Tapster
Tapster Brand Launch
Branding & Identity
Web & App Development
Guerilla Marketing
Solution
The resultant brand identity, Tapster, affected a whimsical and witty voice which spoke to the motivations behind ordering in, visually and tonally akin to a lifestyle brand.
Insight
The alcohol delivery landscape was a crowded one—to stand out, this new brand would have to resonate with its audience beyond convenience, it would need a personality.
Challenge
Build it. Brand it. Market it. Launch it. Develop a product and campaign to take an early stage startup from concept to completion.
Tapster was my first full scale project with INPHANTRY where I was leading brand and app design. Cheeky start-up Tapster was an up-and-coming competitor to Drizzly for which I got the keys to drive a fresh brand. I gave it the works with the logo, the brand colors and identity, the full app, and materials for the marketing launch. I made posters, merch designs and animations for a guerilla street projection-mapping campaign. This project had me TAPPED-out but it does have in a special place in my portfolio.
My Role
Reception
The Fear of Going Out campaign teased Boston with the “monsters” we all encounter during a night out on the town while the Business of Pleasure campaign introduced Tapster’s services with an unexpected twist. Both campaigns featured a distinctive graphic style and playful animation - FOGO leveraged original artwork inspired by over-the-top 50’s era pulp cinema, and BoP utilized a bold, typographic approach. The eye-catching artwork and dry wit was used to canvas Boston with out-of-home placements, wild postings, targeted social, and even huge projection-mapped billboards, reinforcing Tapster’s call to “Stay in to Win”. Within the first week of launch, orders began flowing, fans engaged in social and momentum for the upstart brand continues to grow.
Development
The app was developed by INPHANTRY on a platform-neutral system enabling simultaneous iOS and Android launches. Additionally, we developed the back-end and admin systems that were needed for business operations, keeping the entire tech stack in-house to keep quality control foremost and the vision for the app on track.
Finally, an innovative marketing campaign was developed to position Tapster against the major industry players. After surveying the landscape, it was clear that alcohol delivery apps were navigating a sea of sameness. Messaging was based on speed and convenience with no real differentiators among the competition. To introduce the brand, INPHANTRY created a two-pronged campaign that launched Tapster with impact. Messaging keyed in on the emotional reasons behind ordering in, and played on themes that resonated with the target consumer at a pivotal moment in their lives.
Background
Having secured a license for keg delivery, the client sought to carve out a space in the crowded landscape of alcohol delivery apps. But first, they needed a brand that spoke to their key product differentiator while also appealing to a wider demographic that uses these services for a variety of reasons.
After a deep dive into consumer research, audience segmentation, competitive analysis, and creative ideation, the Tapster brand was born. A subtle nod to the time-honored profession of bartending, the brand evoked a voice and identity that was both whimsical and wise. The UX strategy reinforced the brand, resulting in an app that was user-friendly and delivered whatever the consumer was looking for - the epitome of a wise and trusted friend.
Tapster Brand Launch
A soup-to-nuts project building an alcohol delivery brand from the ground up crafting a brand identity, marketing campaign, and their full tech stack.