Calgary-based Sip Social Co. keeps rolling out its unique Piaggio Ape truck across North America as the mobile rental bar concept gains popularity for a wide variety of events like weddings and birthday parties.
“Our mobile bars are magnets at events and always draw a crowd, making them natural party-starters,” said Kendall Pupp, Director of Business Operations and Development. “At Sip, we’ve taken the beer and champagne cart model and scaled it up, creating a new opportunity for clients to market their products and services with consistency and style.”
The concept has rolled out to close to 90 Piaggio mobile bars, with locations stretching from Vancouver to Miami. Traditionally rented out at weddings and backyard parties, the roaming bar format is now catching the attention of big brands and marketing firms looking to turn heads.
“In 2017 was when the whole bar cart and doing events happened. The licensing program where we’ve got multiple locations and we’re putting trucks into all the different markets, that was more like 2022,” said Pupp.
“We’re in more than 60 different markets in Canada and the U.S. (with the three-wheeled Piaggio Ape trucks) and growing.”
All Sip trucks are standardized and are identical in model, color, and size, then equipped with the same beverage chillers, number of taps and connections. To personalize every experience, Sip can offer countless beverage options on tap, create custom signage and décor, and even offer the opportunity to activate the trucks with full wraps. In addition, brands have the option to remove the chillers altogether and make room for retail product displays.
International brands, online retailers, and marketing and public relations firms are now working with Sip to take their brands to the streets.
“By nature, people who operate a mobile bar business are outgoing and fun, but we take it a step further by carefully selecting and training licensees who bring professionalism, enthusiasm and a natural ability to represent clients at any event,” added Pupp.
“We know that wherever we put the truck, park the truck or operate the truck. It’s a magnet. People just come. People just come and they want to know what this is, why is this so cool . . . We can get them inside buildings, we can do outdoor events, because of the size of the truck. It’s small, it’s cute.”
Sip collaborations have included major alcohol corporations like Diageo, Anheuser-Busch, and Adam Levine’s Calirosa Tequila, along with coffee, sports, and fitness companies (to name a few). To view the full list of Sip locations, visit here.
“The truck is a rental. It is an event rental business. We rent our trucks out for events, promotional things, weddings here and all of our licensees across all of these markets and the U.S. we sell them trucks as a licensed unit and they rent them out with our assistance for events. We do the marketing,” said Pupp.
The trucks are Italian designed and manufactured in India. Sip Social manufacture and turn them into the the mobile bar carts both in Calgary as well as a facility in New Jersey.
“We design and build the bar unit – the seven draught tap systems that we use to serve everything from cocktails to mocktails to beer, wine, cider, prosecco. And you can serve through a keg which is everything that you can put in a keg,” added Pupp.
He said the trucks are popular because of their look and feel.
“People just think they have a certain style. Everything from ‘oh my God that’s cute’. We can really make something. People like to decorate up around them. We make them look nice. Flowers. Balloons. Whatever the event calls for,” said Pupp.
“One of the key things is you can brand the truck. We’ll let you put signage on it. We’ll let you put your logos on the truck either vinyl wrap or magnet stickers. So for a brand execution, for an activation, for a marketing plan, it just looks so cool and funky and it’s so much better than walking up to a portable bar or a table with a cloth draped over it and somebody trying to pour you a sample or pour you a beverage at your event. Our staff will be there. It’s very fast. We’re fast, we’re clean, we’re organized. From an operations and customer service perspective we’re way better pouring everything off of the taps than waiting for somebody to mix a drink.”
