Free Drink Vending Machines, Coming Soon to Japan

[Mark30001]

Via Japan Probe

TOKYO - Thirsty Japanese will soon be able to drink coffee or other non-alcoholic beverages at a low price or even for free — as long as they watch a 30-second advertisement on the vending machines.

Vending machine operator Apex Corp. will start a service next month to turn its machines into a new medium for advertisers, who will pick up the partial or full cost of drinks. Apex runs 35,000 vending machines across Japan that serve drinks in paper cups, generally priced at 70 to 120 yen (60 cents to one dollar) a cup.

Under the ‘MediCafe’ project, the vending machine will play an advertiser’s video for around the 30 seconds it takes to pour the drink and dispense a paper cup with an advertisement printed on it. ‘We will select the locations of vending machines which would best suit the customers targetted by advertisers,’ said an Apex company official.

[VampDude]

Wow, and how does the machine know you've watched it?

I would be busy waiting for the drink rather than watching the commercial, plus I would just watch it from the person in front of me as they get their drink so it wouldn't be anything new when I watch it!

[kcajblue]

lol. i dont care as long as i get my free drink!

[valtiel]

This is a really good idea

[VampDude]

lol. i dont care as long as i get my free drink!

Dying of thirst and there are 9 people in front of you, they all watch the 30 second commercial and it takes them an extra few seconsds to pickup their cup and a few more to walk away before the next person can get to the machine (say 15 seconds - 30 + 15 seconds x 9 people, that's almost 7 minutes - 6:45)...

...These things will get attention, but will most probably endup a failure due to people taking advantage of it being FREE. They would need to be in secure buildings and watched, because some people would see an opportunity to people either watching the commercial x amounts of times to stockup on FREE drinks.

[JKKDARK]

oh i want one in my city!