Prize includes a creative bursery, product development package and business ‘healthcheck’
November 10th 2021: Love Irish Food, in partnership with Exterion Media, is delighted to announce the launch of its ‘winner takes all’ Love Irish Food Brand Development Award worth an incredible €150,000. The 2022 award will be supported by Checkout Magazine as trade media partner for the award.
To celebrate the 2022 award, Owens DDB will offer a creative bursary, while Innovate Solutions will offer a product development package. In addition, Bank of Ireland has also come on board to provide a financial wellbeing business health check to the winner. This will bring the total prize-fund of the award to in excess of €150,000 for 2022.
The award provides Love Irish Food member brands, which support over 12,000 jobs in the Irish food industry, with the chance to win a fully funded national Out-of-Home advertising campaign from Exterion Media through its strong retail network, as well as receive trade marketing support from Checkout Magazine.
As in previous Brand Development Award campaigns, Love Irish Food and Exterion Media will collaborate with and support the winning brand to plan a campaign that will optimise their business and marketing objectives for the year ahead.
Kieran Rumley, Executive Director, Love Irish Food said: “The Love Irish Food Brand Development Award is a most unique Irish food industry award. The aftermath of Covid-19, as well as Brexit, have impacted Irish food companies and caused much uncertainty in the market over the last 18 months. In recent months, companies have felt a dramatic increase in input costs, leading companies to urgently review their bills of materials and unit costs in forming their plans for the year ahead. This award will give the winner the assurance that they will be able to carry out an impactful business and advertising campaign worth in excess of €150,000 in 2022 and reach their target consumers nationwide.
“We at Love Irish Food are very proud of this award which helps promote and support an Irish produced food and drink brand with practical help and assistance. The award will provide Love Irish Food SME brand producers with the opportunity to advertise to Irish consumers on a national level, giving them a huge opportunity to build brand awareness, connect with their target audience and have a robust business understanding of their company.”
Sandra Doyle, Sales Director, Exterion Media added: “The Brand Development Award is hugely important to us at Exterion Media. This is a fantastic opportunity for a small Irish brand to step up their brand promotion efforts and leverage that opportunity to grow their consumer awareness. We look forward to reviewing the many strong entries we receive annually. We will be looking for a brand that demonstrates drive, passion and promises strong growth.”
Golden Bake won the 2019 Love Irish Food Brand Development Award. Robin Jones, Managing Director of Golden Bake said: “It was a huge achievement for Golden Bake to win the 2019 Love Irish Food Brand Development Award. The award gave us the opportunity to further promote our business throughout Ireland, highlight our Irish heritage and the local ingredients we use. We would encourage Love Irish Food members to apply for this award which truly has the ability to drive brand awareness and sales.”
The competition is a simple two phase process. To enter, Love Irish Food member brands must register here on loveirishfood.ie Registrations are open until December 3rd 2021. The second phase involves a completed submission to be submitted by 5.30pm Friday 14th January, 2022.
The judging panel comprises Kieran Rumley, Executive Director, Love Irish Food & Antoinette O’Callaghan, Marketing Manager, Exterion Media. A shortlist of competitors will then be interviewed by the judging panel with the winner announced on 27th January 2022.