Aussie brewers bring home gold at The Craft Beer Marketing Awards

Australian breweries win big at The Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAs) or "The Crushies", announced at the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

The awards recognise the creative side of brewing, handing out awards in a whopping 46 categories, including Best Can Design, Best Tasting Room Experience, Best Use of Retro Branding, Best Brand Identity, Best Website Design, and many others.

Australian breweries brought home 17 individual awards, including eight Global, eight Platinum and one Gold, the second largest haul for any country after the US, where the awards were hosted.

Major winners include Wayward Brewing Co. (1 Platinum and 3 Global), Blackflag Breweries (2 Global), Bricklane Brewing Co. (5 Platinum and 1 Gold), Sobah, The Good Beer Co. (2 Platinum and 1 Global ), Triple-1-Three (1 Global) and PocketBeagles/CoConspirators Brewing (1 Global).

Gold and Platinum awards are handed out to winners in each region, with Global Awards, the most coveted of all, awarded to winners who stand out on the global stage, transcending regional boundaries.

Jim McCune, Co-Founder of the CBMAs, said the judging panel were impressed by the quality of entrants in this year's competition, making the judging in the awards' fifth year difficult.

"We were so impressed by the sheer creativity, innovation, and caliber of marketing displayed in entries from around the world in every category. More than 600 industry professional judges from around the world had their work cut out for them this year," said McCune.

Faye White, Head of Marketing at Wayward Brewing Co., said: "We are so chuffed with the result! We put a lot of work into everything we put out there as a marketing team, and everything is always about bringing it back to the story of the brand.

"We're so proud of the packaging and merch lines we're putting out there, so it really means a lot to get these awards," she said.

Success at the 2022 awards spurred White on to enter into the Global category this year after being too intimidated to enter last time around.

"We entered the 2022 awards, and I remember thinking the standard is so high that I actually chickened out of putting us forward for the global categories. We ended up winning a couple of platinum awards that year, so I figured we had nothing to lose in giving the global titles a shot this year. I'm very glad we did," she said.

Wayward Brewing Co. came away with an impressive swag of three global and one platinum award, the highest for any Australian brewery this year.

"Wins like this are a huge boost for the brand and the company. In the current economic climate and with such a competitive market, it's so important to know you are presenting on-shelf as best as you can.

"It's wonderful to have a brand that people can get behind and be proud of, and hopefully this encourages more people to try the brand for themselves. I promise you the beer inside is even better than what's on the outside," said White.

This year the CBMAs started a charity fundraiser category, "Show Us Your Favorite Tattoo", that raised $USD 6,000 to benefit the Michael J Jackson Foundation (MJF), which funds scholarships for black, indigenous, and people of colour within the brewing and distilling trades.

Stay up-to-date with the latest industry news with the Drinks Trade e-newsletter.