Cups of Care: Creating Social Impact Through Bev-Top Media

More than 85% of consumers will prefer to buy a product from a company that supports social and environmental issues and will stay loyal to such a brand. For brands looking to make the most out of bev-top media, it’s important to consider social good goals in addition to branding and marketing results that may include brand awareness, lead generation, and engagement.

Printing messages that directly reach customers and cannot be ignored is extremely powerful.
The foam-based drinks that Ripples currently prints on, which include coffee, beer, and cocktails, are consumed at crucial moments throughout the day to generate better results.
Here’s how to use bev-top media to promote your brand’s values and help make the world a better and tastier place.

Raise your glass and people’s awareness

Marketing is a form of communication, and communicating your social impact messages to consumers goes a long way. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 40% of customers wanted to hear from brands and were interested in the messages they had to share around the outbreak. After the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the United States, companies honored her memory by offering prints dedicated to the feminist leader.
Another impactful use case we’ve seen has been our cafe customers printing messages to encourage people to vote during election season.

Use bev-top media to send your audience an empowering message that goes with your brand values. Let them know what you stand for and customize the content based on the specific selling point you’re addressing. Research shows that ads can influence people’s moods, and gives you the opportunity to create a positive impact. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Beach hotel in Israel raised awareness of the local hospitality industry’s condition by printing “don’t shut us down!” on coffee.

Bev-top media creates the perfect Instagram moment that leads consumers to spread the word via their social media channels. For many social media users, this is a creative and subtle way of getting involved without coming across as “preachy” and antagonizing their followers. Social media shares will help both your cause and your brand since customers trust each other more than they trust brands.

Harness the sociable nature of certain drinks to generate conversation. Think of a group of friends enjoying a beer at the pub while discussing the messages printed on their beer. Bev-top media can grab people’s attention enough to change the course of a conversation, which is incredibly effective when social causes are involved. 

Drink and drive to action

The next step after raising awareness is encouraging customers to take action. Once again, the drinks we consume create golden opportunities to let customers know of a particular issue and invite them to do something about it. For example, our morning coffee accompanies the creation of today’s to-do list. The daily agenda may include scheduling a check-up appointment that our coffee cup happened to remind us of at precisely the right moment. October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we were excited to see brands like Café Georgetown and the Parisian coffee shop chain Season launch bev-top campaigns to raise awareness for the cause. Each cafe offered specialty drinks, topped off with Ripples, that included a $1 or 1€ donation to a cancer charity.

Environmental causes are perfect for bev-top action-generating campaigns. Companies can remind customers to recycle their to-go cup once they’re finished drinking.   

Give customers a voice

Bev-top media campaigns cater to customers’ need for self-expression. The Ripples Web App lets them personalize their drinks with their own photos and designs, allowing customers to make any statement they like. Messages chosen personally by customers come across as more authentic, and research shows that visual User Generated Content is more influential. 

Great things happen when we get creative and follow our values. Today’s brands need fewer marketing tools and more communication channels to form a meaningful conversation with customers. They should allow customers to get to know the brand’s belief system and build a strong, loyal relationship. If your brand considers itself a social leader, it’s your responsibility to use every trick in the branding book. Contact our sales team to learn how you can make a difference with every cup.