Coffee Cup Advertising – The New Age of Marketing
I recently stumbled upon a new form of creative advertising while enjoying a cup of coffee out of a local café. Oddly enough the advertisement didn’t come from the local art magazine that I usually read while drinking my first cup of coffee in the morning…it came from the cup itself. That’s right…there was an advertisement on the cup of coffee I was drinking.
At first I was surprised, but then I realized how effective this type of marketing must be. I sit every morning drinking my cup of coffee for at least an hour, and talk to my friends that happen to walk by while I’m drinking it. Building a brand has never been easier for the company on the cup because I can’t help but look at it while I’m drinking my coffee, and several of my friends made comments with regard to the advertisement. The ad was for a socially conscious non-profit firm…my friend ended up taking my empty cup of coffee with him to redeem the coupon on the cup. It seems that this innovative advertising hit its target market.
I was curious when I got home so I typed in “Coffee Cup Advertising” on YouTube and found several videos from coffee cup advertising firms in Australia, and The Middle East. It seems that this local advertising is not being done exclusively in the United States, but this gorilla marketing is proving to be very successful in other parts of the world.
The next day I asked the manager of my local coffee shop what they were getting from the local advertising firm for distributing their cups. She replied, “that the cups were for free”. Free coffee cups sounds like a good deal. I think I would do the same thing for free cups if I owned a café.
When considering the brand exposure, the comfortable atmosphere, the targeted market, how it works in other countries, and the benefits to café’s for distributing the cups….it is no wonder that this type of marketing is taking off in the United States. I think that cup advertising is going to quickly become the new cool way to market to socially conscious consumers.