How Smart Vending Machines are Changing The Face of Experiential Marketing
Smart vending machines are revolutionizing not only the way people traditionally view vending but also the way businesses engage their consumers. These devices take branding from a simple transactional relationship to a deep engagement by creating technologic experiences to the consumers. Focusing on smart vending machines’ attributes of gamification, actively engaging with a digital interface and gathering data helps in explaining the innovative potential of smart vending for brand communication, marketing, and event management. This paper looks at how brands can create positive brand associations in the minds of the consumers by using smart vending and cites positive case studies from The Machine Company.
Hask: Smart Vending Machine Experiential Activation
How Vending Machines With Technology Are Improving Consumer Engagement
The 21st century is a world governed by fast paced technology such that the consumers are in an increasing degree and more demanding because they do not only want products and services from companies but striking experiences. Standard strategies for advertisement such as holding a static banner close to the potential customers or placing adverts by the use of electronic screens seem to wear out in as much as the customers want something more real, action-oriented and fun. This is where smart vending machines come in, which perfectly answers the need in focused excusive marketing strategies.
Engagement on a Personal Level
In the case of smart vending units, however, these do not only sell but have a software – a digital interface which allows some level of personalization. These machines do not only function as a means of earning revenue but also have the capability of collecting information from potential clients through social networks, interaction with these machines, loyalty programs, etc. Therefore, brands can seek to provide experience that is specific to the needs of a given consumer.
As an example, on one of the recent events organized by The Machine Company, a global beverage brand successfully used the vending solution to target customers based on their preferences as to the beverages they wished to drink. People were identified from their social media profiles, and marketers threw a wide range of offers and rewards heretofore postponed to some other marketing exercises which resulted to better engagement and brand loyalty.
Coca-Cola: Smart Vending Machine Experiential Activation
Fun and Interesting Experiences through Gamification
Gamification constitutes a consummate part of the umbrellas under which effective advertising strategies exist, and smart vending units do not bypass this opportunity. In an elaborate vending experience, game elements and gamified storytelling devices have been added to the experience whereby the consumer is made to interact with the brand at a different level thus making the whole process more fun and memorable for them.
Consider, for example, the work of The Machine Company with a prominent technology company where participants of a trade fair were given the opportunity to play a game on a smart vending machine in order to win exclusive products. It did help create hype around the booth, as well as bring up foot traffic and brand visibility.
Lessons learn in real-time require real data.
All the smart vending machines in the world have the added advantage of collecting real-time data. They are able to track how customers interact with their products, among them which products are the favorites and which promotions get them the most responses. This data can be harnessed for planning the next marketing endeavors.
A case study we conducted with a leading snack brand proves how beneficial smart vending machines can be when determining the preferences of the targeted consumers. The food brand—via the monitors positioned in the vending machines—lit up most sought after and response times of the selected snack wherever consumers focused the vending machines.
Monster High: Smart Vending Machine Experiential Activation
Optimizing Returns on Marketing Activations
Due to their nature of interacting with users, collecting data, and providing customized experiences, smart vending machines have proven to be an asset in helping to maximize ROI on Marketing Activations. The presence of a ‘corner’ of entertainment, utility, and digital interaction offers an opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves in resources aprovechanment at events such as trade shows, product launches or at any in stores activities.
