Case Study · April 2026
SIP LAB: Launching a Craft Drink Brand in Greensboro, NC
A full custom site, mobile app integration, and cross-brand loyalty ecosystem, shipped ahead of the April 2026 soft launch at 1603 Battleground Ave.
<Project Overview>
SIP LAB is a customizable craft drink experience in Greensboro, NC, coffee, matcha, smoothies, energy drinks, refreshers, and freshly pressed croffles, all in a 1,500 sq ft space at 1603 Battleground Ave, the former home of a Starbucks location. It is owned by Johnny Dinero, the same entrepreneur behind ICECREAM FACTORY, one of the Triad's most recognizable local food brands.
When the project came to Koford Media, there was no store yet. No staff. No open date. Just a concept, a leased space, and a vision to build something that could go head-to-head with the national chains, and eventually outlast them.
The original brief was simple: use the ICECREAM FACTORY site as a backbone, adapt it, and ship fast. We didn't do that. The more we dug into what SIP LAB actually was, the menu, the brand positioning, the audience it needed to reach, the cultural space it was trying to occupy, the clearer it became that a template adaptation would actively hurt the brand. SIP LAB wasn't a spin-off. It was its own world. It deserved its own identity, built from scratch.
So that is what we built.
Live site
What we shipped at siplabnc.com
A fully custom marketing site, mobile-first, built in Next.js and connected to the SIP LAB and ICECREAM FACTORY loyalty and ordering app. It is built for drink creation, menu energy, and real visits. Our pick on the menu: Watermelon Wave.
Desktop
Mobile
<The Challenge>
Building a digital presence for a business that does not exist yet is a different kind of problem. There is no existing site to improve, no brand equity to preserve, no customer base to poll. You are building from zero, and the website has to do the heavy lifting from day one, before a single drink is poured.
But the challenge here was not just being first. It was being right. SIP LAB was walking into a market with serious incumbents. The space it was taking over was literally a former Starbucks, meaning customers who walked past it already had brand-trained expectations about what a drink concept looks like, feels like, and costs. To win them, SIP LAB could not just show up. It had to immediately communicate that it was different, better, and worth the switch.
The digital identity had to do four things at once:
- Connect with a younger audience with Gen Z-coded visuals, energy, and language without alienating older customers.
- Communicate the “build your own” concept clearly, no upcharges for milk alternatives, custom syrups, or clouds, a real differentiator that needed to be front and center.
- Function as a real operational platform with mobile app integration, loyalty program, online ordering, and franchise inquiries, not a brochure site.
- Lay an SEO foundation strong enough to compete. The team had already watched ICECREAM FACTORY rank above Ben & Jerry's within a 50-mile radius of Greensboro. The expectation was set.
<The Approach>
Development started in mid-December 2025. The bulk of the build ran January through March 2026, about four months of active development before the April soft launch.
The design direction was deliberate: lab-meets-lifestyle. Clean, high-contrast, slightly scientific aesthetic fused with the warm, approachable energy of a neighborhood go-to spot. The flask logo is a literal nod to the lab concept, experimental, precise, craft-driven. The tone throughout the site walks a fine line: bold enough to feel like a brand with personality, accessible enough that a first-time customer does not feel like they need a decoder ring to order a latte.
The Gen Z angle was not a gimmick. It was a strategic call. SIP LAB's menu, croffles, customizable cloud toppings, matcha builds, energy drinks with names and characters, is exactly the kind of thing that blows up on TikTok and gets photographed and shared. The site needed to reflect that culture while staying anchored in real business utility.
Full Custom Site Design
No templates. No recycled layouts. Every screen was designed specifically for the SIP LAB brand, optimized for mobile-first browsing, and built to feel as premium as the product being sold.
Mobile App Integration
SIP LAB launched with a Perdiem-powered companion app on the App Store and Google Play for order-ahead, loyalty rewards, and gift cards. The site directs customers to download, order, and earn from their first visit.
Cross-Brand Loyalty Ecosystem
SIP LAB loyalty points are redeemable at ICECREAM FACTORY, and vice versa. The site architecture treats this as a feature, not a footnote, two brands building a shared customer base.
Local SEO Foundation
From URL architecture to schema markup to location-specific content, the SEO foundation was built to rank. Same methodology that put ICECREAM FACTORY above Ben & Jerry's in Greensboro search.
<Development Process>
Discovery & Planning
Before a single line of code, we mapped the full brand concept: menu categories, audience personas, competitive landscape, franchise ambitions, loyalty mechanics. Every design decision had to serve a business purpose, not just an aesthetic one.
Brand Identity Development
SIP LAB needed to look like no other drink brand in the Triad. We developed the visual language from the flask icon up, color palette, type hierarchy, photography treatment, and the overall lab aesthetic that carries through every page.
Design & Prototyping
Wireframes and visual mockups were iterated before development began. The menu system, app integration flow, and homepage experience went through multiple passes to get hierarchy and UX right.
Custom Development
Built on the same Next.js backbone that powers the ICECREAM FACTORY site: fast, SEO-friendly, static-exportable, and scalable. Custom components for the menu, franchise flow, loyalty CTA, and app integration were developed from scratch.
Content & Media Integration
Product photography, drink imagery, and croffle group shots were sourced and optimized for web performance. Every image on the site is intentional, nothing generic, nothing filler.
Testing & Launch
Full cross-device and cross-browser testing before go-live. The site launched ahead of the April soft open, giving it time to index and build initial organic traction before foot traffic began.
<Results & Impact>
SIP LAB opened its doors in April 2026 for a soft launch.
They had to close them again, not because things went wrong, but because things went too right. The volume of customers that came through on opening exceeded the team's operational capacity. The decision was made to temporarily close, hire, and reopen properly rather than deliver a compromised experience.
That is not a failure. That is a proof of concept. A brand-new local drink concept, no prior history, no established following, no paid advertising on record, and the demand on opening day was enough to overwhelm operations. The digital foundation was doing exactly what it was designed to do: reach people, build credibility, and convert curiosity into customers.
The Triad Business Journal covered the launch on March 31, 2026. That is not a given for a café opening in Greensboro. The press interest was organic, and the story framed SIP LAB as a legitimate business story, not a local curiosity. That kind of coverage validates the brand positioning and contributes directly to SEO authority.
Opening-Day Demand
Exceeded staffing capacity on the soft launch, forcing a temporary close to hire up.
Organic Press
Featured in the Triad Business Journal on March 31, 2026, with no paid placement.
Platform Ready
Mobile app, loyalty, gift cards, and franchise inquiries all live on day one.
<Technologies Used>
Frontend
- Next.js (static export)
- React component architecture
- Tailwind CSS utility system
- Mobile-first responsive design
Integrations
- Perdiem mobile app (iOS + Google Play)
- Square loyalty program
- Square gift cards
- Google Maps embed
SEO & Performance
- JSON-LD (LocalBusiness, Organization)
- Optimized WebP image delivery
- Clean semantic HTML
- Robots.txt and sitemap configuration
<The Bigger Picture>
SIP LAB is chapter one of something larger. The ICECREAM FACTORY brand is already proven. It ranked above Ben & Jerry's in organic search within a 50-mile radius of Greensboro. Same methodology. Same platform. Same team behind SIP LAB.
This is what the BLOW UP package was built for: not just websites, but launchpads. Digital infrastructure that does not just reflect a business, it actively drives its next phase of growth.
The store will reopen. The second location is coming. The franchise page is live. Koford Media will be there for all of it.