The BPMA Awards 24th January 2024: celebrating our industry winners!

Congratulations to all BPMA Award winners who were recognised at the Annual Awards Dinner on Wednesday evening, hosted at CBS Arena in Coventry.

Starting the evening with a drinks reception, fresh from Day 1 of Merchandise World, guests from across the UK, Europe and and US promotional merchandise industry gathered to catch up with friends and colleagues. Gathering at the CBS Arena for the event, the industry was also provided with a reminder of this year's winners of the BPMA Product Awards, which were celebrated in December 2023 with winning products on display throughout the evening.

Each year, the BPMA Awards are awarded to member suppliers and distributors following a popular vote by each member company. During the Awards, member marketing campaigns and 'the best of British' with the Briman Award were also celebrated with independently judged Awards.

Like all events, sponsors and supporters are a huge part of the success. The BPMA extended their thanks to the generous category sponsors; Geiger, BIC Graphic, Impression Europe, Preseli, PF Concept, Direct Textiles & Bags, XD Connects, and BRIMAN Group. The BPMA partnered with WCM&A for the supply of the stunning trophies and event supporters, Laser Crystal provided the Board's Recognition Award. Victorinox sponsored the winners fizz on the night to help winners celebrate in style. The evening had a particularly delicious note thanks to The Sweet People who supplied the vegan chocolates for the dinner.

Hosting the event, BPMA Chairman Haydn Willetts alongside BPMA Vice Chairman Clive Allcott kicked off the evening with thanks to all attending to get the evening off to a roaring start. The first category up was Supplier of the Year up to £2m, the finalists were Logobugs Plus, Desktop Ideas, Just Pads and Bio Laboratories with Desktop Ideas landing the winning vote for this category. Next up was a new category, Supplier of the Year £2m-£5m, with a strong line up of finalists: Preseli, WCM&A, Juniper Trading and Keramikos with Preseli scooping this Award.

The next category was Supplier of the Year £5m-£10m category. Finalists in this category were Impression Europe, Listawood, The Bizz Badge Company and Castelli Milano 1938, with The Bizz Badge Company taking the category award. Supplier of the Year up to £10m category was sponsored by Geiger. Finalists included Laltex Group, Midocean, PF Concept and XD Connects with Laltex Group heading to the stage to collect their award.

The next Awards focused on Distributors and this year, further turnover categories were recognised. Distributor of the Year up to £500k, had finalists Promo2u, Ultimate Incentive and Ellenell on the edge of their seats. Ellenell landed this first distributor award. Distributor of the Year £500k-£1m, sponsored by BIC Graphic saw contenders Manic Merchandise, Hambleside, Get Yourself Noticed and T King Associates as finalists, with Get Yourself Noticed winning this category. Sponsored by Impression Europe, Distributor of the Year £1m-£3m finalists were Ross Promotional Products, Big Bear Promo, The Purple Company and Printed4you with Big Bear Promo taking the award home.

Taking a short pause for dinner, the room was buzzing with excitement for the final awards of the evening including the long awaited Product Awards Grand Prix and BPMA Recognition Award. Distributor of the Year £3m-£5m - sponsored by Preseli, hailed finalists Pellacraft, Pinksheep Marketing, Initial Incentives and TC Branding Group. TC Branding Group jumped on stage to accept their Award for this category. PF Concept, sponsoring the Distributor of the Year £5m-£10m category, were on stage as finalists LSi, Firebrand Promotions, Allwag Promotions and Premier Print and Promotions waited to hear who had won. Allwag Promotions landed this category to cheers and applause. With the final Distributor of the Year Award over £10m+, sponsored by DTB, contenders Total Merchandise, Fluid Branding, Brand Addition and 4imprint waited nervously for the gold envelope to reveal Fluid Branding as the winner second time in a row.

The Distributor and Supplier Marketing Campaign of the Year Awards were next. Clive Allcott shared the judge’s feedback before naming this year’s winner and talked of the industry's love for a great creative idea. Judged by an independent marketing judging panel, The Distributor of the Year Marketing Campaign finalists were Event Merchandising with their Eurovision entry, Wild Thang with their Asahi Super Dry the Official Beer of Rugby World Cup 2023’ entry and Fluid Branding with their ‘Planet Positive’ entry. Fluid Branding took the award with their Planet Positive entry. Judges also awarded Event Merchandising's entry Highly Commended.

The Supplier Marketing Campaign of the Year saw three finalist entries from The Outdoors Company with their Eco Range, First Editions with their Loop Bottle and Kingly's 'Let's Sparkle and Shine this Christmas'. The winner of this category was The Outdoors Company's Eco Range. First Edition also received Highly Commended from our judging panel.

The BRIMAN Award was a further opportunity for distributors to show off the best of British. Judged by BRIMAN members looking for distributor members who had promoted British made and finished promotional products. Total Merchandise walked away with this Brit-centric accolade from the BRIMAN group.

The Product Awards Grand Prix was also awarded at the dinner. The Grand Prix was awarded at the final judging panel and selected from all Platinum Product Award winners. The Sweet People's The Bespoke UK Manufactured Treat Box was voted Grand Prix winner by the panel and a delighted team received the award to a huge round of applause.

Last award of the evening was the BPMA Recognition Award, awarded by the BPMA Board. Now in its second year, this Award recognises outstanding contributors to our industry. The Board selected previous BPMA Chair and President, Graeme Smith for this year's BPMA Recognition Award, for his tireless work to ensure the reputation and position of the industry was upheld during his time on the Board.

The evening concluded with conversation, music, dancing and fun and whilst we are sure there are few sore heads for Day 2 of Merchandise World, this fantastic event marked another exceptional year for promotional merchandise and the sector.

Photographs and video from the event

Please click here to view the gallery of photographs and key winner images of the event, to download a single image, click the link, then click on an image, then select download from the 3 little dots in the top right. These are available for all press and PR use.

Click here to view BPMA Annual Awards Dinner Video.