Craft Beer Marketing Awards Opens 2023 Crushie Award Season

Unique Worldwide Competition Returns for Fourth Year
with New Categories, New Sponsors, and a New Trophy Design     zzubreebym

(New York, NY )—The Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAS) has announced that its 2023 Awards Competition is now open and accepting beer-related marketing and design entries from around the globe (including hard seltzer, cider, mead, and RTD cocktails). Breweries, their agencies, artists, and marketing partners are all invited to enter their best work.

There are some exciting additions this year, including new categories, new sponsors, a redesigned Crushie award trophy, and plans for a LIVE, in-person awards ceremony during the week of the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, TN.

The deadline for discounted “Early Bird” entries is October 28, 2022. Regular entries are being accepted through January 27, 2023.

“The CBMAS has grown significantly as a unique global platform celebrating the beer industry’s incredible marketing and design that wasn’t being recognized until now,” said Jim McCune, co-founder of the CBMAS. “We’ll continue to award Crushies to the very best work in our industry, and showcase that winning work, and the creative humans behind it.”

Founded in 2019, the CBMAs is the first worldwide awards program of its kind that focuses specifically on excellence in the artistic and creative marketing and packaging efforts of breweries, designers, and agencies that play an increasingly critical role in differentiating craft beer brands in the retail marketplace.

The CBMAS has quickly become a popular industry expert voice that honors the individuals and teams who are involved in building these amazing beverage brands. The CBMAS presented a marketing trends seminar at the 2022 Craft Brewers Conference, and also hosts a successful podcast (now in its third year)—Marketing on Tap—sponsored by EGC Group, which is available on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

In the 2022 CBMAS award season, 250 Crushie trophies were presented to winning brewers, designers, and marketing agencies throughout the world. The tally included 89 Platinum Crushie winners, 135 Gold Crushie winners, and 26 Global Crushie winners. Click here to see the full list of the 2022 CBMAS Winner’s Gallery.

New for the 2023 Award Season:

Crushie Award Redesign

The Crushie trophy has been reinvented and can now be removed from the base to be used as a fully functional tap handle. This innovation was designed and produced all within the industry, and made in the USA by Steel City Taps.

“We’re so excited to be working with Steel City Taps on the creation of these new Crushie trophies that become tap handles,” said Jackie DiBella-Curry, co-founder of the CBMAS. “It was really important for us to figure out how to keep the trophy production within the industry—and to make the Crushies even cooler, and more functional for winners to display.”

Click here to learn more about the Crushie Awards trophy.

Expanding Sponsors and Industry Associations

Houston-based Hillebrand Bev Pros returns as the presenting sponsor for the fourth year in a row. New sponsors this year include: Yakima, WA-based Yakima Chief Hops, Deer Park, NY-based DWS Printing and Birmingham, AL-based Steel City Taps (producers of the new Crushies) and Sterling, VA-based BarTrack.

The CBMAS has also formed memberships with well-known industry organizations that include The Brewers Association (BA), New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA), and many of its judges are affiliated with various beverage and beer industry associations throughout the world.

New Crushie Categories

The 2023 CBMAS consist of 38 categories that cover all aspects of brew marketing—from labels to logos and tap handles to taprooms. And this year, the CBMAS added newly designated categories to recognize industry suppliers and partners.

Proceeds of the all-new beer-related tattoo category, “Show off Your Tatts,” will be donated to The Michael James Jackson Foundation, a grant-making organization that funds scholarship awards to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color within the brewing and distilling trades for a more just, equitable, and dynamic future.

To see the full list of categories, click here.

CBMAS Worldwide Entry Regions

Entries are divided up into five regions across the globe:

• The Americas
• United Kingdom
• Europe
• APAC – Asia and Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
• MENA – Middle East and North Africa 

The CBMAS’ judging process is a robust, credible, and transparent digital scoring system that is ranked by an influential and respected worldwide panel of more than 500 beer, marketing, and design experts from over 23 countries.

Platinum and Gold Crushies will be awarded to winners in each region. Global Crushies will be awarded to winners who opt-in to be judged at a global level in addition to their regional entry.

CBMAS Timeline

• Early Bird Entry Period: September 26 – October 28, 2022

• Full Entry Period: September 2022 – January 27, 2023

• Judging: March 6, 2023 – April 11, 2023 

• Winners Announced: Week of May 7, 2023 @ CBC event (TBD) and via live stream

The full live awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in person with a virtual feed during the week of the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference in May in Nashville, TN. Entries are open to anyone involved in marketing within the brewing industry—including cider and hard seltzer—across the world. For additional information, visit craftbeermarketingawards.com.

ABOUT CRAFT BEER MARKETING AWARDS

The Craft Beer Marketing Awards was established in 2019 to give recognition to the best of the best in the marketing realm of the brewing industry. With categories that range from the “Best Can Design” to “Coolest Taproom,” and “Best Website Design” to “Best Original Videos,” there’s an opportunity to showcase the best work in every area of marketing in the brewing industry. For more information, and to listen to the Marketing On Tap Podcast sponsored by EGC Group, visit https://craftbeermarketingawards.com/podcast/.