What do you do when your venue has 60,000 cupholders that are old and faded with peeling stickers that do little to enhance the fan experience? Branded Seats® knows what to do and just launched a new product that solves all of these issues along with bringing life back to a lack luster seating environment.
When Heinz Field contacted Branded Seats®, we only had to see one picture of their existing cupholders to realize that there was a serious problem. Over the past 15 years at Heinz Field, fans have had challenges with cupholders that were too small, angled down- ward and had an open front that would allow beverages to spill. In addition, the cupholders were faded and had ugly stickers peeling off from power washing and weather exposure over the years.
Heinz Field knew what they were looking for and gave our team a call. It had to be a different style of cupholder and solve specific issues in order to make their project a success. The new cupholders had to be molded in their custom yellow color, include updateable advertising, designed with a larger diameter to fit the popular souvenir cups and mount parallel with the ground so that your favorite beverage would not spill.
When Branded Seats® first discussed this project with Heinz Field there was some serious excitement that our latest innovation was in the final design / R&D phase and would be a great fit for their venue. Our product development over the past few years had evolved to not only provide an updateable advertising insert and 3D emblem on a stand alone cupholder, but a bracket system that would provide adjustable tilt that results in the cupholder being installed parallel with the ground and therefore holding beverages more vertical.
Heinz Field had an even bigger request, could we make the inside of the cupholder larger to accommodate the latest over-size souvenir cups? Well, fortunately we have in-house design and engineering capabilities and it was time to get busy considering the tight time frame of this project. After all, when you spend $18 for a drink and branded souvenir cup, you would like it to fit in the cupholder at your seat, right?
After a few design revisions, engineering analysis and rapid prototyping, the Branded Seats® “Big Daddy” stand alone cupholder came to life. Now it was time for production to begin.
Branded Seats® products are proudly designed and manufactured in the USA. In fact, all manufacturing and preassembly was com- pleted in Southern California. It took over 1,100 Hours to produce 60,000 pieces of the finished product. This included 53,000 lbs of raw material and UV color inhibitor. Loaded into over 860 boxes and a total of 6 Semis to transport the order to its final destination of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA.
Before installation started, all of the old cupholders had to be removed. Considering that the old cupholders were on for over 17 years, this was a huge task. As cupholders were removed a new adjustable bracket was installed. Then the new cupholder snapped into place which was already loaded with the Heinz Field 3D emblem and the PRIDE snapgraphic advertising insert. According to Shad Bruce, Branded Seats® President, “Once the installation was underway, it went pretty smooth. It was incredible to see the before and after transformation.”
Heinz Field used the PRIDE in Yourself, PRIDE in the GAME campaign on their cupholders throughout the stadium. This is an important message and the new Branded Seats® cupholders are the closest advertising space to the fans. Anytime during the season, this messaging can be interchanged or updated easily with- out the use of ugly stickers.
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