The entire point of any graphics display is to attract attention and ultimately sell the products being promoted, which is especially true in the beer market at the point of sale. As always, Tennyson Lacasio of Colonial Wholesale Beverage Corp. in North Dartmouth, Mass., went above and beyond to do just that.

This time around, Guinness wanted to make a splash with its new Black Lager at Colonial’s largest account, Yankee Spirits, and Lacasio decided to create a display that was both a figurative and literal splash.

With a little Yankee ingenuity and water-resistant materials from LexJet, Lacasio built a promotional case display that features Black Lager (actually water dyed with calligraphy ink) pouring from a vat tap into a seven-foot tall Black Lager bottle.

Lacasio created the eight-foot tall backing graphic, a brewery vat, printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and applied to Coroplast, then attached a pipe system he picked up from Lowe’s to pour down into the bottle.

The bottle was an old promotional Miller High Life promo piece that Lacasio spray painted then applied LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl w/PSA for the neck label and LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA for the main label.

“For the main label I applied the TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl to a large case card and then bent the case card to the outside shape of the bottle,” explains Lacasio. “It would have been difficult to get the vinyl to adhere without creating creases toward the bottom of the bottle so the case card was a great solution. I then attached the graphic with black Gorilla tape to the edge of the label onto the bottle.”

The circulation system uses a sump pump at the bottom of the bottle, which feeds to a plastic line up to where the pipe comes out of the main vat display and back into the bottle. Lacasio says getting the pipe to align with the bottle properly was a bit of trial and error, but once set it worked like a charm.

“When we were trying to aim the water into the bottle I got soaked a couple of times, but it didn’t harm the graphics at all. We just wiped them down with paper towels and there was no problem with the ink running or smudging,” says Lacasio. “I was very impressed with the way in which the AquaVinyl handled the water getting sprayed on the graphics; it was just another example of LexJet products coming through for us.”

Lacasio also produced information Guinness signs on either side (food pairing information, for instance) and a 3’ x 8’ hanging banner heralding the new Guinness beer for St. Patrick’s Day. The informational signs and the banner were printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and applied to Coroplast.

“I had about two days to complete it after we met with the Guinness rep. There was some question as to whether or not it could be done, so it was quite fulfilling to install it as it was designed. Plus, the display is extremely shoppable. In other words, you can grab beer from the display without worrying about it falling down or coming apart. People were picking up cases as we were finishing the display, and that’s what you want,” says Lacasio. “When you walk into the store there’s a wall of Guinness to your left, and the big display is right there as soon as you walk into the store. You can hear the water circulating, so the sound of it further grabs your attention.”

To get a sense of the experience of walking into Yankee Spirits, seeing the display and how it works, check out the YouTube video embedded below…