Region + Coverage

2.1 Entry requirements

• Your burger creation must be an actual burger with a patty (meat, chicken, seafood or plant) sandwiched between two bread buns. Because we know the party hasn’t really started until the pickles get amongst it… you need to include some McClure’s Pickles on, in or with your burger.

• Entries will be accepted in four burger categories: Meat, Chicken, Seafood and Plant.

• The burger(s) must be clearly displayed as a ‘Burger Nation’ entry on a blackboard or menu throughout the competition period, and must be identified on the table talkers provided.

• The burger(s) must be available to buy at the registered venue for the full competition period and must match the description entered.

• Receipts must show the burger by name, so the burger name on your till or ordering system needs to match the name you entered. We recommend a clearly identifiable line item such as “Cherry Bomb BN2027”.

2.The Burgers

Cook & Nelson will provide all participants with:

• Posters, stickers and table talkers

• Digital branding for use on social media and website

• A national public relations and marketing campaign for BURGER NATION

• A national social media campaign for BURGER NATION

3.Marketing

BURGER NATION is scored by burger lovers across the motu. All placings are determined by verified public scoring.

Scoring opens at 9am on 3 March 2027 and closes at 11:59pm on 4 April 2027. Winners will be announced on Wednesday 14 April 2027. The period between is used to complete the final audit and to determine any appeals and complaints capable of affecting a result. The leaderboard remains blurred until the announcement.

4.1 How burgers are scored

• Each burger is scored out of a possible 30 points, made up of Looks (up to 10) for presentation and appeal, Taste (up to 10) for flavour, and Eats (up to 10) for how it eats, covering preparation, fillings and texture.

• A scorer may score any number of different competition burgers, but each individual burger can be scored only once per scorer. Only the first valid score from a scorer for a given burger is counted.

• Scores can only be cast for venues participating in the competition.

• Only scores from New Zealand IP addresses will be counted.

4.2 Scorer registration

• To score a burger, customers scan a QR code displayed at the venue on the menu, table or counter, which opens the entry details and the scoring form.

• On first use the scorer registers a single identity using their email address and mobile number. Registration is fast, free and required before a score can be submitted. On later visits the same identity is reused automatically.

• The registered scorer ID is attached to every submission and is the key the audit uses to enforce one score per scorer per burger.

• Shared devices: up to six scorer IDs may be registered and used from the same device, recognising that families, couples and older customers may share a single phone. A seventh registration from the same device is refused. The limit applies to the device only, not to the internet connection, so customers scoring over a shared or venue wi-fi network are not affected. Where an unusually high number of accounts is created from a single device or connection and all submit scores for the same burger, those submissions will be flagged for human review.

4.3 Proof of purchase

• To verify a score, the scorer must submit a single piece of proof: a receipt showing the date and time of purchase, and the named competition burger as a line item. Receipts that do not clearly show all three elements will not be accepted.

• Printed and digital receipts are accepted equally. Email receipts, SMS receipts and screenshots of receipts sent to a registered email address are all valid.

• Delivery orders: the order confirmation receipt issued by our preferred food delivery partner Delivereasy, or by another delivery provider, is the only accepted proof for a delivery order and can be used to verify a score as long as it shows the venue name, the date and time, and the named competition burger as a line item. A venue order docket sent out with the delivery is not accepted, either in place of the order confirmation receipt or in addition to it.

• Selfies, in-situ burger photos, order dockets, EFTPOS slips and bank transaction screenshots will not be accepted. Receipt photos are captured in the app so they are correctly sized on submission.

• Group purchases on a single receipt: where multiple competition burgers are bought in one transaction on a single receipt, up to the same number of unique scorer IDs may reference that receipt, one per competition burger purchased, to a maximum of six scorers per receipt. A receipt showing four competition burgers may be used by up to four different scorer IDs.

• Receipts are valid for submission at any point during the competition period, provided the purchase date shown falls within that period. Receipts may not be used to submit scores after the scoring window closes.

• Scores may be submitted at any point during the competition period, whether or not the venue is open at the time.

4.4 Leaderboards

• A single national leaderboard lists every competing burger. Scorers and venues can filter by overall ranking, by region or by burger category, and each entry is tagged with its region and category. A burger that has not yet reached the qualifying minimum is listed without a score, showing its progress toward the minimum instead.

• Only scores that pass audit appear. The leaderboard is updated in real time following audit and verification.

• Ranked positions are shown on rating, with the number of verified scores displayed alongside.

