People’s Champion 2018

Start-up name: Craft Gin Club
Founders: Jon Hulme and John Burke
Started in: 2015
Based in: London
Business description: A subscription box service for craft gins and artisan snacks

Up against every other Startups Awards 2018 finalist, Craft Gin Club attracted the highest number of People’s Champion votes from customers, fans and Startups readers – making this premium subscription box service our 2018 People’s Champion!

Collating craft gins, tonics, liqueurs, mixers and snacks and sending them to customers in monthly themed boxes (complete with the business’ own magazine), Craft Gin Club’s members say receiving each box is an experience that’s “like Christmas every month”.

Alongside its excellent boxes, Craft Gin Club has also used targeted, interactive online content to grow its ferociously engaged community of customers.

By writing blogs, sending email newsletters and inviting daily interaction on social media, Craft Gin Club enhances its members’ experience. The start-up has built a highly communicative following – 615,000 social media followers and 250,000 newsletter subscribers, to be exact – that brings over 34 million monthly impressions to the brand.

And as well as its members, the start-up is also a champion for the brands whose products feature in its boxes.

A unique marketing platform, Craft Gin Club not only enables these brands to have customers sample their wares, but it also offers them tailored content marketing campaigns through its online platforms and magazine, and provides consumer insight data on what customers think of the products.

With 42,000 active club members and over 1,100 five-star reviews across Facebook and Reviews.com – not to mention a customer loyalty score of 8.1 on NPS – Craft Gin Club’s victory as People’s Champion is undeniably deserved.

While Craft Gin Club won the most votes, recipe box service Mindful Chef followed and took home the Highly Commended award. Ethical clothing brand Lucy and Yak came in third, winning the Commended trophy.