The Retail Hot List

The NZ Retail team felt it was time to share their love of retail with an event to award excellence in the industry.

The Retail Hot List needed to be an awards programme with a difference. Premium, but not stuffy. Networking focused and solidly B2B, but relaxed and social. An evening of entertainment and celebration in more than just name.

To make it happen, we worked with a sponsor (GEM Powered by Latitude) consulted with our in-house design team to create a brand, then used our editorial judgment and experience to select 166 finalists across 16 awards categories.

To find our People’s Choice winner, an article describing each finalist featured in the magazine and across our social media channels. For the Judges’ Choice awards we enlisted a trio of industry heavyweight judges, whose decisions were based on each winner’s individual worthiness and impact on retail as a whole.

The results were revealed at Eden Terrace’s Fresh Factory on June 6 – where George FM DJ Hamish Crocker got people dancing, and beverage sponsors Batched Espresso Martinis and Sundown Gin ensured a merry night was had.

Promoted through NZ Retail magazine and incredible press coverage, the Retail Hot List was a hot award to win – and the awards evening the hot place to be.

Results:

• Year-on-year unique browser increase of 14%.

• Page views up 4.5%.

• More than 12,500 online votes cast.

• More than 230 guests confirmed their attendance at the event.

• The finalists engaged in significant social media promotion, getting the awards and their sponsor lots of exposure with dozens of posts.

• The sponsor was over the moon with the press coverage and extensive social buzz around the evening. They’re already keen to commit to next year – as well as other events.

We’ve worked with the team at NZ Retail & The Register for the last year to produce content that is relevant to both our audiences, so when they came to use with the concept of the Retail Hot List we were keen to get on board. The Hot List was seamlessly managed and the team really went above and beyond to deliver us value. The Hotlist content was driven over a few months with great engagement by the community, and then it was brought to life at the successful awards event with the team. The team managed the whole process, taking on board our feedback and suggestions. We’re really pleased with how it all went.’

- Frederika Walls, Corporate Affairs, Latitude Financial Services