• The leaderboard is blurred from 9am on Saturday 3 April 2027 until winners are announced on Wednesday 14 April 2027. Scoring continues as normal while it is blurred, until scoring closes at 11:59pm on Sunday 4 April.

Public scores are audited using AI, supported by human review of any score the system is unable to clear automatically. Audits run continuously and are reviewed daily by the audit team where required. The same standards are applied across all participating venues, not only those at the top of the leaderboard. The audit is designed to catch:

• Duplicate scores. Multiple scores submitted against the same proof of purchase, beyond the quantity of competition burgers shown on that receipt.

• Invalid scores. Scores attached to a receipt that does not show a competition burger purchased at a participating venue.

• Repeat scoring. More than one score from the same registered scorer for the same competition burger.

• Anomalous score patterns. Entries whose distribution of scores is statistically implausible, including clusters of extreme high or low scores from recently created accounts, and concentrations of submissions from a single device.

Unusually high volumes of submissions for the same venue occurring consistently outside normal trading hours will be flagged for further review.

• The competition organisers reserve the right to disqualify any scores or venues suspected of fraudulent activity or score tampering. Any attempt to manipulate or alter the scoring process will result in immediate disqualification of the venue and/or participant.

• IP addresses and other digital verification tools may be used to prevent fraud or multiple scores from the same user.

• Where the audit removes scores from your entry, we notify you at the time. You may also request your full verified score data and audit rejection rate, showing which of your scores were verified and which were excluded.

• Requests may be made at any time up to 5pm on Friday 30 April 2027 and are answered within five business days. Requests received after that date are answered from the audit record; the receipt images behind it are deleted on 13 May 2027 and cannot be provided after that date. Audit outcomes for other venues will not be released.

• The organisers’ decision on the verification and exclusion of any score is final, subject to the appeals process in section 9.

6.1 Ranking method

Burgers are ranked on their rating, not on the total number of points accumulated.
A burger’s rating is its score out of 30 after trimming and confidence weighting. Every placing is decided on it. Additional scores at a burger’s existing standard do not improve its position. The method is fixed before scoring opens and will not be changed once it is open.

1. Trimming. Before averaging, the highest 10 percent and the lowest 10 percent of a burger’s verified scores are discarded and the average is calculated from the remainder.

2. Confidence weighting. Each burger’s trimmed average is weighted toward the competition-wide average in proportion to the evidence supporting it, using the formula below.

Rating = ( n × trimmed average + C × competition average ) / ( n + C )

n is the number of verified scores remaining after trimming, the competition average is the mean of all verified scores across every entry, and C is a fixed confidence constant set at 10. Averages built on few scores are pulled toward the middle until enough scores accumulate to support them. No burger is excluded for being small.

6.2 Qualifying minimum

A burger must receive at least 15 verified scores to be ranked or to be eligible for any award. Every entered burger appears on the leaderboard from the start. Until a burger reaches 15 verified scores no rating is shown for it. In its place the leaderboard shows how far it has to go, for example 3 of 15. Once it reaches 15 the burger is ranked and its rating is displayed. Every verified score counts toward the competition-wide average used in the ranking calculation, including scores given to burgers below the threshold. A score is never discarded because the burger it was given to has not yet qualified.

6.3 Close results and ties

Where two entries competing for the same place are within 0.01 points of each other, the following tie-break sequence applies in order. The comparison is made on the full-precision scores, not on the two-decimal figures shown on the leaderboard.

1. The higher average Taste sub-score.

2. The higher number of verified scores, as the better-evidenced result.

3. Where the sub-scores and score counts are also materially equal, a joint award is made.

6. Determining Results

Up to 30 titles are awarded, depending on how many entries in each region meet the qualifying minimum.

7.1 Regional awards

In each of the eight regions the three highest ratings are named: first place is Best Burger in the region and second and third place are runners-up. Regional placings are final once the audit of all scores in that region is complete and any complaints have been resolved.

The number of places awarded in a region depends on how many entries in that region meet the 15-score qualifying minimum:

• Six or more qualifying entries: all three places awarded.

• Four or five qualifying entries: a winner and one runner-up.

• Two or three qualifying entries: a winner only.

• Fewer than two qualifying entries: no regional title is awarded. Those entries remain eligible for the national category awards.

7.2 The Gold Burger and the Silver Burger

The Gold Burger goes to the regional winner with the highest rating. The Silver Burger goes to the second highest. Where the minimum-field rule leaves a region without a winner, the pool is the regional winners awarded rather than a fixed eight.

