Sponsorship, advertising & editorial principles

Κείμενο Difford's Guide

Sponsorship, advertising & editorial principles image 1

We strive to inform and inspire discerning drinkers with engaging and impartial information on what to drink, how and where to drink it. We aim to be an encyclopedic guide and directory rather than a news resource. We express our opinions but do not consider ourselves opinionated.

Our lifeblood

Our company employs eight very talented and skilled people, and although we are a small team this website is one of the largest and most visited drinks websites in the world - indeed diffordsguide.com is ranked in the top five of all cocktail and spirits websites. This success is partly made possible by local partners and writers in Brazil, Greece, and the Netherlands. Thanks to their valued efforts we serve content in Greek and Portuguese and well as the Queen's English.

We are proud not to subject our readers to Google Ads - unusual for sites like ours that offer free-to-view content and are not primarily on-line shops. In order to pay and look after our writers, programmers, videographer, graphic designer, photographer, servers, legal advisers and the rent, indeed to keep this website alive, we rely on the support of drinks brands. This support takes the form of:

Sponsored cocktail ingredients

We are often paid to specify a particular brand as an ingredient in a cocktail recipe. However, please be assured that we will have sampled these products and tried it against other similar products in cocktail recipes before agreeing to such sponsorships.

Even if we are not paid, we display our preferred brands rather than generic names as we believe this helps consumers source the products they need to make our recipes. To this end, we endeavour to also link to third-party online shops to allow readers to quickly and easily acquire ingredients to make the cocktails they have chosen. Obviously, those readers who have a preference for another brand are free to make that choice and we try to help them by displaying the generic category of each brand in the shop below each cocktail recipe.

We'd very much like to take this opportunity to thank the many brands that have supported us over the last 20+ years and have made the cocktail area of this website possible. Thank you.

Sponsored Editorial

We do not run 'advertorials' supplied by brands or their agencies, we do not regurgitate press releases, and we do not run brand-led editorial on the promise of display advertisement bookings.

We consider distillery, winery and brewery visits, interviews with producers, cocktail competitions, brand-driven cocktail features and other such brand initiatives as brand awareness and promotion. We are very happy to feature any and all of these on this website but only if we feel such content will be of interest to our readers. We classify such content as Sponsored Editorial.

Sponsored Editorial is just that - we publish such editorial with support (usually financial) of the brands being featured. Fact is, without this support we would not be able to produce much of our in-depth editorial and accompanying videos and photography. This is particularly the case for our pieces covering production at distilleries, wineries and breweries, especially those involving long-haul travel to visit and we very much appreciate the help and support drinks brands provide.

Importantly we retain full editorial and design control and our house-style is always observed. We only agree to write and run Sponsored Editorial pieces after receiving a proposal detailing potential subject matter, access to information and accompanying imagery and photography. Naturally, we give the 'sponsor' the opportunity to approve content before running pieces to ensure factual accuracy. However, we retain the right not to make any requested changes if we consider they contravene our editorial style or convictions. In such cases, sponsors may decide to withdrawal sponsorship and the piece will not run on this website. However, with the proper upfront exchange of information and views, this is very unlikely.

Advertisements

Advertisements can take the form of job and event listings through to banner and leaderboard advertisements. Acceptance of such advertisements is strictly subject to aesthetic approval by our exacting Art Director and content approval by our Editor-In-Chief. In Australia, Brazil, Greece, Mexico and The Netherlands, acceptance of display advertising is at the discretion of our Partners in those respective countries.

If you'd like to see your product advertised on this website, then please email one of the following:

UK, USA, Canada and other countries not listed below: paloma@diffordsguide.com

Brazil: marcelo@diffordsguide.com
Greece & Cyprus: denny.kallivoka@diffordsguide.com
Netherlands: paloma.alos@diffordsguide.com

Links to third-party online shops

We are signed up to Affiliate and Associate programs with various third-party retailers to which we link, so allowing viewers to this website to purchase products and services. Please be aware that Odd Firm of Sin and our Local Partners may receive a percentage of such purchases. The small revenue received helps keep this website alive.

Please support us by making your purchases via Difford's Guide. When we link to retailers such as Amazon our system automatically selects the cheapest version of that product available (e.g. the cheapest on Amazon Marketplace). We do not host or operate checkout pages and payments go directly to the retailer. Hence, we use the term "buy direct from" on such third-party retailer links.

Product & bar reviews

We are proud of our unbiased and impartial reviews of products and bars. Accordingly, we have produced a page titled Our reviews, ratings & rules of engagement which sets out our policy towards receiving samples and indeed paying for our drinks at bars. In short, we do receive free samples, sometimes from advertisers, and no, we do not allow this to affect our unbiased and impartial reviews of those products.

Join the Discussion


... comment(s) for Sponsorship, advertising & editorial principles

You must log in to your account to make a comment.

Report comment

You must be logged in to upvote or downvote a comment

Click here to login
Welcome to Difford's Guide

All editorial and photography on this website is copyright protected

© Odd Firm of Sin 2024