Australians have cast their votes in a battle of the brands and products, with the 2014 Product of the Year Awards handed out last night to recognise the best performing new product innovations. Winning products typically receive double-digit sales bumps.

Personal care company Beiresdorf, which markets Nivea and Elastoplast, proved the most innovative retail brand with four category award-winning new products, closely followed by Aldi, Panasonic, Reckitt Benckiser and Woolworths with three award-winning products each.

More than 16,000 household shoppers across Australia were asked questions about products in 43 categories, ranging from personal care to appliances to household cleaning, as part of the nation’s largest consumer survey of new products conducted by Nielsen.

Judged by consumers using criteria including the products performance in trial, likelihood of purchase and whether or not they would recommend the product to others, the resulting winners represent the cream of the crop of new innovations.

Sarah Connelly, director of Product of the Year Australia said the annual Product of the Year Awards create a positive outcome for both manufacturers and consumers.

“The consumer is the ultimate winner of Product of the Year because the competition encourages brands to evolve their product offering and creates an industry benchmark for all new products to aspire to,” said Connelly.

“The Product of the Year Awards also provide a credible and independent source of information to help consumers navigate the competitive retail market. Consumers can identify the Product of the Year sticker on a winning product and know that the product has passed our rigorous review process.”

“For the category winners, there is also the benefit of increased awareness and interest in their products. On average, previous winners experienced increases of 10-20% in sales following the award win with some even experiencing increases across their entire brand portfolio.”