The Ultimate Guide to Promotional Drinkware

Are you looking to make your party a bit more unique or perhaps want to dazzle every guest that walks into your restaurant? You’re in luck! Investing in branded merchandise — specifically custom drinkware — is a fantastic way of boosting brand awareness and ensuring you’re always on your audience’s mind!

From champagne flutes and pint glasses to Mason jars and coffee mugs, drinkware is an extensive part of the promotional products industry. This guide should shed some light on all the options you have and how to design your drinkware to generate numerous impressions every day!

 

Is Custom Drinkware Worth the Hype?

You may have never thought of custom drinkware as an important part of your business. Unfortunately, you’ve likely been missing out on a ton of advertising that has turned coffee companies like Starbucks into household names.

Usually, when you order a coffee at Starbucks, you get a disposable cup with the company’s logo and a cute design that fits the season you’re in. True fans, however, eagerly await the company’s latest tumblers, cups, mugs and water bottles to come out every year. In fact, they’re willing to pay for them so that they can avoid using disposable ones and show off their love for Starbucks.

You can go for a similar approach by introducing custom drinkware at your restaurant, bar, brewery, coffee shop and even food truck. In fact, you can even sell your branded cups, glasses, mugs and tumblers at your gift shop, allowing customers to take a piece of your beloved business home!

 

Where Does Custom Drinkware Come in Handy?

Any establishment that serves drinks of any kind would certainly benefit from having a uniform range of custom drinkware. An exception to that rule would be institutions like schools, which can offer various drinkware as promotional merchandise for students eager to show off their school pride.

Curiously enough, even certain personal or corporate events can be made a bit more special with glasses, cups, or mugs. Some ideas that first come to mind include parties, festivals, and other special events.

Parties, Weddings, and Family Gatherings

Impress your guests or even your family members by making sure all the cups and glasses match at your next award ceremony, fundraiser, or just your birthday party. Cups and glasses are ideal for serving drinks during dinner. Meanwhile, you can lay out mugs when the time comes for the guests to treat themselves to some delicious desserts.

Of course, you don’t always have to use custom drinkware at the event. If you’re looking to send your guests off with gifts, add some gorgeous mugs or glasses to your goodie bags to truly boost their overall value.

Another option is to personalise your drinkware with all the guests’ names. Consider doing this for your next family reunion to help everyone feel included in the celebrations.

Custom drinkware can also serve as a wedding favour that reminds your guests of all the fun they had. Remember to make the items unique to the occasion, though. Add a personalised message, your monogram, or the date and the newlyweds’ names to commemorate the nuptials!

Music Festivals and Concerts

Are you looking to offer some merchandise at festivals or concerts? Impressing the audiences there certainly pays off, whether you have a concession stand or are promoting a band.

Provided the products are interesting and well-made, they should be able to attract a huge crowd. Afterwards, they may keep earning you greater brand exposure for as long as they stay in use!

Personalised T-shirts, custom hats, branded hoodies, and printed bags are just some of the most popular options here. You can also go for custom insulated water bottles or engraved glasses (such as a pint glass for beer!) if you are eager to offer some gorgeous drinkware.

Holiday Giveaways

Finally, don’t forget that custom drinkware can also make your holiday giveaways more exciting. Whether you want to hand out mugs to your staff or printed water bottles to your favourite clients, hardly anyone would refuse such a thoughtful gift! From nice Christmas mugs to unique Halloween-themed glasses, your options are endless.

 

How to Customise Your Drinkware

Pick the Right Type and Quantity

With so many options to choose from, every business should be able to find the perfect custom drinkware to dazzle their clients, customers, and staff. Here are just some of the most popular choices that could bring you more brand awareness with each sip:

The quantity depends on the size of the event and the overall appeal of your custom drinkware. In general, if the event is small, you may want to look into low minimum options to ensure you don’t have too many leftover promos.

A great thing about custom drinkware is that it can also be quite affordable. Though premium options would certainly impress everyone, you can also find gorgeous cups that cost less than a pound each!

Match the Design to the Recipients’ Needs

Before ordering your drinkware, you obviously have to take into account how you’ll use it. Better yet, it’s a good idea to add different features that would make the products a bit more tempting.

First, you should think about the types of beverages you want to serve in your drinkware. Not all drinkware is ideal for serving both hot and cold drinks. What’s more, certain beverages require specific cups or glasses (e.g., champagne flutes, shot glasses, and similar).

You should also look into investing in BPA-free drinkware only. Your giveaway will be that much more valuable if the recipients know that there’s no risk of ingesting dangerous chemicals that may leach into their drinks.

