Danil Nevsky: No amount of googling or ChatGPT-ing has helped me find the first-ever cocktail competition, or at least one that was the first real game changer. So, I’m going to use my own bar industry experience to make the following claim: the golden era of cocktail competitions was 2008-2018. Anything before that can’t be remembered, and anything after is largely insignificant. But how did this once kingmaker for international bartending lose its relevance?
Laura Grassulini: The pandemic corresponded to a major shift in cocktail competitions. First, brands were forced to pause or move things online. Then, all investments underwent severe scrutiny due to financial pressure and lack of resources. This prompted a broader review of the entire competition ecosystem and advocacy model, leading brands to find more immediate ways to get the bar community engaged.
Some of the biggest names in the space have left, because the goal of the programme – whether driving marketing positioning, product listing, innovation, or prestige – had been partly or completely achieved or, more importantly, new strategies to better respond to bartenders’ demands had been set out.
Nonetheless, there are still lots of competitions out there, from smaller to bigger, local or global. But the whole global bartender engagement and education scenario has diversified to the extent that great competitions have just become the most costly and resource-consuming way to drive brand presence and aspiration in a sea of new platforms. Outside of World Class, competitions have lost their holy grail status, which begs the question: what has replaced them as the industry benchmark?
DN: Let’s get a thing out of the way, then. Cocktail competitions don’t mean the same thing for bartenders as they do for brands. Bartenders see an opportunity to travel, to gain publicity, to learn from peers and build a network. The reason the cocktail competition golden era happened was because the global bartending community embraced it, showed up to events and the first truly successful competitions (notably Bacardi Legacy and World Class) utilised the winners effectively to build long-term community. You would win one of these competitions and immediately become a recognisable figure. Today, I bet it would be difficult for many bartenders to name the most recent global champions of major competitions.
With the explosion of social media and of the global bar industry, brands have been caught in a “better, faster, stronger and larger” rat race to get more participants, bigger impressions and further reach. At the same time, bartender participation has become increasingly short-term and opportunistic. With multiple competitions, brand platforms, bar shows and travel opportunities available, sustained commitment to a single programme is now the exception rather than the norm.
From a brand perspective, this has diluted the long-term value of developing winners into credible ambassadors, weakening return on investment and making large-scale competitions harder to justify. As a result, the bar community has gradually disengaged, brands have either redirected budgets elsewhere or remained active within a smaller, quieter competition landscape. For those that have stayed, the theatre continues, the stage remains set, roles are familiar – but innovation, excitement and cultural impact have largely faded.
LG: All the above continues to feed an increasingly visible divide in the on-trade. The industry seems to have fallen into an ʻold is gold’ narrative. There’s a thinking that old advocacy managers and programmes used to care more, that they would truly serve and celebrate the bar community while today they’re just driven by marketing interests.
The truth is that competitions have always been marketing tools – and by design. Would you expect a bar to operate on selfless devotion to hospitality alone with no financial motivation?
The past couple of years have seen new programmes emerge or existing ones adjust, with key words such as mentorship and leadership reflecting not just a linguistic but a cultural and systematic change in how advocacy is framed. They gather the community, create opportunities and offer significant exposure to bartenders. The challenge remains whether these models can deliver equivalent long-term impact and return for brands while meeting the evolving expectations of bartenders. While creating genuine and very valuable human relationships along the way, let’s not forget this is a business. Both brands and bartenders play an equally important role and have objectives to fulfil – the good news is that they can do it together.
When those expectations are acknowledged openly – and aligned honestly – advocacy can regain relevance. Whether through cocktail competitions or entirely new platforms, the future lies in models that offer clear value to both sides.
