Shop! ANZ 2020 awards open for entries with three new categories

Entries are now open for Shop! ANZ’s 23rd annual Retail Marketing Awards, with the best in Australian retail marketing campaigns to be recognised across 26 categories, covering physical displays and shopper experience.

The prestigious Shop! Awards recognise and reward best practice, innovation, and excellence in retail and shopper marketing. Open to both Shop! ANZ members and non-members, entrants vie for distinguished Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes, in addition to the Award’s highest honour, the Tom Harris Retail Marketing Award (named after Shop! ANZ founder, Tom Harris).

The 2020 Awards program will boast a number of new features, including a new culturally sensitive trophy, three new categories and an extended eligibility period to take into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail marketing.

The new categories for 2020 are:

1. COVID-19 -Safe Retail Continuity Product

Awarded to the best product created specifically to help or enable brands and retailers of any type to continue operations ‘COVID-Safe’ for employees and shoppers. May also include interesting/innovative integration of technology and sensory components that work together to create a greater connection with shopper. Must have been infield between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020.

2. Campaign Response to a COVID-19 Changing Shopper

Awarded to the best campaign or retail transformation project designed specifically to cater to changes in shopper behaviour or challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and social restrictions. Entries must have an insight or address a new shopper behaviour created by COVID-19, taking into consideration changes to shopping environments and behaviours can include one or several elements. This category may also include supporting of a business 'pivot' from their core business due to COVID-19. Must have been instore between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020.


3. Produced in ANZ

Awarded to the best Australian or New Zealand produced temporary or permanent display in any Australian or NZ retailer. Entries must be 100% produced in Australia or NZ (excluding componentry/some materials) by an Australian or New Zealand-based business. All processing of raw materials such as printing, fabrication of metal work and timber etc as well as assembly and packing of the unit must be completed in either Australia or NZ. 


Carla Bridge, General Manager of Shop! ANZ, said that despite the setback of COVID-19 restrictions earlier in 2020, this year’s Awards are shaping up to be the biggest and best yet.

“Like many, COVID-19 has afforded us the opportunity to reinvent the way things have been done in the past, and as a result we’ve launched a number of new categories to cater to the market where we are at now, as well as overhauling some historic elements that were in need of a modern approach,” ,” said Carla.

“The historic ‘cigar shop Indian’ statuette trophies will be replaced this year for a new and exciting design to be launched on the Awards night that we feel is a better reflection of our industry and caters to the range of cultural sensitivities in the multi-faceted world we live in

“We’ve also introduced two one-off COVID-19 related categories to recognise the impact that Corona Virus restrictions have had on the way we market to shoppers in retail environments and beyond. Retail marketing these days has a much broader remit than the store footprint, and Corona Virus has really cemented that this year,” she concluded.

Submissions are open from October 8, 2020 to January 18, 2021. Entries must have been in market in the period between July 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. Australian and New Zealand designers and producers of retail marketing material, brand owners, agencies, suppliers, and retailers are eligible to enter the Awards.

Winners will be announced at the retail marketing’s night of nights, the Shop! Awards Gala Dinner, on Thursday 25 March, 2021. Tickets can be purchased at www.shopassociation.org.au/events/2020-awards-gala-dinner  (Bookings made before December 31 receive a 10% Early Bird discount.)

Awards criteria, and step by step guides on how to enter the Awards online are available at www.shopassociation.org.au/enter-awards

For more information, or to enter the Awards, visit www.shopassociation.org.au/about-awards