News Room

Uganda (UBL) scooped the 2016 global Moment of Choice Awards for best Diageo Bar Academy with the Kampala Cocktail Week incorporation with Master Bar Academy run annual.

The 8th Annual Moment of Choice Awards seek to recognize brilliant execution at the point of purchase over the past 12 months in the on trade, the off trade, Festivals / 3rd Space / Events and Diageo Bar Academy execution. Markets and activations are awarded based on the ability to influence behavior and create value for Diageo brands.

These awards make heroes of people who deliver brilliant execution and recognize individuals in markets who are truly living Diageo’s core behaviors on productivity, scale and rigor in both execution and measurement and evaluation. They also seek to accelerate performance by sharing learning from one market to another and by re-applying proven growth drivers to deliver greater impact more productively.

Over the last 6 years (F12 – F17), the MBA through Uganda Breweries Limited has trained a total of 1,641 bar-staff from bars around Kampala and upcountry.

MBA is usually run annually with at least 200 people in attendance for a 2 week period most of who advance to level 2 known as 202. The top 35 who pass the 202 online texts are then advanced to the final stage 303 where they are trained and tested to find the Master Bartender for that season who also wins an USD 1,000, an IPad and a personalised cocktail kit.

MBA, through partnering with Kampala Cocktail Week run trainings in various bars with live mentorships for consumers upscaling and educating consumers on appreciation on beer and spirits overcoming the biggest barrier to consumption in Uganda- “Spirits are harsh”.

In Uganda MBA is a proven Global growth driver and with pressure on ROI and Net Revenue Management we have chosen to invest behind drivers at scale. By combining MBA with the deployment of our 365 Essentials and the inaugural Kampala Cocktail Week we created increased scale and impact of the activity. Kampala Cocktail Week was the biggest drinks festival in Uganda in F17 running in 30 TLA/ RLAs (50% more than the previous year) in Kampala where we step changed MBA finals from an industry event to a public event with over 200 in attendance top notch Ugandan entertainment and media personalities.

With the biggest winner of the night being a bartender who had attended MBA303 more than once was a testament of the value perceived by bar staff on what MBA brings to their places of work and them individually. We have noticed an average increase in bottle sales in participating outlets of 4.2 bottles incremental weekly through first drinks initiatives driven by bar staff through recommendation and quality through offering the right glassware for our drinks. Rituals through JW Cubes with a flair have also supported an increase in sale.