H-E-B Grill Master proved something simple: when a cup has a story to tell, it becomes part of the experience rather than just another event accessory.
H-E-B is a supermarket chain with operations in Mexico and the United States, offering a broad selection of everyday consumer goods, including fresh food, groceries, beverages, household items, personal care products, and private-label brands.
Channel: Activation
Solution: PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS
Some events are better experienced than explained. The H-E-B Grill Master Championship is one of them. Organized by the Sociedad Mexicana de Parrilleros, it has become one of Latin America’s largest grilling festivals, bringing together fire, food, families, and barbecue culture for three days at Parque SMP in Santiago, Nuevo León (Posta México, 2025).
Its 12th edition, held from August 15–17, 2025, welcomed more than 40,000 attendees and 100 grilling teams from Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Colombia (ABC Noticias, 2025).
At an event of that scale, every detail communicates something—including the cup thousands of people carried with them throughout the weekend.
H-E-B has a strong presence in northeastern Mexico and a deep connection with the culture of Monterrey and the surrounding region. Ecoware, an AIM division, develops cups and promotional products made partially with agave fiber, a by-product of the tequila industry, as an alternative designed to reduce reliance on conventional virgin plastic.
Grill Master H-E-B is more than a competition. Alejandro Gutiérrez, Director and Founder of the Sociedad Mexicana de Parrilleros, has described its spirit with a simple idea: “El fuego nos une” — “Fire brings us together.” (Players of Life, 2025).
That philosophy helps explain why the event extends far beyond food. It is a community celebration, a family experience, and a weekend built around people coming together.
In that environment, the cup attendees carry for hours becomes much more than a beverage container.
It is there when people raise a toast. It travels with them through the different grilling areas. It appears in photographs and becomes part of the visual identity of the day. When designed and manufactured properly, it can even become a souvenir people choose to take home.
H-E-B therefore needed a cup capable of representing the personality and energy of the 12th Grill Master edition.
It had to be practical enough to withstand a long August day outdoors while communicating the event’s identity. At the same time, the product offered an opportunity to express something beyond a logo: attention to materials, design, and the details surrounding the brand experience.
Through AIM, Ecoware designed and manufactured the 32 oz Agave Cup for H-E-B Grill Master 2025.
The red cup was produced partially with agave fiber and featured an Inmold “Orange Peel” finish, while its 32 oz capacity made it suitable for extended use throughout the event.
The material itself played an important role in the design.
Mexico’s tequila industry generates more than one million tons of agave bagasse annually. Ecoware’s PolyAgave technology incorporates part of this residual fiber into the cup’s material composition, helping reduce the amount of virgin plastic required while maintaining the resistance and quality expected from the product.
The Orange Peel finish creates a distinctive tactile experience. Its slightly rough, warm texture immediately feels different from a conventional plastic cup, while visible agave fibers become part of the product’s appearance.
Rather than hiding the material, the design makes it visible.
The fibers become part of the story.
The cup featured a full-color Inmold graphic wrapping around the entire piece. Its illustration depicted characters celebrating around a grill alongside words associated with the Grill Master experience, including “Carne Asada,” “Familia,” “Cerveza,” and “Música.”
The identity of the 12th edition occupied a central position in the composition, while sponsor logos were integrated along the lower section.
Because the graphic is incorporated through the Inmold process rather than applied as a conventional adhesive label, the decoration is designed to remain integrated with the cup throughout its use—an important advantage in an outdoor environment involving condensation, ice, heat, and hours of handling.
For the event, 11,520 cups were manufactured and bulk-packed in boxes containing 360 units each.
Production took place at the Monterrey plant, with a 35-business-day lead time.
The scale of production was planned around an event where thousands of visitors would need access to the product throughout the weekend.
What happened with the cup at H-E-B Grill Master 2025 illustrates what promotional products can accomplish when they are conceived as part of an experience rather than simply as merchandise.
The first result was immediate visual identification.
With more than 40,000 attendees moving through different areas of the festival, the red cup and its full-color Grill Master artwork created a recognizable visual element throughout the venue.
Someone carrying the cup was visibly part of Grill Master—not just any outdoor festival, but an event closely associated with barbecue, family, music, and the culture of northern Mexico.
The second result was performance under real event conditions.
August in Santiago, Nuevo León means heat, cold beverages, ice, sunlight, and constant movement between different areas of the festival. The cup was developed to maintain its structure and visual appearance throughout continued use in those conditions.
That durability matters particularly at a three-day event, where a cup can potentially be refilled and reused several times.
The third result was the connection between the H-E-B brand and the event experience.
Rather than simply placing its logo on a disposable object, H-E-B became associated with an item designed to be visually distinctive and worth keeping.
The illustration created specifically for the 12th edition gave the cup the characteristics of a souvenir. When an attendee decides to take a promotional item home instead of throwing it away, the relationship between the object and the brand can continue beyond the event itself.
The fourth result was alignment with the broader spirit of the event.
H-E-B Grill Master 2025 also incorporated social-impact initiatives, including support for the Patronato de Bomberos de Nuevo León, home-building efforts through the TECHO foundation, and dog adoption activities at the venue (Posta México, 2025).
Within that context, a cup incorporating residual agave fiber and designed to reduce the use of virgin plastic fit naturally into an event that was already looking beyond entertainment alone.
At some events, the object people carry in their hands can become almost as important to the experience as the signage at the entrance.
H-E-B Grill Master demonstrated what happens when that object is designed with purpose.
Visible agave fiber gives the cup a material story that people can see and feel before reading any sustainability message. Texture and appearance communicate something immediately—and in an environment where attendees are already engaged, relaxed, and enjoying themselves, that physical interaction creates a different kind of brand touchpoint.
Full-color Inmold printing also allows the visual identity created for an event to remain integrated into the product throughout real-world use involving ice, sunlight, condensation, and hours of handling.
For brands investing in events, a thoughtfully produced cup can therefore become a natural extension of that investment: something attendees carry, photograph, use, and potentially take home after the event has ended.
Does your next event deserve a cup people will actually want to keep?
At Ecoware, we design, develop, and manufacture agave-fiber cups for brands that understand that every detail communicates something.
Let’s create the cup your next event needs.
Know more about our cups.
