Seeing a big, yellow vending machine in the middle of the convention floor is sure to make anyone stop and wonder what it is. Upon closer review, a large LCD screen with a monkey on it further peaked my curiosity. Naturally, we had to talk with Brad Thorne, co-founder of Prize Monkey to give us some insight on what the project was about.
Prize Monkey is based off the idea that people love free stuff and the instant gratification that goes along with it, specifically when you use your mobile device. Using their “un-kiosk” and the cloud, users can interact with the monkey on the screen and impact his actions based off of input from their phones or tablets. Prize Monkey looks to partner up with different companies who create different promotional products to appeal specific demographics.
For CES 2012, Prize Monkey created a small demonstration of their product and by using an iPad, you go to the site, enter your email address and you will earn some “bananas” that you can then tap on to redeem a prize from the vending machine, in this case it was a small table hockey toy. Of course, the natural extension is making loyalty points important again and Prize Monkey looks to venture into supermarkets and even sports stadiums. There is some definite potential here if the right companies want to get on board and turn common social interactions into exposure for their brands.
Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live for the TechPodcast Network.
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