A Peek Behind the Curtain
Product of the Year is a prestigious and highly-acclaimed award, voted for by consumers for consumers. When you buy a product with the Product of the Year logo, you know that it’s been voted on by over 10,000 shoppers – making it the largest consumer voted award for product innovation in the world.
But just how do we determine the winners from the thousands of exciting innovations launched in the UK every year? Here we give you a sneak peek backstage at Product of the Year HQ, so you can see for yourself just how the research really works.
1. JURY DAY
We have a fantastic panel of industry experts, journalists, and professionals – as well as a couple of consumers – who test all entered products to check that they meet our innovation criteria. The food gets tasted, the fragrances get sniffed – every product gets thoroughly put through its paces!
2. CATEGORIES
We are proud to be partnered with Kantar TNS, one of the world’s largest research agencies, who carry out the most important work at Product of the Year – the research! They place all eligible products into relevant categories before going forward into research.
We want to give our voters a true supermarket shelf comparison, so products will compete against their direct competitors – a toothpaste against a toothpaste, or a biscuit against a biscuit. Of course, with the face of innovation changing every year, our categories will vary depending on the innovation pipeline.
3. CONSUMER RESEARCH
Products compete in their relevant category with over 10,000 shoppers voting each year. Our consumers assess the innovations for appeal and advocacy – as well as rating them for how unique, relevant, and exciting each product is. The highest voted product in each category is declared a category winner.
Our research company Kantar TNS carefully selects our voters so that a true cross section of UK & ROI shoppers have their say on the year’s top products. Whatever the outcome, all Product of the Year competitors will receive a full copy of this research, with verbatims from real voters.
That’s how we make sure that year after year, only the most deserving are crowned with the prestigious Product of the Year award.