LUXlife is proud to host the Food & Drink Awards for a sixth consecutive year and commend those who strive to offer the best products, services, and experiences to their customers.
In an industry that is constantly evolving and adapting to meet the needs and tastes of a diverse audience, an emphasis on innovation and quality is crucial. As the Food & Drink Awards enter a new year, we will ensure that we continue to applaud those who bring new, exciting ideas to the table and work hard to offer the highest levels of customer service available.
We remain aware of the many challenges faced by businesses in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those operating within the food and drink sector, therefore, regardless of how small or large a business may be, all shortlisted nominees will be assessed based on their merits. Our merit-driven approach allows for a more efficient method when determining those most deserving of winning an award and has brought us much success and commendation throughout its use over the years!
The LUXlife team gather information independently from a variety of publicly accessible sources which are assessed alongside any material supplied by a nominating party or the nominee themselves. Final judgement is cast based on various criteria such as: business performance, longevity, business growth (either sustained or rapid) and any significant innovations or feedback.
Whether you are a small independent restaurant or a global manufacturer, inclusion in the Food & Drink Awards remains the perfect way to commemorate the hard work undertaken by your business, enterprise, or initiative. Should you wish to take part in the Food & Drink Awards 2021 or know of a company or individual deserving of a place on the shortlist, please use our voting form to submit a nomination.
Katherine Benton
Katherine joined the publishers AI Global Media in 2016 and soon rose to become a most valued and conscientious team member. Katherine is creative and diligent throughout ensuring that each nominee and winner receives the upmost support throughout. Katherine is able to work with all winners in selecting the best promotional package to suit specific marketing needs and works with each client to ensure maximum exposure for their win.
We operate an open-vote policy, whereby any organisation can put themselves forward or be nominated by a third party. Votes are cast anonymously via our secure online portal. Voting is promoted digitally to LUX magazine’s extensive circulation, across our social media platforms and where appropriate, across our partner network. We, the publisher, also nominate candidates whom we feel are appropriate and deserving of recognition. The number of votes is not directly influential to the ultimate category winners.
All nominees will be contacted and given the opportunity to accept, or decline, their nomination. Only those who accept, will go on to form our shortlist.
Our specialist researchers scrutinise the shortlisted candidates, putting them through a period of extensive investigation prior to judging where we will make the ultimate decision. We review supporting evidence submitted by the nominees in addition to conducting our own independent research. The probe is typically centred around the evaluation of skills and services on offer; we will consider client and customer feedback and testimonials whilst recognising the nominee’s wider market reputation.
To move successfully, from nominee to winner; there must be evidence of extensive expertise within a given field or discipline, dedication to customer service and client satisfaction with an ongoing commitment to excellence and innovation.
After notification of their success, our winners are given a time-frame to discuss the celebratory items on offer. We are proudly not a pay-to-play enterprise with all winners encouraged to select a promotional package, be it commercial or free of charge.
When we make the formal announcement, we again reach out to LUX magazine’s extensive circulation, as well as our social media followers and, where appropriate, across our partner networks to promote the news.
FAQ
When did LUX launch?
Today, LUX is one of AI Global Media’s most popular standalone publications but it launched as a bi-product of the luxury lifestyle sections from two of our flagship brands, Acquisition International & Wealth & Finance. In this respect, we’ve been active in the Lifestyle Sector since 2010; however, as demand for this type of coverage increased, we made the decision, in 2015, to separate the content and launch LUX, as an independent brand.
Who nominated me? A large part of the nomination process is driven by LUX, we spend a great deal of time identifying potentially suitable candidates within their appropriate markets. A publisher-cast nomination doesn’t hold any more weight than a self, or third-party nomination, they all filter through to the research stage in the same manner.
If you didn’t self-nominate the nomination will have come from either a third-party vote via our online voting form or, by us the publisher. We run the nomination process via our website entirely anonymously, prohibiting us to provide specific details. Tried and tested over the years, response rates are always higher this way. As we operate in this manner, we run a very rigorous filtering system and do not directly link the number of votes received with success. We store encrypted versions of the IP address associated with the nomination, allowing us to track unusual behaviour.
I’ve accepted the nomination, what happens next?
Once a nomination is accepted, the organisation will be moved on to our shortlist. Shortlisted parties are encouraged to submit supporting materials via our optional questionnaire. This is the perfect opportunity to put forward any specifics you’d like our judging panel to take into consideration before they undertake extensive research for up to 8 weeks.
Who makes the final decision?
We have an entirely unbiased internal panel. It consists of an international, collective of individuals, with backgrounds from a myriad of fields, such as business, economy, politics, media, journalism, history and education. The panel is led by a veteran academic leader with international pedagogic and coaching experience who is well versed in research, fact-checking and mediation; allowing the panel to operate with efficacy and dependability.
When’s the ceremony?
We do not gather our winners together to present the news. We’re a little bit too new-media for that! All announcements are made digitally, online and across our network. Hosting events and celebration dinners is an expense we’d rather our clients not entertain. We’d much rather keep the cost of our services and products low, so our winners can choose to spend money on marketing that generates real-world value.
So, what happens if I do win?
You get to select the level of coverage that suits you and we set to work to prepare all the relevant elements in time for our public announcement. Our main coverage takes the form of a digital winner’s magazine, but we also offer physical trophies, window stickers, certificates and varied online packages offering social media exposure.
We have a highly experienced editorial and production department who will guide you through this process and give you full control over your eventual coverage.
What are the costs?
There are no obligatory costs in accepting a nomination or winning a LUX award. In fact, to demonstrate our commitment to this, all our winners are offered a free of charge promotional package. Our company policy will always remain, regardless of budget, our clients should always be able to leverage the value of the award and our seal of approval.
We offer a variety of promotional opportunities to our winners. as we have an extensive network and we know, more than anyone, the wider business benefits from promoting industry awards.
It’s important to highlight, all conversations pertaining commercial add-ons are conducted after winners are announced, so there is no possibility an organisation can influence any internal decisions, based on their appetite to spend on marketing; this remains our utmost concern.
