Early Bird Ends
January 31, 2025
Judging
Date
May 19, 2025
Winners Announcement
June 10, 2025
If you are a winery, brewery or a distillery and if your focus is to have more retailers stock your product, the NO #1 place you want to advertise is in a magazine or platform that retailers read DAILY.
4 types of ads you should be doing in the first 4 months or during that calendar year depending on your budget. Every dollar should be spent on the trade ad and NOT a consumer ad if your goal is more retail accounts. The 2 most important places I would recommend (in the USA) to work with are Beverage Media and SevenFifty. That's where retailers live and order.
Coming soon advert is very important if you plan to bring a new product to the state or in that market. It allows sales reps of your distributor to create some buzz and pre-orders and gives them credibility in front of the retail buyer when they carry that magazine and show the advert. Showing off helps. It also gives the retailer some confidence that you are aiming for mass distribution and that you understand marketing.
You need to also come up with a trade advert that showcases your wins at wine or spirits competitions, show how fast your brand growing, show success in nearby markets. For example, if your brand is the fastest growing brand in NY state, the perfect example would be to go in NJ and say "NO 1 fastest growing Whiskey in NY now comes to NJ"
Once in while its a good idea to thank your retailers for the support. Use holiday season or end of the new year for thank you ad. Or even the thanksgiving period.
Below is an example of introducing the retail trade on who will distribute your product. You can also include your pricing and merchandising examples. It will help the distributor's sales team and will also generate some inbound sales if you already have some buzz on your brand and if customers are asking their retail stores about your product.
2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards submissions is now open for domestic and international wines. Enter your Wines now to get the early bird pricing.