The Window is Open
I can only imagine you are sitting there with your coffee reading this over your breakfast, perhaps even thinking about that excellent rack of ribs you had for dinner last night. What made them excellent? Sure, the smoke was perfect and the color made them Instagram worthy but you know in your heart of hearts, it was the rub which set them apart. It wasn’t just any rub from the store or even your buddy’s, but rather it was your special rub. The rub you put together hoping to take it to market. The one your spouse says is phenomenal and if you don’t start selling it now, you’ll be missing the boat.
You know marketing is key if you want it to appeal to the masses. What is your hook to get stores to look your way to fill their shelf space? Being a World Champion would help, but you may not have that on your business card. What would be the next best thing to being World Champion? Winning awards would certainly place your product on the radar of those store buyers looking to add something new and you could be just the “new” they are looking for.
Every year the NBBQA has the Awards of Excellence with the winners being announced at the National Conference which will be held, this year, at the historic Galt House in Louisville. KY April 1-4. As the attendees sit for a three-course meal on April 2nd the winners of Awards of Excellence will be showered with applause and have enough pictures taken which will rival a movie premier. The adage, “You can’t win if you don’t enter” is very true in this case and the window for entering is now open. Last month we mentioned all the different categories you could be a part of from sauces, to rubs to media to products and asked you to be thinking about which one(s) to enter. But if you are still on the fence about it, consider a couple stories where the NBBQA Awards of Excellence has made a difference and elevated the brands to a new level.
Hoosier Daddy
Attending the 2019 conference in Kansas City may not have been Kim Foy’s first time but it will certainly rank up there as one of the most memorable having received several awards for her sauces this week. Kim started Hoosier Daddy in 2011 in honor of her Dad and brother who both passed away from cancer in 2007 and 2008. She says, “It was my dad’s recipe that my family, friends and neighborhood grew up on!” In 2013 she had won a few NBBQA awards (finishing 2nd & 5th) but shut down her bustling business in 2014. Not because she wasn’t succeeding, because she was, but because sickness had once again entered her life. She let all her product run off the shelves while she became the caregiver of her mother and husband who were both terminally ill, ultimately losing them both in 2015 and 2016.
BBQ would have been the farthest thing from most of our minds if we were in Kim’s shoes and who would blame her with the loss she had experienced. One thing she points out in the midst of this, that although she shut down her business, she never closed her social media. Why is this significant, you may ask? Well this is where Hoosier Daddy began to experience a new birth opening many old doors and several new ones for Kim. Previous buyers and brokers reached out to her convincing her there was still a market for her sauce. So, in October of 2018 Hoosier Daddy began producing once more but she knew she had to have more buzz after being out of it for so long. In 2019 she entered her sauces, Ghost Roast and Sweet & Sassy then waited for the Awards of Excellence dinner.
That night Amy, owner and operator walked in for dinner wondering where her sauces would stack up against all the competition from around the world. That night she heard Hoosier Daddy’s name called four times! Two of which were first place finishes (the other two were for third place) and that night the joy she felt was overwhelming as her face beamed with pride that her daddy’s sauce was a winner. Kim goes on to say, “Winning the AOE (Awards of Excellence) expanded my brand to a whole new territory of exposure. It has expanded opportunity, brought growth, introduced me to an amazing new family of friends and gives truth that you never quit on a dream. Sometimes you step back and just reroute the journey.” Well said Kim.
Saucy Minx BBQ Sauces & Rubs
Tyna Mays-Schey doesn’t consider herself a competition cook. Sure, she has entered a few and has even done well, this just
isn’t where the classically trained chef sees herself. Tyna has made a huge splash in the BBQ world since her rebranding in 2016 which is especially astonishing considering she is from the Pacific Northwest, not really known for being a BBQ hot bed (but keep your eye on this region). Her dream was to have her sauces and rubs on the shelf right next to the national brands. She even told Dave Raymond she wanted her sauce next to his. Of course, Dave responded with a laugh and asked her to join him in prayer over this. Then he handed her his card and told her to email him so he could help her with the next steps in achieving her goals.
When she joined the NBBQA in 2018 and talked her husband into letting her travel all the way from Oregon to Texas, little did she know how this would change her life. The Dave Raymond story should have given her a glimpse and looking back, it solidifies what she would come to find out, we’re a family who “celebrate each other when we win, console each other when you just miss a call and consider ourselves as one gigantic family.” But to achieve her dream she needed more celebrations in her life. She had read an article which said if you could put “award-winning” on the label, you will sell more product, so that’s what she decided to do. But has her “Gram” had taught her, she couldn’t lie about it so she set out to win some awards. This self-proclaimed “non-competition cook” began entering her sauces in some local sauce contest and received several calls
In 2018 Tyna decided she needed a national title and when she read the AOE also judged rubs, she rolled the dice and entered them as well as her sauces. Walking into the 2018 AOE banquet she hoped for some calls since her product had received some in every other contest but she understood the national level was a whole new ball of wax. You can only imagine how she felt when her run, Flamin’ Fury took home 1st place in the NBBQA AOE and her sauce, Honey Habanero took 3rd. She says, “I almost fainted on the spot.” Not only a brand new NBBQA member but her first National Contest was the Awards of Excellence and she returns home to the Pacific Northwest with her business life about to change for the better.
Let’s hear what Tyna says in her own words, “Since 2018, my brand is now in 3 regional chains in my area, and Fred Meyers (a division of Kroger) wants them for the entire Pacific Northwest region. Which may lead to eventually getting my products national. I have my products in small local places all over Oregon, one in Sacramento, and a company in Mississippi who is interested. So, if you think you will not gain anything from the NBBQA Awards of Excellence, well, let me tell you that you can get everything your heart desires. If you work for it. It is a valuable tool for your toolbox when used right.”
Others
There are many others with stories just like these who have turned winning at the NBBQA Awards of Excellence into great marketing which advances their brand. The International Dutch of Society uses their medal for all of their marketing. Photographers, writers, podcasts and others have used their placement at the AOE to gain footholds for more work and broader reach. Take another look at the website, www.nbbqa.org/awards-of-excellnce-entries, to see where you and your products fit then enter them.
The window is open now but will close January 17th. As long as you have it in the mail with a postmark of January 17th it will get to the judging in time. Do not arrive in Louisville wishing you had submitted your sauce, rub, product or media program. Decide today and enter today then win in April.