Japan Rail East.
Introduction
Every day, we get bombarded with a never-ending stream of machines, media and marketing messages.
In such a noisy environment, it’s harder than ever to connect with customers and provide experiences that engage and delight. However, there are ways. Working with the Japanese beverage company JR East Water Business, we found a way to interact with customers and sell twice as many drinks. Meet Acure: the world’s most irresistible vending machine.
Meet Acure
We wanted to turn the humble vending machine into a responsive attendant, able to make suggestions and collect valuable sales information.
So we created an interface and user experience to transform the machine, then gave it a 47-inch touchscreen, a mounted camera and a human face to draw people in. Acure looks at you through its googly digital eyes, and an internal processor recognizes your sex and estimates your age. It then flashes suggestions on the screen, based not only on you as an individual but the time of day, the temperature and season – a hot coffee for a cold morning or a glass of ice water for a warm summer day. Selecting a product brings up additional information about it, and after the sale the screen displays a “thank you” message. It’s very human, and utterly engaging.
