Edmonton illustrator’s Booster Juice stickers featured by Apple: ‘it’s huge’

Two Edmonton-based companies are basking in the wake of being featured by Apple in its “Stickers We Love” section.

As of Monday, Booster Juice stickers had received nearly 1.9 million impressions.

“There’s no way to buy that type of attention,” Raoul Bhatt, the software developer who designed the stickers, said. “Apple is so big that… when they pick you, that means something.

“Just to have that as a local Edmonton artist… and for a local company, it’s just so phenomenal. We’re getting worldwide exposure.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Just to have that as a local Edmonton artist… and for a local company, it's just so phenomenal. We're getting worldwide exposure."

Stickers are like emojis taken to the next level: customized, colourful and some even have motion. Companies use them to increase their brand recognition.

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The Booster Juice stickers were approved by Apple on Jan. 5.

“One of our colleagues or one of our customers sent a screen shot,” Bhatt said. “They were like, ‘Oh my god, you guys are featured.’ It was just chaos in the marketing team… They contacted me and my company and we were all losing our minds because this doesn’t happen.”

While the company decided to give the stickers away as free downloads, Bhatt believes they will help boost profits.

“It’s just awareness. When that brand is in people’s hands – in their chats – in turn, that translates to: they’ll buy a smoothie – if not today, tomorrow or the day after.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's just awareness. When that brand is in people's hands - in their chats - in turn, that translates to: they'll buy a smoothie - if not today, tomorrow or the day after."

Dale Wishewan, the CEO of Booster Juice, said he couldn’t put a price on the amount of publicity this has given the business.

“The exposure is phenomenal. Over 1.8 million impressions already. We think it’s just great from a brand perspective because you have the bricks and mortar stores and people come in and they enjoy the product and this is another great opportunity for people to engage with the company.”

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Wishewan opened the first Booster Juice shop in Sherwood Park, Alta. in November 1999. Then, in that first year, he added 15 more stores. Now, there are more than 300 locations around the world, including all across Canada.

Despite the previous success, Wishewan was blown away by the reaction to the Apple stickers.

“It’s such a huge thing – thinking that there are millions of companies that are out there getting stickers and apps and Apple chooses us. I think it’s a credit to how great the artistic design Raoul did is.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's such a huge thing - thinking that there are millions of companies that are out there getting stickers and apps and Apple chooses us. I think it's a credit to how great the artistic design Raoul did is."

Both business owners hope this latest milestone inspires other local entrepreneurs.

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“I think the biggest thing for Edmonton-based companies is to be able to see that here in the whole international world, two Edmonton-based companies who have something were able to be featured.”