Free ice cream makes us smile

Over the past decade there has been a shift from ‘interruption advertising’ (for example, TV adverts), where potential customers are subjected to product news against their will, to ‘permission marketing’, where prospective customers are invited to enter into a relationship with the vendor.

Bearing this new marketing mood in mind, Unilever has employed the services of SapientNitro to create a machine that distributes free ice cream in return for beaming smiles. The machine has already been making waves at the Rock in Rio Festival in Lisbon in May and was later introduced to the global advertising community in Cannes.

Unilever, whose ice cream brands include Walls, Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor, Breyers and Klondike, wanted to create a machine that would offer users a degree of entertainment along with their ice cream. Customers are invited to place their heads on top of cartoon bodies on the large touch screen. On agreeing to co-operate with the process, they are invited to offer their biggest smile, which is measured on the ‘smile-o-meter’ and rated for happiness.

This new machine is also used to register gender and age although there is a wide margin of error to minimise the chance of hurt feelings! Once the customer has offered their best smile their photo is taken and, with their consent, uploaded onto Facebook. After this they will be able to choose a free ice cream via the touch screen.

With the temperatures all over Europe increasing every day, this ingenious invention is certain to be a big hit with kids of all ages.

New post on at Thursday, 15 July, 2010, 9:10 am and is archived in Food and drink, Lifestyle. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or make a trackback from your web.