Love Your Local campaign from Stella

Stella Artois has launched a major new award initiative in London that will give friendly local pubs the recognition they deserve.

Love Your Local is a brand new award scheme launched this year, which aims to celebrate community pubs and bars that set an industry standard. From creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere, to providing sports screenings and ambient beer gardens, any London pub that generates a sense of community spirit can apply for the award.

Pub staff will play an active role in encouraging customers to vote for them, which they can do via freepost postcards, or by registering their views online at www.loveyourlocal.co.uk​ before September 30. The pubs that generate a significant number of stories from their customers, outlining why they love their local, will be shortlisted and then visited by a panel of industry judges.

The winner will receive a £8.5k worth of prizes to share between the licensee and its staff, while the three runners-up will receive £5k. The prizes include a significant cash bursary, which licensees may use to upgrade their premises, all in the name of community spirit.

The initiative comes at a time when industry morale is low, and beer sales are at their lowest since the 1970s. InBev UK, owner of the Stella Artois brand, aims to improve this by using the award to create a positive sales environment.

Stuart MacFarlane, President of InBev UK & Ireland, said: “Stella Artois is recognising and rewarding those pubs that tap into community pride both through the nature of their environment and the support they provide to customers – both local residents and people working in the area.

“It will also fulfil an important role for the industry as a whole because it will underline the close link between community pubs and responsible drinking – challenging the negative perceptions of the industry often communicated in certain sections of the consumer media.”

The initiative will initially be launched in the capital, with the potential to eventually roll the scheme out nationally.

To be in with a chance of winning this potentially prestigious prize, London outlets should call the Love Your Local hotline on 0800 013 7982 before September 1, where they can also request a range of POS, including beer mats, posters, window stickers and table talkers, to generate publicity for their campaign.