7.3 Category awards

The Most Popular Burger in each of Meat, Chicken, Seafood and Plant is named nationally. The category winner is the entry with the highest rating in its category across the full national field, and the same 15-score qualifying minimum applies.

7.4 Holding more than one title

A venue may hold a regional title and a national title at the same time. A burger does not need to place in its region to win its category. The Gold Burger and the Silver Burger are drawn from the regional winners, so neither can go to a venue that has not won its region.

7.5 Prizes

Each regional winner will receive:

• Title of Best Burger in your region

• Custom trophy valued at $500

• Vinyl window decals

• Unlimited bragging rights

• Automatic entry into Burger Nation 2028

Each of the four national category winners will receive:

• Title of Winner in your respective category

• Custom trophy valued at $500

• Professional photo shoot valued at $500

• Vinyl window decals

• Unlimited bragging rights

• Automatic entry into Burger Nation 2028

The Gold Burger winner will receive:

• The title of Gold Burger 2027, the Bestest of the Best Burgers

• 12 x 20kg McClure’s Pickle pails valued at $2,160

• The coveted Gold Burger trophy valued at $1,000

• Professional photo shoot valued at $500

• Voucher spend valued at $250

• Vinyl window decals

• Even more unlimited bragging rights

• Automatic entry into Burger Nation 2028

The Silver Burger winner will receive:

• The title of Silver Burger 2027

• 6 x 20kg McClure’s Pickle pails valued at $1,080

• The Silver Burger trophy valued at $500

• Vinyl window decals

• Automatic entry into Burger Nation 2028

Each regional runner-up will receive:

• Title of Runner-up in your region

• Vinyl window decals

• A relatively keyed-up feeling akin to satisfaction but with a tiny nagging question of what else we could have done

All winners and runners-up will be included in all associated winning announcements and associated public relations.

7. Awards

8.1 Promotions and incentives

Burger Nation is a marketing event as well as a competition and venues are encouraged to promote their participation.

• Acceptable: general promotions available to all customers, burger discounts, combo deals, spot prizes, and giveaways not linked to scoring behaviour.

• Not acceptable: rewards conditional on submitting a score, rewards conditional on showing proof of a score, and rewards conditional on giving a particular score.

Venues may encourage customers to score their competition burger. Venues must not offer any reward, discount, gift or prize draw that is conditional on a customer submitting a score. This applies whether the incentive is monetary, product-based or experiential. A breach may result in a sanction under the sanctions framework in section 10, up to and including disqualification.

8.2 Code of conduct

Venue staff may tell customers about the competition and invite them to score, but must not pressure, coerce or repeatedly solicit scoring from customers.

• Venues may promote participation, explain the scoring process, assist customers with the technology, and remind customers that scoring is available.

• Venues may not request a specific score, pressure customers who show no interest in participating, offer rewards conditional on scoring, or submit scores on behalf of customers on their device.

• Your staff, your owners, and their immediate family are not eligible to score your venue’s competition burgers. Immediate family means a partner, parent, child or sibling. Scores identified as coming from an ineligible scorer are removed, and a venue that encourages them may be sanctioned under section 10.

A written complaint that includes sufficient corroborating detail, such as approximate date, time and a description of the conduct, will open a formal investigation. Substantiated breaches may result in score removal, a formal warning or disqualification depending on severity.

8. Competition Rules

9.1 Conduct complaints

Any venue, scorer or member of the public may submit a complaint about a potential breach of competition rules, covering incentivised scoring, staff conduct or any other rule violation. Complaints must be submitted in writing to the competition organiser within seven days of the alleged breach, with enough detail to identify the venue, the approximate date and the nature of the concern. The organiser will acknowledge receipt within two business days, investigate, and notify all parties of the outcome within ten business days.

Complaints capable of affecting a result.
A complaint is capable of affecting a result if, were it upheld, it could change which entries are awarded a regional place, a category award, the Gold Burger or the Silver Burger. The organiser makes that assessment.

To be considered before titles are announced, such a complaint must be received by 5pm on Thursday 8 April 2027 and will be determined by Tuesday 13 April 2027.

A complaint received after that deadline is still investigated under the process above and may result in a sanction, but it does not delay the announcement and does not disturb a title already awarded. Where the organiser is satisfied that a breach is established and that the title would not have been awarded but for the breach, the organiser may withdraw the title. A withdrawn title is not reassigned.

