Elevating the Brand Activation Experience
Booth designs and giveaways, contests and games, even scripted presentations have their place in a brand activation plan. When it comes to generating authentic engagement and creating a lasting impression with your guests, though, nothing really stacks up to an espresso bar. We can help you elevate your activation with service and hospitality that your guests will love, and help create the kind of full-service atmosphere that distinguishes your brand.
Coffee houses in 17th century London were already being called “penny universities” because for a penny one could buy a cup of coffee and join any of a dozen or more conversations on politics, science, and philosophy. Parisian cafés would host the likes of Voltaire and Rousseau as writers and politicians began to gather to discuss the future of Europe. Coffee, it seems, has always been a vehicle for interaction, and a catalyst for discussion and ideas. The baristas at Cupa Cabana know that an espresso bar fuels your modern connections in the same way.
We design our service models to be efficient and elegant. Congenial crowds are an expectation in many large activations. Lines can be a buzz kill if you’re not serving guests quickly with the right equipment and people. Our espresso bars are designed to handle high traffic in high style. Handcrafted beverages served with maximum speed, without sacrificing the craft and care of true espresso. Guests love having a professional barista make their drink for them with flair and finesse, while your activation stays free from the bottlenecks that can slow an event’s momentum.
Appearance matters, too, of course. We have a host of event enhancements that let you seamlessly incorporate your branding into the coffee service. Cappuccino with your logo in latte art, or espresso cup with custom design and messaging that pairs beautifully with your campaign. Bar wraps and counters that boldly and stylishly showcase your visual identity. There are many creative ways that a professional espresso bar can reinforce your message while elevating the simple act of getting a cup of coffee to a branding opportunity.
Hospitality, service, creative customization: an espresso bar can instantly take your activation to a higher level, and distinguish your booth or event. This isn’t just another attraction, it’s an experience that will define your activation and leave your guests with an impression that lingers long after the last drop.
Creating Memorable and Shareable Moments
The most important element in any brand activation is inspiring emotional reaction and engagement from guests in the experience you’re trying to create. Pens, tote bags and stress balls are all very nice but have a relatively narrow impact: sure, your guests can use them, but they’re not going to get excited. A well-pulled espresso or latte, though, is a moment of joy. That joy is far more likely to be remembered, shared and attributed to your brand.
Imagine a trade show attendee, we’ll call him John. John is milling around a loud, crowded convention hall. It’s been his third or fourth hour there and he’s been walking and talking a lot. Then he passes your booth. In an instant, he’s enveloped by the smell of fresh espresso, the sound of shots pulling and milk steaming. A few minutes later, he’s holding a cappuccino with your logo in foam art on top. In that moment, you’ve done something meaningful: you’ve made a memory that’s connected directly to your brand. It’s a moment of genuine delight that you’ve made happen through care, creativity and attention to detail.
Moments like these naturally extend to social media. Espresso bars are some of the most visually arresting brand activations out there. An attractive setup, combined with high-quality output, means people will naturally want to take photos of your bar: latte art, your logo on branded cups, stylish portafilters and everything in between. They want to show off your quality to their friends, and social media is an ideal platform to do so.
When they post those pictures of their drinks, their selfies with the bar, they’re giving your brand free and authentic promotion. The reach multiplies with every tagged image or story shared. It’s the opposite of “buy our followers” type of advertising: these are real people, genuinely interested in your brand.
You also have the cultural prestige of espresso on your side. As Italian writer Pellegrino Artusi put it in the 19th century, coffee is “the balm of the heart and spirit”. That idea of refinement and comfort has stuck. Serving espresso to your guests is a powerful way to demonstrate that your brand has an eye for quality, detail and sophistication. In an ocean of similar competitors, that differentiation is often what sticks with potential clients and customers.
There’s another crucial factor too: dwell time. Typical swag can be picked up on the fly and quickly forgotten. The espresso bar, by contrast, is something that makes people pause. Your guests will stay and enjoy their drink, which makes them far more receptive to a chat. Your team can speak with them, collect leads and build relationships, all while attendees are enjoying themselves. The connections made during that chat are often more valuable than any ad or slideshow.
Last but not least, there’s a strong hospitality component. Brand activations are exhausting, and giving your guests a space to rest and recharge creates goodwill. If visitors feel like they’ve been looked after, they’ll associate that feeling with your brand. It’s a simple psychological effect: people who are comforted and delighted naturally associate those feelings with their provider. That impression can be all it takes to make them come back in the future.
The Hospitality That Strengthens Brands
Storytelling: It’s in the DNA of any brand activation to share a story. At the most fundamental level, a brand activation wants to pull its visitors in to hear and see your message. Espresso bars do this by engaging and involving your visitors with every sense – sight, smell, taste, touch. These “luxury details” makes your competition look paltry by providing guests with memorable hospitality. (Hint: it’s hard to make a sensory experience out of a flyer, a banner, or a choreographed script.)
Training our team to be professional baristas and event ambassadors. Our trained crew works with speed, courtesy, and enthusiasm to serve as many people as possible. Your team’s interactions with each guest are an extension of your company’s professionalism.
Espresso service can match your needs, no matter the style or scale of your event. Whether you are launching a luxury product, or aiming for a more high-energy festival activation, an intimate VIP experience, or something in between, you’ll find an espresso bar to match. Sleek, compact, or a head-turning showstopper, each unit offers a wide range of design and branding options. It is a solution that can work with every type of brand, at every type of activation.
Engaging more than one sense at a time. The enticing aroma of espresso is a head-turner from a distance. The artful design of a latte will intrigue passersby, and the robust taste of a cappuccino on a cool morning is deeply satisfying. Few brands can lay claim to a multi-sensory experience as a defining part of their activations. Pens and tote bags end up in drawers, but a branded espresso experience will live in your guests’ memories long after the event is over, and help to shape their perceptions of your brand in the moment.
Espresso makes your brand activation a cycle of surprise, delight, and sharing. Surprise: Who expects to find a cafe-quality experience at a brand activation? Delight: “Wow! These are some good drinks!” Branded elements like custom cups and mugs make the delight that much better. Share: your guests will want to tell their colleagues and followers about the great experience they just had. Thus, espresso bars do your activation’s reach and ROI an invaluable favor by moving guests to share your brand.
A combination of so many great qualities that our customers rarely see a viable alternative. Efficiency, branding, hospitality, and creativity all rolled into one. An espresso bar marries connection and refinement, principles that have long surrounded the world of coffee, with the speed and social focus of today’s marketing needs.
For brands who know their competition is out there, an espresso bar is more than just a service; it is a solution. With Cupa Cabana, that solution is at your fingertips. We make your next activation not only a success, but a hit.