Decade of Winners - Hot Smoked
Which year(s) were you a Category Winner or Judges Choice winner for GOTY
2019
Which products(s) did you win with
BBQ Hot Smoking Kit
How has winning Gift of the Year helped your business?
Winning two categories and being named Judges Choice winner in 2019 with our BBQ Hot Smoking Kit has been a significant boost to the success of the Hot Smoked brand. It propelled us straight into the gift industry and we are now stocked nationwide in major gift retailers, garden centres, farmshops and independents. As we further expand our range of BBQ and food smoking starter kits, our Gift of the Year awards success is a vital marketing message and a clear endorsement of our products.
Would you recommend a business to enter GOTY in the future and why?
Absolutely! The competition is judged by gift buyers across the industry and the standard is incredibly high, so success in the awards is a signpost to buyers that your products will be big sellers. In the 3 years we've been involved, the awards have helped us target an entirely new wholesale customer base and provided a benchmark for refining our products further. The Gift of the Year badge has been invaluable in growing our gift business.
Would you be able to provide us with a brief testimonial about entering the awards and how it has affected your business?
Having sold a range of hot and cold smoking starter kits for almost a decade on our specialist Hot Smoked website, we entered the competition at the last minute with a newly created hot smoking starter kit expanding our specialist 'food smoking' remit into the BBQ sector. The kit did spectacularly well with the 2019 panel of judges, winning two categories, Food & Drink as well as Garden & Outdoor and being named overall Judges Choice. This was a fantastic accolade, a clear industry endorsement, and led to the realisation that we had an incredibly marketable product that would appeal to a wider gift giving market. Featuring in Spring Fair Gift of the Year promotional materials put our brand in front of an expanded buyer base and the huge bonus of a free stand at the Autumn Gift Fair brought on board some high profile buyers. The National Trust, Moonpig and Gift Universe are amongst our key accounts. We continue to expand our range of gift starter kits and have had success in the awards with a further 4 products which have been Shortlisted or named Finalist.
Find out more from Hot Smoked below
Website: www.hotsmoked.co.uk
Facebook: hotsmoked
Instagram: @hotsmoked.uk
Twitter: @foodsmoking
