Trending Vending Machine from @Oreo #EatTheTweet
By Don Ferguson on Sunday, March 9, 2014
Amid the wonderful world of SXSW, American biscuit peddlers Oreo offered onlookers the opportunity to try a variety of flavoured snacks entirely determined by the power of twitter.
Promising to provide the ultimate in indulgent PR engagement, consumers were greeted by 3D-printed cookies coming in a variety of shapes, sizes, colours and flavour combinations from a “Trending Vending Machine” – powered entirely by social media. What’s more, digitally-savvy snack fans were encouraged to follow the conversation using hashtag #eatthetweet.
Brainchild of tech-design company and innovation lab MAYA Design, individuals were able to choose an indeterminable number of cookie configurations from touchscreen on the front of the vending machine. From here the clever 3D printers less than two minutes to assemble an appetising treat entirely influenced by public opinion garnered online from a variety of hashtags tenuously linked to flavour combos.
“We’re connecting trending moments to the cookie itself in real time and in real life.” said Bonin Bough, Vice President of global media at Mondelez International, owners of Oreo among a plethora of other big name FMCG brands.
Although it’s clear a man with a job such as this would say a thing such as that, Twitter’s Ross Hoffman (Director of U.S. brand strategy) has also described Mondelez International as “continuing to push the boundaries of digital creativity by using technologies like Twitter to bridge real-world events with online conversations”.
Hmmm… not sure I believe this is the next step in digital creativity lads (as delicious as it may be), and think it may indeed be a recipe for a straight up and down PR stunt – nothing wrong with that of course.
Is it genius? No. Can it set the social media world alight? Probably not. Will it get coverage even if it’s a tad derivative? Almost certainly.
So, enjoy this twitter based flash in the baking-tin while it lasts and prepare yourselves for Pinterest Pretzels, Snapchat Shortbread and of course Facebook Fancies
