News - Awards
AIOA … Promotion, promotion, promotion Consumers love award-winning products. So do retail buyers and high-end food service professionals. They want to buy them and most will pay a premium, especially when the medals and/or trophies are from a competition as prestigious as the Australian International Olive Awards (AIOA). They just need to know about your win and then you’re already ahead of the field.
AOA promotion
Which is why the AOA, as competition organisers, seize every opportunity possible to promote each year’s AIOA winners and their high-quality, award-winning products. It starts well before the official Awards presentation, with the announcement of the medal winners via email and the opportunity to purchase medal decals to use on packaging and digital media. Delivery of medal certificates happens as soon as the post can get through, so winners can get them framed or scanned and displayed to ‘shout-out’ their win. The Gala Awards Presentation (whether a physical event or ‘live online’ as in recent years) provides great peer promotion, making sure everyone knows who won and what. This official announcement of results is backed by a media release sent to local, state, national and international outlets, both online and print-based, with particular emphasis on food and lifestyle communicators. At the same time, the organisers ensure that the annual AIOA Results Book gets distributed far and wide, providing even more detailed information on both the competition and the award-winning producers who excelled in the judging. The winners are also celebrated throughout the year in our industryowned communications, the Friday Olive Extracts e-newsletter and Olivegrower & Processor print journal (both with subscribers across the globe), on the Australian international Olive Awards website, and via other media opportunities. In addition, medal and trophywinning products are featured in promotional tastings and judges’ training throughout the year, providing even wider opportunities for recognition of producers’ products and brands.
Producer ‘tools’
All of this provides AIOA-winning producers with a range of readymade ‘tools’ to promote their wins and market their brands: • AIOA Results Book – display a hard copy in your farm shop or farmers market stall; announce your win on social media and send a link to the downloadable version; provide a link to existing and potential retail and food service customers to celebrate your win; • medal and trophy certificates - display in your farm shop or farmers 12 • Australian & New Zealand Olivegrower & Processor • March 2022 • Issue 123
2022 Australian International Olive Awards - Save the dates! The dates have already been announced for this year’s Australian International Olive Awards (AIOA). The country’s most important and prestigious olive competition, the AIOA is now also a major event on the international calendar, judged by experts in six countries across the globe and gaining winners outstanding recognition and marketing benefits. It’s a ‘must-enter’ event for all EVOO and table olive producers, so add the dates to your diary and get your entries in as soon as they’re ready: Entries open: 1 June 2022 Entries close: 26 August 2022 Medal winners announced: 3 October 2022 Awards Dinner: 14 October 2022, in conjunction with the 2022 AOA National Olive Industry Conference & Trade Exhibition – Devonport, Tasmania More information: www.internationaloliveawardsaustralia.com. au or email Competition Convenor & Chief Steward Trudie Michels at aioa@australianolives.com. market stall; take a photo and upload to social media; add to your website, brochures, etc; • medal decals – display them on your winning products (just those which actually won, of course!); add to your social media pages and website; add to current marketing material for those products – e.g. retail/food service information; • trophies – display them in your farm shop or farmers market stall; take a photo and add to your website and social media pages; add to current marketing material for those products.
Opportunity knocks
They’re all there for winners to utilise and, except for a production cost charge for the medal decals, they’re all free. So don’t miss the opportunity to ensure your AIOA win provides maximum promotion of your high-quality products and success for your business. Grab the ‘tools’ which work for you and make sure the news is out there!