What Does AdvocacyMean To You?

To me, advocacy in a brand sense, means building a community that has impact. It’s about deep, relevant communication that really resonates with both industry and the consumer and genuinely highlights brand values that actually matter to people. When brands nail this and the sentiment really hits, people remember it and do your advocacy for you.

I guess at its core, the 50 Best awards give on-trade stakeholders legit cultural currency in the market. We only allow one sponsor per category, so if a brand is working with 50 Best, they are directly connected with the very best bartenders in the world who attend our events. This means that those talented bartenders and buyers will be linked with brand’s liquid and tangentially become advocates by sampling and being seen with their drinks.

For consumers, the impact is more ambient. The hundreds of thousands of people who use our lists to inform their decisions when booking bar visits will see the brands’ logo presence on our channels. If this connection is then followed through with the liquid available in the bars themselves, they immediately associate them with the best of the best in booze with the respective categories of the brands we work with.

What is the idea behind the launch of targeted /regional awards (North America, Asia...)?

Essentially, the regional awards give us the opportunity to shine the spotlight on di erent parts of the world and explore and highlight a greater number of bars than The World’s 50 Best Bars list a ords us. It also gives us a chance to connect our partners with new markets and gives them the opportunity to meet and work with new bars that they may not have had the chance to before.

What's the future of advocacy and on-trade programs?

From my experience, I would say that I can see advocacy programmes trying to make more deeper market penetration and start creating really lasting relationships with individuals that will span an entire career.

I can see more brands trying to really embed deep-seated links with younger bartenders through advocacy projects that target grass-roots talent, through activities such as the 50 Best Bars The Blend Scholarship, which in my opinion is one of the best, most authentic advocacy programmes in the world of bartending.