Anniversaire Café – Tokyo, Japan

Serving 600 cups a day!

Anniversaire Café, found in the Omotesando neighborhood in Central Tokyo, has used and loved the Ripples Platform since November 2020. The café collaborates with high-end brands (showcasing their partnership with unique Ripples prints) to increase sales and to get more customers, especially from among the younger generation. We interviewed café manager Seiki Kurusu to get all of the details.

“Priceless” service achieved with Ripples

Thank you for using Ripples! Could you tell us how you found out about Ripples and how you use it in your café? Kurusu: We had a pop-up partnership with FENDI, “Fendi Café by Anniversaire” from November 2020 until Valentine’s Day in 2021. It was our first collaboration of this kind, and I found it to be unique and motivating – for our customers and for our staff. The lattes with Ripples prints were incredibly popular. People spread the word on social media, and their friends came and started specifically requesting drinks with a Ripples print. The event was so successful that we decided we had to have the Ripples platform as a permanent part of our setup at Anniversaire Café. What possibilities do you see with the Ripples Platform at Anniversaire Café? Kurusu: First of all, I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface in how we’re presenting Ripples to our customers. Printing the logos and designs of our brand partners have gotten us a lot of attention but with Ripples there are possibilities to do so much more. I think one of the best things about Ripples is that you can use it to share the vibe or personality of the café – it’s especially effective if the shop has its own mascots. Additionally, though we don’t usually have it on the public-facing menu, we like to offer a Ripples birthday latte where we take a picture of the customer on their birthday with the Ripples Web App and surprise them with a selfie latte. I want the customer who made the reservation to think “I’m glad I chose this café” as well as, of course, the birthday person. It’s very attractive that such “priceless” services can be realized with Ripples so easily.

The value and impact of “Instagrammable” content

Kurusu: In today’s social media-first world, “instagrammable” photos have a really big effect. Taking and sharing a picture on social media gives us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to countless new people, who come to have the same experience. And it’s not just young people. New customers of all ages are coming to the café because they saw a Ripples print online. Times have changed. Our industry was particularly affected by the Corona disaster. It is no exaggeration to say that the customers who chose our shop were pleased with the added service and experience we were able to offer thanks to Ripples.

Marrying appearance and taste

Ripples transforms a beverage “canvas” into a beautiful message or image, but we know cafés like yours pride themselves on having the best tasting drinks. Do you have any trouble balancing between these two? Kurusu: Ripples is an integrated part of our menu, so I don’t see taste and appearance as separate or competing goals. We are confident in our drinks and how they taste, and we hope to offer even higher quality products in the future. I would like to continue to make foam-topped drinks topped with Ripples a regular part of our menu. When our Ripples team here in Japan works at public events, a lot of our guests are elderly, so they especially request pictures of pets and grandkids. Since Anniversaire Café is pet-friendly (and grandkid friendly) I can see this Ripples feature being incredibly popular at your café. Am I right? Kurusu: You’re right. We’re having lots of success with our pet and kid pictures on drinks. But again, we’re only at the beginning of what I want to do with Ripples. I would like to start offering afternoon tea, and at that point I think I can raise the price of our Ripples lattes as a premium service. We’ll also start offering take out. In any case, we see Ripples as a partner for the future. You feel like part of our family! Thank you to Mr. Kurusu and his team for welcoming us into their café. We look forward to our future collaborations!