CAPE TOWN, South Africa
Tweeting a local vending machine in Wembley Square will get you an iced cold can of Rooibos.
The automated, interactive sampling program displays the successful Tweet. According to Digital Trends the machine attracts attention with messages like “You look thirsty, human. Let me help you.” and “Is BOS your cup of tea? BEV at your service.”
Once in front of the machine a display invites interested persons to Tweet a hashtag after activating their location. Persons near the machine then receive a free can of iced tea.
Click here to watch a video of BEV in action.
Although there is only one such machine for now, it will soon go on a tour around South Africa, to "interact physically with as many people as possible", BOS co-founder Grant Rushmere told the BBC.
"We use sampling extensively to promote our product," he said. "Our goal, while sampling, is to create fun, interactive and inspiring environments to do so."
Twitter's popularity in South Africa was growing, said Rushmere, and the project demonstrates a creative way to use social media.
Beyond this promotional period, the company could eventually partner with a social payments startup like Chirpify in order to collect money from each tweet, according to Digital Trends. Chirpify connects a user’s PayPal account with their Twitter account in order to enable payments through tweeting.
Source: Digital Trends, BBC