28 June, 2022

Branded Shot Glasses - A Sure Fire Way To Promote Your Brand

Branded shot glasses are a great way for a nightclub or bar to promote itself. They are cheap to purchase but pack a punch when it comes to promoting a brand. Adding custom glassware instead of plain also enhances the look of the establishment. It gives it more authenticity and in turn, this also means better margins when charging for drinks. You can enhance this with shot glasses and use them to promote your establishment. There are numerous ways to do this, so we thought we'd first run through some of the dos and don'ts in regards to purchasing custom shot glasses and then we'll give you some ideas of how to promote them, while in turn promoting your business.

1. Branding

This is the most important step. Get your branding wrong and all the promotional value is lost. Firstly, we need to look at the types of branding available and what the pros and cons are of each style. Let's start with pad printing. This is the cheapest style of branding and it is good if you want to use a coloured logo or text. The downside is most pad printing is not dishwasher safe, because it is only cured in a low fire oven. So while they may look impressive to start with, if they are put in a dishwasher, the print will wear off with time.

The next option is a decal. This is also printed in colour and is a better option because it is dishwasher safe. They are applied by hand to the glass and then cured in a high fire oven, which is what makes them safe if put in a dishwasher. The downside to decals is the cost. They are quite expensive because they are done by hand.

The last and best option is etching. This removes a tiny layer of the outer glass and gives it a frosted effect. It means the branding is permanent. Nothing will remove it for the life of the glass and it is cheaper than doing a decal, so for those reasons we recommend this over other types of branding

2. Size

Most shot glasses are between 30ml to 60ml in size, though you then have double shots that can be over 100ml. The best option to get the most out of your beverage sales is to offer several different sizes. You could have a small 30ml for the budget-conscious, offer a 60ml at a premium for those that are keen to down more alcohol and for the serious contenders you could have a 100ml+ size shot glass. Some of this comes down to the type of establishment you run and who your clientele is. If it is a more upmarket bar, you would want to go with lower volume glasses for the quality beverages you offer. If you are a University bar and there is some serious drinking going on, you may want to offer some of the bigger options.

3. Style

This can get a little overwhelming as there are so many styles of shot glasses to choose from. You have straight-sided, curved, square, mini beer, mini martini and types like UV reactive, glowing and even flashing shot glasses. The shape you pick will also determine the branding. Straight-sided glasses will give you the largest branding area. As soon as you have a curved surface it restricts the size of the branding. This is where you need to look at whether the style you pick is worth it. If you want something classy such as just a small etching of a few letters or a small logo, then a more stylish shot glass would work, however, if your logo is larger or you require more branding space, we would highly recommend you look at getting a straight-sided shot glass.

4. Promoting Your Shot Glasses

Now that you have sorted the rest out, this is the most important part. There are plenty of ways you can now promote your custom shot glasses to your patrons.

- Co-brand with a particular type of liquor and do special promotions. If people buy "X" amount of shots they get a free shot glass. The glass can have your branding on one side and the liquor branding on the other. Promote this on quieter nights to get more people through the door.

- Use them as prizes for competitions you might hold. Perhaps you run trivia nights? You could offer a gift set of the glasses as one of the prizes. Maybe you hold darts or pool comps. Besides a cash offer, you could offer 4 or 6 sets of shot glasses as part of the prize.

- Suggest to people who have one of your shot glasses to take a photo with it and post it on social media. If they come into the bar and show the picture they get a free shot of liquor. It's a great way to promote your business on social media, plus it gets the client returning to your establishment and you know they won't stop at one drink, so it allows you to still make money off them by the end of the night.

- Offer them for sale for a "Limited Time". You could even run a series of them. Perhaps have a funny quote or something that makes it unique and every six months do another type. People love collecting things and if promoted properly they could become collector items.

Shot glasses really do offer great value for money with lots of ways to use them to benefit your bar or club. Why not try some for your next promotion or just upgrade your glassware. If you are unsure what would work for you, we've got over 20 years of experience in this business and would be happy to help. Just email us or give us a call.

The Glassware Only Team