You’re out at a concert and you’re about to buy a drink from a vending machine. You think about your friend who couldn’t make it, and want to send them a quick text to let them know you’re thinking of them and wish they were there.
Pepsi’s new machines come with a fancy touch-screen UI that makes selecting a frosty beverage a more technical experience than perhaps it needs to be, but also include a social component that will take your friend’s name and cell phone number and send them a text message with a code they can redeem for a free drink.
The code has to be redeemed at one of the new social machines. If you want, you can also give a random customer a gift at the vending machine through what Pepsi calls a “random act of refreshment,” meaning someone will walk up, select their drink, try to pay, and be told that they’re getting their drink for free. You can even record a quick video message to include with your free drink so the recipient knows who just made their day.
Pepsi has no plans for a rollout of the new machines; the current model is just a prototype. Still, it’ll be on display at the National Automatic Merchandising Association Show in Chicago at the end of the month for everyone to see. Check out a video of the machine behind the jump.
