SlashGear Japan
I think that the Japanese marketing people are really onto something here. We watch ads all the time, but what do we get for it? Nothing. A vending machine company has decided to start rewarding people for watching advertisements.
It’s a simple concept. Companies make a lot of money from advertisements, so naturally the more people that watch them, the more money they make. What do people love more than anything? Free stuff! So that is exactly what they are offering. Just watch a 15-30 second ad, pick your drink and you’re on your way.
I would love to see how this works out for them. Hopefully, it does well and people start picking up on that idea over here. I love free stuff.
Coin-op drinks machines vend free with ads [via digitalworldtokyo]
9 Responses to “Is a free drink worth 30 seconds of your time?”
Paul May 11, 2007
What would stop homeless people or some punk-ass kids from sitting there and watching commercial after commercial and emptying the machine of all it’s contents?
NeutralChris May 11, 2007
I’m actually wondering the same thing, they didn’t provide much information as to how they plan on overcoming those obstacles.
NeutralVincent Nguyen May 11, 2007
it usuually takes me about that long to pick out a drink :) so heck yeah. I’ll pretend to watch some ads to get a freebie. Most of these ads are interesting to watch anyways – so not much of a problem for me.
Looking over the drink selections in the picture – I’m not sure if there’s anything there I’d want.
NeutralVincent Nguyen May 11, 2007
[quote comment="22006"]What would stop homeless people or some punk-ass kids from sitting there and watching commercial after commercial and emptying the machine of all it’s contents?[/quote]
Surely there has to be a limit of 1 per customer
Neutralimajoebob May 12, 2007
Everything in Japan seems to want a debit card even more than cash. So there’s your control on one-a-day. And since they’d likely be networked, they can even limit your access across machines (the bastards!).
Neutralimajoebob May 12, 2007
Oh, yeah. And when you swipe your card they’ll know who you are and that will determine the commercial you see. Big Brother-san is watching.
NeutralVincent Nguyen May 12, 2007
I have a video of this type of transaction from CeBIT. Let me dig it out and run the story on SlashGear.
NeutralChris May 12, 2007
That’s a pretty good theory. I really wouldn’t mind the once-a-day limit, it keeps everyone in check, and if people can’t abuse the system it means that it’s more likely to stick around.
NeutralTy May 12, 2007
I would say they should keep a tracker maybe like a finger print scanner or something where you can only get so many between so long.
Neutral