Tag: vending

Free Smartphones, Butterfingers With Nokia Gift Machine

What if your Foursquare check-ins and Twitter shares gave you more than a sense of accomplishment – what if they could get you free stuff?

That’s the concept behind the “Nokia Gift Machine,” a special vending machine that was created for Social Media Week in Glasgow by social firm 1000heads. Available until September 23rd, the machine dispenses free gifts for the simple act of social media sharing.

Here’s how it works – All you have to do it check-in the the “Nokia Gift Machine @ SMW” on Foursquare, using the hashtag #NokiaConnects. Hopefully you already have your Foursquare and Twitter accounts synched up, because you must share your check-in on Twitter to get your prize. Once you do, out pops either a candy bar, Nokia accessories or even a brand new phone. Over the course of the week, there are 1,000 items to be dispensed via the machine.

When a user checks-in the machine registers that unique log-in and releases one gift. For the remainder of that day, the user may not check-in again until the following day (one check-in per user). Inside the machine are random gifts, ranging from Butterfinger chocolates to Nokia smartphones .

There’s no word on any plans to develop a machine like this outside promotional purposes for this special event. But you can imagine the possibilities – rewarding people for doing social media advertising for your company. It definitely sounds like a workable concept for companies, albeit an expensive proposition to give away phones. Maybe they could set up some sort of check-in based lottery machine.

Anyways, here’s a YouTube video of the thing in action –

The “Nokia Gift Machine” is reminiscent of an advertising campaign we told you about back in March that awarded Foursquare check-ins with free samples…of dog food. German pet food company GranataPet set up billboards that dispensed dog food samples when owners checked-in to the billboards on Foursquare.

And the idea of a “social vending machine” has been thrown around before as well. In April, Pepsi introduced a prototype for a “Social Vending System” that allowed people to gift sodas to friends by pre-purchasing them at the machine. The lucky recipient of the gift would get a text with a message and a code redeemable for their free beverage. The machine even allowed short videos to be recorded as messages.

What do you think about the concept of social vending? Should companies utilize Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook in this way to promote social media advertising? Let us know what you think.

September 22, 2011
Pepsi Goes Social

PepsiCo is introducing a prototype for a fully interactive new vending machine at the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s One Show in Chicago this week. It is called the “Social Vending System” and I gotta say, it looks pretty awesome.

The new vending machine will contain a large touch screen from which thirsty travelers can purchase a soda (yes, soda… not pop or soft drink or cola).

But the neat part is the “social” part. Users will have the option to send and receive gifted sodas at the machine. Say you want to get your friend back for buying you a mountain dew when you were parched at the concert and you only had credit cards and they only accepted cash (an absolutely plausible scenario). You can buy them a soda at the digital vending machine. Just enter their name and mobile phone number as well as a text message and they will receive the message along with a code to redeem their pre-purchased beverage.

You can also record a 10-second video message to send to the lucky recipient. Pepsi calls these “random acts of refreshment.” The idea is awesome but work on that tagline part, what do you say PepsiCo?

“Our vision is to use innovative technology to empower consumers and create new ways for them to engage with our brands, their social networks and each other at the point of purchase,” said Mikel Durham, Chief Innovation Officer at PepsiCo Foodservice. “Social Vending extends our consumers’ social networks beyond the confines of their own devices and transforms a static, transaction-oriented experience into something fun and exciting they’ll want to return to, again and again.”

So about that social network part, one omission from the demo video is Facebook and Twitter integration. If this crucial part is added, this “social vending” idea could really take off. It sounds like that social network integration may be the next step as Pepsi says, “Further development of the Social Vending System platform is ongoing, and PepsiCo anticipates testing the concept with key strategic partners later this year.”

I would love to be gifted a Mountain Dew and a bag of Cheetos in the future. Would probably make my day. How bout you?

April 28, 2011
Snack&Munch: The First Online Vending Machine

For those who’ve maintained the idea ecommerce has it’s limits, meet Snack&Munch. This start-up company has been receiving a lot of hype, being featured on both NBC.com and Mashable. The site is quite simple: Choose 24 snacks from a selection of 250, and pay $24 (shipping is included) to have the snacks delivered to you.

The site is well designed, with the snack section divided into a set of categories. They even provide an “International” section, which showcases vending machine snacks I don’t even recognize. You can purchase a one time order, or set up a monthly recurring shipment which will shave off $1.00 per order.

There are a few road blocks to keep Snack&Munch from succeeding. First, the vending machine visit is generally a spontaneous act. You’re sitting in front of your computer screen working, and suddenly you crave a Twix. To order 24 snacks requires a lot of forethought for an act which happens at a moment’s notice.

I’m not sure the prices for vending machines around the country, but $1 seems kind of steep for some of the items on their list. The classic peanut butter cracker six pack is $0.55 in my office’s vending machine. However, it’s the standard $1 on Snack&Munch. They should think about providing a greater variety when it comes to pricing, and making the price tags more competitive with the physical machines.

Snack&Munch, whether it succeeds or fails, demonstrates how the limits of ecommerce are continuing to be pushed in every direction. If something as simple as vending machine purchases can be brought to the online world, what’s next?

April 6, 2011