The Beermat Blog

Yes, it is now possible to order your beermats online. UK based beermat manufacturer, Thirstys, has launched an online shopping cart which allows visitors to select the quantity they require, pay online using a credit or debit card and then upload artwork. The whole process takes around 3 minutes. Thirstys, then offer a 5 day turnaround from the point at which the artwork is approved and accepted.

For those that are unsure of whether or not their artwork is suitable for beermat printing, Thirstys have gone a step further and offer to edit artwork for a low fixed cost. So there is nothing to stop anyone from advertising their wares on a genuine pulp board beermat.

In addition, Thirstys also offer a fixed price design service, whereby they will design the beermats (front and back, for a nominal charge of just £40 plus VAT. These are all special offer prices, therefore no guarantees can be provided as to how long the offers will be available, but for the time being, it looks like a fantastic offer.

To coincide with the launch, Thirstys are offering to print 1000 beermats, in full colour, for just £95 plus VAT, or for smaller campaigns or events, they will print as few as 25 beermats.

Thirstys are a UK based beermat manufacturer

Tegestology is a Latin term defined as the practice of ‘collecting beermats or coasters’, with collectors known as tegestologists . Typically testologists will concentrate on historical or social changes within specific time frames, designs, topics, use and of course the engineering processes used in their production. Many of these collectors will have huge collections and many of them spend a great deal of time exchanging series mats, swapping information sources and there is also a brisk trade in the re-sale of specific beermats.

Testologists will also collect beermats with spelling errors, which are particularly sought after, as well as those printed in different languages and those used to ‘proof’ the print priot to going to press.

Ian Calvert published a book in 2006 titled A Guide to Collecting Beermats and this is an excellent resource for experienced testologists or those that want to join the club as a serious collector. There are also a number of websites devoted to testologists, these would include the British Beermat Collectors Society, as well as the International Collectors Association, based in Germany. There are also, amongst others, two based in Australia, these are the ’South Australian Coaster Collectors Club’ and the ’New South Wales Coaster Collectors Club’.

Some beermat manufacturers have sections within their websites specifically aimed at beermat collectors, some include links to the testologists own websites and many beermat manufacturers will happily provide samples to collectors.

Thanks to fellow blogger ‘All About Beermats‘ for permission to reproduce this article

Well beermats have been around for over 100 years, so they have a history most advertising media could only dream of and better still, they are functional. Genuine beermats are made from pulp board, therefore are 100% recyclable. Obviously the first companies to see the benefits of advertising on a beermat were the breweries and they continue to advertise their products on beermats to this day, in fact, they are the single highest consumer of beermats.

However, a more innovative approach to the manufacturing process means that virtually anyone can now use beermats to advertise their business, products or services. The new printing practices mean that beermats can be ordered in much smaller volumes and at a fraction of the price normally associated with short-run print orders. There are some excellent and well established beermat manufacturers based in the UK.

There are now some companies that are marketing pre-printed beermats with generic messages, perhaps ‘happy birthday’, meery christmas, or business and sales messages, such as the ‘customer is king’ or advice on how to pick up a heavy load from the floor etc. The uses are literally endless.

One regional police force in the UK even printed the picture of a man wanted for murder on a beermat. In fact the police appear to be regular users of beermats for campaign messages or information.

Another ‘innovation’, this time brought about by the purchasers of beermats is co-operative advertising, whereby one company will print their information on one side of the beermats and another company will print theirs on the reverse. Immediately the cost of the beermats has halved for both companies. Once again, there are few advertising mediums that can offer this level of flexibility. Added to which, genuine pulp-board beermats are fully functional and, depending on the design, as at home on the table in an expensive restaurant, as they are on the bar of your local.

So, there is plenty to write about beermats, you wait and see!