I spotted this article over at Mashable.com today and thought I’d share it. What a great example of how Coca-Cola can tap into crowdsourcing in real time to understand how fans and customers think drinks. And for customers who live in a larger town, there is a good chance they can take their ideas and quickly turn them around into a reality via a vending machine that dispenses their own unique concoction. I wonder how an application like this can help Facebook fans of other companies create their favorite restaurant meal, custom footwear or even the latest automobile design?
Coca-Cola on Wednesday rolled out a Facebook app that lets you mix your own Coke drink. The app is no online-only experiment, though: Real Coke vending machines that do the same thing are rolling out across the country.
The Coca-Cola Freestyle app, created by digital marketing agency 360i, lets you mix a drink using 125 Coke beverages, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Powerade. After choosing each, you hold down a “push” button to fill a cup of your choosing. When you fill your cup, you can name it. There’s also a game designed for the iPhone and Android formats.
The Facebook Page also directs you to Freestyle vending machines in your area and lets you ask for one in your town. There are now about 1,500 such machines in restaurants like Wendy’s, Burger King and Five Guys, but Coke plans to make more noise about Freestyle next year. The company is working with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather on a 2012 ad campaign for Freestyle, according to Advertising Age. Coke would like the apps to eventually generate a 2-D barcode, which could be scanned at one of the machines to create a blend, according to Ad Age.
I read an interesting article over at InventionMachineBlog about a trend we’re seeing as our workforce ages. Did you know that half of our workforce today is eligible for retirement in the next 18 months? The Bureau of Labor Statistics says as our US labor force grows older, our percent of 55+ workers will be…
A new smartphone app is allowing inventors and entrepreneurs to meet and network with key influencers in their own geographic locations. The “influencer of the month series” is a free iOS app from HereOnBiz, and features a geo-location service that helps bring together like-minded professionals. Influencers simply select a city in which they want to…
The future – at least in the short term – will make our identities even more of an open book if we’re not careful. That’s according to a new report out from the Institute for the Future called Information Generation: Transforming the Future Today, and identifies five “key directional shifts” in the coming decade. 1….
I am very excited about the new developments in bioplastics research! Within the past few years there have been numerous new-to-market plastic products that either decompose in the landfill or make the recycling process cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly. One company from France has launched a plastic “coffee pod” (like the kind used in…
Hint: it’s not about the perks Fast Company‘s recently published 50 Best Workplaces for Innovators list is an eye-opener worth reading. The magazine’s research team, in partnership with Accenture, sought companies that “empower all employees…to create new products, improve operations, and take risks.” Ones where “innovation isn’t just a buzzword but a part of the…
Learn how Amazon decides where to expand, focuses on customer happiness, takes the long-term view, leverages core strengths, doesn’t fear big bets, and more; how you can adapt these approaches to fit your organization. Amazon’s 20-year record of double-digit revenue growth is unmatched in industry. While much of its success can be attributed to CEO…