9.2 Audit appeals

You may appeal an audit outcome that affects your position. An appeal must state the grounds for review: that the receipt met the stated requirements, that the scorer identity was validly registered, that the submission fell within the competition period, or that the scores were removed in error. Appeals about the ranking method itself, or about parameters published before the competition opened, will not be accepted.

Appeals against the final audit close at 5pm on Thursday 8 April 2027. This deadline is the same for every venue and does not depend on when you were notified or when you requested your audit outcomes. Appeals lodged by that deadline are acknowledged within one business day and determined by Tuesday 13 April 2027.

An audit outcome notified to you during the competition may be appealed within three business days of that notification and is determined within five business days. Where either period would run past 8 April 2027, the 8 April deadline applies instead.

9.3 Anonymous complaints

Complaints submitted anonymously will be considered at the organiser’s discretion. Anonymous complaints that include specific and verifiable detail may be investigated. Vague or unsubstantiated anonymous complaints may be set aside.

9. Complaints and Appeals

The following sanctions apply to venues found to have breached competition rules. Sanctions are applied by the competition organiser, whose decision is final subject to the complaints process. Where a breach involves a third party acting on behalf of a venue, for example a marketing agency running a score-incentive campaign, the venue remains responsible. The organiser reserves the right to escalate directly to a higher sanction level where the severity of the breach warrants it. Venues will not be penalised for isolated customer behaviour that is genuinely outside their control. In those cases the removal of the invalid scores is the appropriate response.

Where a sanction makes an entry ineligible for a title, or removes it from the competition, the next highest qualifying entry moves up. The number of places awarded in a region is determined after sanctions have been applied, and the Gold Burger and the Silver Burger are drawn from the regional winners standing at the time of the award.

10. Sanctions

Level

Published before scoring opens:

• The complete ranking method, including the trimming percentage, the confidence constant C and the qualifying minimum.

• The tie-break sequence.

• The audit rules and the grounds on which a score can be rejected.

• The competition rules, complaints process and sanctions framework.

None of these will be changed once scoring is open. If a defect in the method emerges mid-competition it will be disclosed rather than quietly corrected.

Published during and after the competition:

• Every ranked entry shows its number of verified scores alongside its rating.

• Weekly leaderboard snapshots are archived so movements can be traced.

• Final results are published for each ranked entry: its rating and its number of verified scores.

• Per-venue audit rejection rates are available to each venue on request.

11. Transparency

The following applies to your venue’s information and is a condition of entry.

• By entering, you agree that your venue name, address, region, burger names, descriptions and images, any beer match, and your competition results may be published by Burger Nation and shared with sponsors, potential sponsors, media and delivery partners for promotion of the competition and of your entry.

• You agree that the contact details you register with may be shared with sponsors and potential sponsors of Burger Nation so they can contact you about competition-related products, support and offers.

• You confirm you have the right to supply any images or content you upload and that we may use them in competition marketing.

• This section covers venue and entry information. It does not cover the personal information of members of the public who score burgers, which is dealt with in section 13.

12. Venue Information and Sponsor Sharing

Members of the public who score burgers register with Burger Nation, not with your venue. Their personal information is collected and held by Cook & Nelson and is governed by the public Burger Nation 2027 Terms & Conditions. In summary:

• Scorers register with their email address and mobile number, and submit receipt images as proof of purchase.

• That information is used to verify scores, run the audit and contact prize winners.

• Scorers can opt in to receive updates and special offers. The opt-in is separate from registering, is not required in order to score, and is available only to scorers aged 18 or over. Scoring itself is open to all ages.

• Sponsors do not receive scorers’ email addresses or mobile numbers. Burger Nation sends any sponsor offers itself.

• Receipt images are deleted on 13 May 2027, being 30 days after appeals are determined on 13 April 2027. Score data published after the competition is aggregated or de-identified and does not name individual scorers. Comments published under the scorer permission described below are the exception.

• Venues receive their own audit outcomes and score data. Venues do not receive scorers’ contact details.

• Scorers may leave a comment with a score. Scorers give Burger Nation permission to publish selected comments, and Burger Nation chooses which to use. A published comment carries the scorer’s first name and town or city only, for example Dave, Auckland. Scorers’ contact details are never published or released to venues.

13. Scorer Privacy

14. Disclaimer

• Cook & Nelson reserve the right to amend the Terms & Conditions at any time. Any changes will be communicated via the official competition website.

• The ranking method, the tie-break sequence, the audit rules and the parameters published before scoring opens are fixed for the 2027 competition and are not subject to amendment once scoring has opened.

Any questions can be directed to burgers@cookandnelson.com