Finally, consider the washing-up as well. Some cups and glasses are only meant to be hand-washed as that helps the design last longer. Still, there are a lot of dishwasher-safe options that may be more convenient for your target audience.

Handles, Lids, and Straws

Adding a lid or a printed straw to your drinkware may make it more impressive since it ensures even the clumsiest among us can safely use it. Some examples of promotional drinkware that should come with straws and lids include:

  • Enamel mugs. As they look classy and can keep your drink cool for longer, Mason jars are a big hit at picnics, barbeques, and other outdoor events. You can get them with straws for a complete package.
  • Stadium cups. You can offer plastic stadium cups with straws and lids to your youngest restaurant customers. They will inevitably continue promoting your business if they decide to take the cups home and reuse them later.
  • Metal travel mugs. This drinkware doesn’t usually come with both a lid and a straw, but it’s still ideal for having a drink wherever you go. Some tumblers may also include fruit infusers. That would make them seem more valuable since they allow users to flavour their drinks, too.
  • Glass water bottles. Some water bottles come with no-spill lids, perfect with a straw. That makes them ideal for having a drink on the go, especially when doing sports or exercising at the gym.
  • Sippy cups. Since toddlers often throw or drop their cups, sippy cups are designed with risk-free drinking in mind. Even if the little ones tip them over, there shouldn’t be any spillage to worry about.

Handles are another important feature that could boost the appeal of your drinkware. They’d make your cups much more convenient to carry. Better yet, there’s less risk of spillage since holding the cup by its handle prevents you from shaking the drink too much.

Cool Drinkware Designs Your Audience Would Love

If you want to go the extra mile with your drinkware campaign, you can also opt for some rather impressive (and even a bit quirky) designs. The following would both entice your audience and leave a lasting positive impression:

  • Gold champagne flute, which are of high quality and good for both indoor and outdoor events.
  • Jazzy travel mugs, which can make drinking tea or coffee in the morning a bit more fun since they come in bold, eye-catching shades.
  • Rocket glasses, which are ideal as party favours and can be used for drink samples, wine tastings and even shots.
  • Heat-changing mugs, which magically change colour when you pour your favourite warm drink into them.
  • Bone China mugs, which rely on the tie-dye trend that has recently made a huge comeback.
  • Glass mugs, which bring a homey yet classy feel to any table setting and can even be sold as souvenirs or given away for promotional purposes.
  • Porcelain mugs, whose trendy design should quickly impress your clients and customers.

Related content:
Help Your Business Flourish with Printed Travel Mugs

Choose the Ideal Printing Method

Finally, it’s time to decide how you will decorate your custom drinkware. In general, screen printing, dye sublimation, and engraving are among the most popular options.

 

Screen Printing

Using liquid ink to decorate your custom drinkware will ensure that the products look incredibly professional. As long as you remind everyone that they should hand-wash your merchandise, the design should also last for quite a long time.

The price often includes just one ink colour, so if you want more, dye sublimation may be a better choice. Screen printing can be used to decorate various types of cups, including:

  • Glassware
  • Bottles
  • Metal or plastic drinkware
  • Coffee mugs
  • Beer growlers

 

Dye Sublimation

Dye sublimation (or digital/full-colour printing) uses a variety of inks to ensure your logo and artwork are as colourful as you want them to be. Due to the number of inks used, this method is a bit more expensive but definitely worth it if you want your custom artwork to pop. Drinkware suitable for this kind of printing includes:

  • Glassware
  • Beer growlers
  • Metal or plastic drinkware
  • Coffee mugs
  • Bottles

 

Engraving

Finally, you can always go for engraving, which would make your drinkware look incredibly sophisticated and professional. Since this method entails etching the design on cups or glasses, it ensures your logo, tagline and company details remain on your drinkware practically forever.

Colour-wise, you cannot expect much from engraving. If the factory uses oxidation while etching the design, though, your artwork may have a bit of colour to it in the end.

However, a great advantage of engraving is that it is ideal for decorating popular metal or glass drinkware. If you have your heart set on promotional flasks, Mason jars, wine or champagne glasses, and travel mugs, this is the printing method to go for!

You may also like: 
Get Your Promotional Party Started with Branded Bottle Openers

Looking for something different? Browse our full range of customised drinkware and if for any reason you still can’t find what you are looking for, then simply give us a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today. You may also wish to consider complementing your order of logo drinkware with some personalised coasters, printed ice buckets, or branded serving trays which are sure to be well received by customers and employees alike!