sponsoring coffee cups with my company's branding

[MrJuice]

My business partner came up with the idea of applying stickers with our company logo and website to coffee cups at independent coffee places. Sounds like a good idea to me if the shops agree.

Anyone ever done this? What sort of fee would be acceptable to pay the shop if they agreed?

[Simpo Two]

Can you company offer them anything in return, as opposed to just money?

[Chrishum]

Do you want to be the business held responsible for littering when the coffee cups are dumped in the street/park/local beauty spot?

[MrJuice]

good points, thanks

I guess there could be some cross collaborations on social media which might appeal to the shops. What else might appeal to the shops. Hmm

This coffee is bought predominantly by office people so I would hope that littering is minimal but I do take the point.

[ConnectionError]

Would it not be better to provide printed cups.

Would the coffee shops employees bother putting on a sticker advertising someone else’s business?

[MrJuice]

possibly but I find the independent places are quite particular in which cups they use which may or may not be amenable to printing at a sensible price.

I guess the stickers can be applied to a stack of cups during quiet periods of the day.

[Simpo Two]

MrJuice said:

I would hope that littering is minimal but I do take the point.

It's an interesting point, because your company would have nothing to with the littering, nor the coffee shop, but the person who bought the coffee. Yet you will get the blame...

So under your logo, if you put 'Please recycle', suddenly you'd look the golden eco-boy!

Strange old world.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Simpo Two said:

It's an interesting point, because your company would have nothing to with the littering, nor the coffee shop, but the person who bought the coffee. Yet you will get the blame...

So under your logo, if you put 'Please recycle', suddenly you'd look the golden eco-boy!

Strange old world.

The business giving out the cups still gets the ‘blame’ if they are found littered.

Regular litter patrols with documentary evidence mitigates to a certain extent.

[Monkeylegend]

You might lose potential customers who think your company is in the coffee supply business in some way, unless you actually are.

[MrJuice]

it's a different business entirely

bit like a recruitment consultancy advertising on the cup. good point about recycling! thank you

[StevieBee]

MrJuice said:

I guess there could be some cross collaborations on social media

You do need to think about some means of 'pulling in' be that social media likes / follows, web traffic or footfall into a store. Unless you have a golden offer that's in high demand, relying simply upon placing your logo and website on a cup will achieve nothing.

Personally, I'd spend your money on something else. A coffee cup is held so obscures most of what's printed on it. You don't really look at the cup when it's just stood there or when you're holding it. Other people are likely to get a better view of your brand but would have to be close enough to read it.

And the littering is a good point. McDonalds staff don't go out and tip rubbish everywhere yet it is they that are seen as the root cause of McDonalds litter.

[22s]

I've done this.

The business I was working at was launching in a new boujie area in London.

We paid for the cups to be printed with our logo and a 'funny' coffee related slogan with our intro offer and contact details on the other side.

We supplied the shop with 5k cups+lids per month (2k 8oz, 3k 12oz) for 2 months. We paid them £2.25k per month for using the cups.

As with all these things, it's hard to attribute and we were doing multiple marketing campaigns at the same time. My feeling is that it helped most with building partnerships with other local businesses and organisations which actually ended up being very successful.

Would probably do it again, but would neg them down on the price (it was *THE* coffee shop to be in and we had a lot of £ so was worth the punt at the time).

Benefits for the coffee shop were:

- Free cups
- Money
- Features on social media
- Demonstrate they support local businesses

PM me if you want to discuss more.

[22s]

Also, the stickers look ste (we tried). The cup is one of the only touchpoints the shop has with people outside of the shop so as you rightly pointed out the owners can be very particular. I have a good contact at the printer we used if you do end up going that route.

If they use single-walled cups with sleeves, you could just get sleeves printed which would be cheaper. Otherwise decent quality double walled cups is the way to go.

[MrJuice]

Thank you

Will be in touch in due course. Partner is just waiting to hear back from a couple of coffee shops he's contacted

Problem is that this is all self funded and whilst we are not skint, we are nearly skint. Times have changed though so I'm hoping the coffee shops will be open to minimal money their way.

Thanks for the tip on the printing Vs the stickers. What was the cost of printing cups inclusive of cups? My guess is around 10p each?

[Simpo Two]

MrJuice said:

Thank you

Will be in touch in due course. Partner is just waiting to hear back from a couple of coffee shops he's contacted

Problem is that this is all self funded and whilst we are not skint, we are nearly skint. Times have changed though so I'm hoping the coffee shops will be open to minimal money their way.

If the idea behind the whole wheeze is to generate business, could you not just spend the time and money calling prospects and getting leads/sales? Or is it B2C? Phone calls are very cheap!

[MrJuice]

Yes, the offering is to well heeled Joe Punter who happens to work in an office. B2C. There is an element of B2B as well and, as you say, we will be cold calling on that front.

[RC1807]

Why not provide branded reusable coffee cups - show some green credentials

[Simpo Two]

RC1807 said:

Why not provide branded reusable coffee cups - show some green credentials

Who washes them up?

[RC1807]

Simpo Two said:

Who washes them up?

The people who get the reusable cups.
Removes a LOT of recycling need.

[Simpo Two]

RC1807 said:

The people who get the reusable cups.
Removes a LOT of recycling need.

So the customers go to a coffee shop for a coffee, then have to take the empty dirty cup home with them? Or does the cafe set up a public cup-washing area? Not meaning to appear dim, just thinking it through.