The event will recognise the very best in beer marketing, with categories such as best ad campaign, best PR campaign, best innovation, best merchandise and many more.
The shortlist for each category is as follows:
Best Ad Campaign - Broadcast
- Guinness and AMV/BBDO
- Greene King
Best Packaging/Design
- Island Records
- Thirst Craft for Loch Ness Brewery
- Potting Shed for Alias
- JDO Branding & Design for Shepherd Neame Masterbrew
Best Business to Business Marketing
- Quantock Design for Exmoor Ales
- Molson Coors
- Carlsberg Tapsters
Best Event
- Beer Day Britain
- UM London for London Pride
Best Innovation
- BrewDog
- Excess Energy for Sharp's
Best Integrated Campaign
- BrewDog
- There's A Beer For That
- Integer for Sharp's
- Fuller's London Pride
Best Merchandise
- Budweiser Budvar
- WPA Pinfold for St Austell
Best Launch
- BrewDog
- Budweiser Budvar
- Cloudwater
Best Online Marketing
- There's A Beer For That
- Guinness & AMV/BBDO
- Hobgoblin and Clarity PR
Best PR Campaign
- BrewDog
- Cow PR for Kronenbourg
- Frank PR for There's A Beer For That
Best Stunt/Guerrilla Marketing
- Greene King
Best Sponsorship
- Joules
- Heineken
Best use of Competitions
- There's A Beer For That
- Shepherd Neame
- Integer for Sharp's
Matthew Clark' sBoutique Beers range are lead sponsors of the event, with other supporters including Charles Wells, BII, Page Creative, Pub17, There’s a Beer for That, The Craft Beer Co. and Nurture Drinks Marketing.
Entries this year were up 20% on 2015. An overall winner will be announced alongside an outstanding contribution award, which will highlight the individual who, in the minds of the judges, has had the most impact in the way beer is marketed in the UK.
The judges include leading on and off trade operators, beer journalists, bloggers and award-winning marketeers.
The chairman of judges and co-founder of the Beer Marketing Awards, Pete Brown, said: “You never know what you're going to get in this competition, and this year the entries were spread much more evenly over our range of categories.
"The judges have already made some hard decisions and I'm surprised how tough they've been in some categories in narrowing down to the shortlist. But that means what we have here is already an excellent cross-section of work, and I can see some robust discussion happen when we meet in a few weeks to choose the winners.”
Justin Wylde, Category Manager - Beer, Cider and Soft Drinks at Matthew Clark, said: “It was great to be asked to judge this year with so much innovation happening in the beer industry I was blown away by the quality of the entries and creative ideas that breweries had come up with to engage with a whole new generation of consumer, these awards really highlight the best of the best."
For tickets, go to: http://beermarketingawards.co.uk/buy-tickets/