Craft Beer Marketing Awards Expand to Include Hard Seltzer

The Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAs) are returning – and expanding – for 2021. In addition to adding global categories, the CBMAs will now include hard seltzer brands, in addition to craft beer and cider.

Entries for the 2021 CBMAs are now open, with the initial early bird period closing on November 7. The regular entry period will close for good on January 29, 2021. Registration fees are $125 for early birds and then increase to $175, and discounts may be available for 10 or more entries.

The judging period will occur from February 8 through March 6 of 2021, and winners will be announced on March 30 as part of San Diego’s Craft Brewers Conference. The ceremony will also be livestreamed.

Pandemic Marketing

The awards span over 30 categories celebrating the best marketing in beer, cider, and hard seltzer. New this year is a pandemic marketing category, recognizing superlative advertising during these unprecedented times. The inaugural award ceremony was held virtually due to Covid-19 related closures.

Other award categories include best logo, best label, and best tap handle. The CBMAs are meant to cover all aspects of marketing for beer, cider, and seltzer. A full list of categories for 2021 can be found here.

Platinum and Gold Crushies will be given in five different regions: the Americas, Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand), and the Middle East and Africa. Participants can also be considered at the global level for an extra entry fee, for which they will receive an Onyx Crushie.

Each region will have one platinum winner per category and up to five gold winners, yet this may be adjusted depending on the number of entrants. Indeed, opening up the awards to include hard seltzer will likely drive participation this year. As boozy bubbly water continues to rise in popularity, new hard seltzers are hitting the market regularly.

Esteemed Panel of Judges

“Breweries, their agencies, artists and marketing partners are invited to enter their top work,” according to the CBMA’s website. The organizers note that “all categories are judged by an influential and respected panel of beer, marketing, and design experts. The CBMA’s judging process is a robust, credible, and transparent digital scoring system.”

New for 2021, each judge will be assigned to review submissions from one of the five regions in the world.  A hand-selected subset of international judges will critique the global entries.  There are 147 judges, according to the award website:

Award Origins

The Crushie trophy was designed by the same firm that created the Emmy Award and the MTV Video Music Awards’ iconic Moon Man statue. The CBMAs say that the “Crushie award is sculptured to depict a heavily–tattooed arm crushing a beer can to symbolically represent how breweries are ‘crushing it’ with their unique and creative beer marketing and branding.”

They note that “individuals involved in the production and or creation of winning works can purchase their personalized trophies in our CBMA Award Shop that will launch right after the winners are announced. Winners will be notified by email of their win outside of the official ceremony, along with further instructions to order.”

The CBMAs are presented by Hillebrand, a keg logistics company based in Houston. You can watch the 2020 virtual ceremony here, or find a complete list of this year’s winners here.

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Erin Grafton

Erin Grafton is a news journalist and features writer at Hard Seltzer News, covering breaking news, people, and trends.

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