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5 tips on entering food awards

 

Last week Free From Food Awards announced its 2016 shortlist signalling that this year’s awards season is underway.

Why enter awards? Providing you are entering an appropriate one, they can help you catch the eye of the buyers, and the consumers that you are trying to reach. An award enables you to stand out in a crowded market and gives people a reason to trust a new or less well known brand. It’s good PR too, not just or the external recognition it brings but also for your team as they earn some well-deserved kudos. If the awards themselves have a good PR machine, both they and you can often generate positive coverage as a result.

Here are my top 5 tips on entering awards:

1. Plan which ones you want to enter as part of your overall business development strategy and then as part of your marketing plan.

2. Only enter awards that make sense for you, for example that will help you perform better in a key growth market.

3. Make sure you read the entry criteria and that your brand or product is eligible. Don’t enter if you don’t meet all the criteria as you may well be disqualified but still charged the entry fee.

4. Make sure you are able to provide all the information required by the judges. Make it easy for them to read and evaluate your product. Be sure to stick to the wordcount given otherwise judges may only read or even see your first 100 words. If they ask for samples, send them clearly labelled with information on who they are from, what category you have entered and the contact details. Don’t forget to supply the RRP if asked – it’s very hard for judges to make a value call without a price!

5. If you are shortlisted and then go on to win, make sure you tell people, do your PR, and don’t forget to stick the logos on your packs, email footers and website so people see your accolade.

 

Jane Milton has been developing strategies and structures for food awards for 15 years. She’s a consultant and judge on the FreeFrom Food Awards, the Quality Food Awards and often appears on judging panels for other industry awards. She works with large and small businesses to help them identify the most appropriate awards to enter, the right products, to collate their entry information and to capitalise on their wins.

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FROM MY PODCAST

Jane Milton

Food industry expert Jane Milton has been in the business for more than 30 years and has the inside track on all things food!

In her podcast, Jane takes you behind the scenes of the food business and introduces you to her incredible network of producers, entrepreneurs and
consultants she works with. She shares inspiring stories and experiences with you to help you to build a stronger, healthier, better version of your own business.

Let Me Introduce You with Jane Milton

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Fresh Banter with Giles Christopher ,Food, Drink & Hospitality Photographer
byJane Milton

Fresh Banter with Giles Christopher, the food, drink and hospitality photographer

 

Giles and I met many years ago through his wife and business partner Abi, and since then we have all worked on a lot of jobs together and have spent a lot of time together socially chatting about business and life.

 

He got some great advice from his Dad about offering to do things nobody else likes to do at work and making himself a valuable team member and sound found he had multiple job offers …

 

He’s run his own business for over 20 years and we talk about how basic business skills should be part of the curriculum for everyone nowadays

 

He shares about the prep that goes into shoots and how technology has changed the job so much and how much time photographers now spend in post production too. And about the sheer weight of kit that he takes to ‘location’ shoots too.

 

Giles loves tech and is always pushing himself to learn new ways of doing things , or master new equipment and he also talks about keeping up with and ahead of that if you can

 

A really interesting insight into all that food and drink photography involves, and some great tips for podcasts and business blogs to watch out for too.

 

I’m really pleased we managed to book Giles for a chat in this last episode of series 3…

 

Let me introduce you to Giles Christopher


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