is a new launch of a beer brewed using old bread that would otherwise be wasted as part of the grist, and use this as a platform to educate people about food waste and donate profits to charity. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the company now has a range of three beers and has national distribution.

2016: Island Records/Soundwaves Brewing/Two Tribes Brewery/Boutique Bar Brands/La Boca

These awards are about inspiring others and raising the overall standard of marketing in beer. All entries were very strong creative ideas that generated plenty of interest. But the ‘Shazamable’ can – whereby the beer can can be ‘read’ to access a playlist relevant to the beer – struck us as completely original, a great way to add value, and something that can inspire others.

2018: Small Beer Brew Co.

Small Beer used to be an important part of everyday life in Britain, a source of hydration and nutrients at very low ABV. Small Beer reintroduced the concept with a clever positioning between no/low alcohol and mainstream beer, and a launch that was stylish and accomplished, instantly making the new sector feel aspirational – from the branding to the high-class outlets chosen for the seeded launch.

2017: Diageo – Hop House 13

Diageo sought to expand the Guinness footprint by launching a premium lager with a focus on flavour and quality. Hophouse 13 was the biggest UK drinks launch for three years, with a major advertising presence.

2016: BrewDog – Jet Black Heart

Jet Black Heart was a newly launched beer, using BrewDog’s customary social media platforms and irreverent messaging. BrewDog won because their launch was fun. It cut through and created awareness, and successfully launched a new beer – and it made the judges laugh.

2018: Brakspear

The Henley-onThames brewer supported the ‘Club to Pub Swim’ – an inclusive event appealing to both new and experienced swimmers, as a way of reaching new audiences in its home region. The judges liked the generosity of the Brakspear idea, which included giving each swimmer a free bottle of the commemorative beer when they finished the event. It successfully raised awareness of the brewery, but also enhanced the event.

2017: Britain’s Beer Alliance – ‘There’s a Beer for That’

An alliance with Picturehouse cinemas brought a more interesting range of beers to the cinema foyers. This was supported by an engaging set of films parodying scenes from great movies.

2016: Heineken - ‘Proud to Open Rugby World Cup 2015’

This sponsorship helped get fans closer to the action of the Rugby World Cup. Heineken had the budget that meant they could have just plastered the event with logos. They did plaster the event with logos, but in addition they created genuine, memorable experiences for fans and helped bring the tournament to life.

2015: Winner: Budweiser - 'FA Cup Open Trials'

Football sponsorship has been done to death and our winning brand – a foreign beer - has struggled for credibility in this very British area. The solution? A grassroots scheme giving talented players a second chance to get spotted by a league club. A perfect example of how the best sponsorship gives genuine value to the property being sponsored and the audience as well as the brand.

2018: Fourpure Brewing Co.

Aware that it was a London-centric brand, Fourpure adopted the strategy and execution of a pop or rock band tour, visiting festivals on a string of dates around the country to launch its Juicebox 500 beer. The merchandise and point of sale material was designed to fit this feel and create maximum impact at one-off events. Fourpure wanted people to wear their T-shirts ‘until they fell apart’. As well as a core design aesthetic that achieves this, the judges loved the way it was extended from basic items such as badges and stickers into fun, festival-friendly items such as frisbees.

2017: Whitstable Bay, Shepherd Neame

The Whitstable Bay Collection is a new range of beers, and the brewery communicated their positioning with an integrated range of merchandising and point of sale material that focused on Whitstable as the brand’s home.

2016: Budweiser Budvar

Targeted point of sale material for the installation of Budvar tank beer in specific outlets. Budvar triumphed because it took a tailored approach to each venue, executing the idea creatively to form an immersive experience.

2015: Vedett Extra Blond - ‘Vedett Extra’

Vedett took merchandise to a new level with its ‘mini Mathon’, a kitsch machine that takes drinkers’ photos and instantly prints them on bespoke labels, giving you your own personal bottle of Vedett.

2018: Hiver, The Honey Beer

Hiver is a honey beer that sources all its honey from British urban and rural hives. They sponsor urban community hives, investing in the hive, the colony, the installation and the weekly hive inspection from a beekeeper. Hiver was a clear winner because of the way the cause it supports is stitched into every single aspect pf the business, from the beer and how it’s made, to how it engages drinkers.

2017: Brewgooder #DrinkBeerGiveWater

Brewgooder was a new launch with a very simple mission: to provide a million people with clean drinking water by launching a new craft lager and donating all the profits to clean water indicatives. The beer is brewed at cost by BrewDog, the company raised funds via crowdfunding, and the successful launch quickly led to national sales and distribution.

2018: Marston’s Brewery - Beer Town Film Festival

Marston’s had to reach a new generation of drinkers and at the same time form a closer connection with its home town of Burton. It did so by creating the Beer Town Film Festival – a first for the town. This initiative demonstrates generosity, originality and long-term thinking, creating a firmer bond between Marston’s and Burton that should benefit both.

2017: Camden Town Brewery

Camden’s Hells Forever saw the brewery take its entire staff – plus a select group of customers – for a day’s strawberry picking, to gather fruit to use in the latest iteration of their Strawberry Hells beer.

2016: BrewDog - ‘DIY Dog’ (Stunt/Guerilla)

This initiative saw BrewDog put all their recipes online, fully accessible, for free. They didn’t enter the idea into this category, but the judges felt this definitely was a stunt, and a very good one. It created an instantaneous global conversation about that brand as soon as it was announced; dividing opinion, creating a great deal of debate, and keeping the brand at the heart of discussions around craft beer.

2016: Fuller’s London Pride (Event)

The ‘London Pride Clubhouse’ sought to engage a new generation of drinkers by creating a higher quality experience around watching sport – specifically, the Rugby World Cup. It won because it was a thoughtful, well-planned and well executed idea that succeeded by genuinely engaging its target market in a meaningful way. It also exceeded expectations in the results that followed.

2015: Wychwood Hobgoblin - 'Hobgoblin Roadshow'

A combined social media, live roadshow and trade engagement programme folded into a national sampling programme unlike any other brand could – or would – do. Proving that even sampling can be a brand-building activity.

2017: Nick Dwyer - Beavertown

2017: Beer – Jane Peyton

2017: Cider – Gabe Cook

2016: Glenn Payne

2015: David Cunningham

2018: St Austell Brewery

2017: Camden Town

2016: Guinness

2015: Fuller’s London Pride

2018: Thatchers Cider Company - Joint London

2017: Yowler – Kent Cider Company & Sand Creative

2017: Camden Town

2016: Guinness

2015: Fuller’s London Pride