What's Next, Ad-Supported Coffee? Actually, Yes
from the daily-fix dept
Ad-supported business models have been popular for a long time, but people still seem confused about when they make sense. For things like content or services with little marginal cost, the ad-supported model can be a good fit. On the other hand, it doesn't really work for physical goods, like computers, despite many attempts at pulling this off. Now a company in Japan is experimenting with an ad-supported coffee vending machine. If the buyer is willing to watch a 30-second ad, they can get a free cup of coffee. The cup will have an ad as well. The problem is that advertisers aren't likely to get much value out of this 30-second spot, such that it's worth subsidizing someone's java fix. It'd be pretty easy for a customer to just ignore the ad while waiting for their fill up. The one context where it might make sense is in an office where the employer already subsidizes its employees' coffee, and is looking to defray some of the costs by selling ads. Still, this might just annoy workers, and the lost productivity from spending time in front of the vending machine would probably cancel out any advertising revenue. Perhaps instead of an ad, the machine could use the time to play a daily motivational speech from the company's boss.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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ugh i would hate to hear that everyday
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Enforce Ad
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Re: Enforce Ad
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You are silly
Coffee ingredients cost very little (we are talking vending machine quality), electricity is somewhat of a problem, but this can be actually dumped on the person that wants the vending machine there such -as a hotel, or a supermarket... (you pay for coffee ,they pay for the electricity)
A free coffee vending machine which plays 30 second ads and has branded cups (sponsored by the advertiser, no cost here) that is stationed in the street/busy lobby is worth no less than 2000$/month for the advertiser.
Even though it's small money, 100 such machines can probably be a small successful company.
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Re: You are silly
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Re: Re: You are silly
You have no absolutely no idea what is right, but you have these neat names and witty comments.
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Re: You are silly
I do think there are venues where this might be successful, such as the supermarket you suggested, but hotels probably aren't it.
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30 second ads?
Furthermore, if the ad was interesting and fun, why not answering a quick question at the end? I don't see a problem: you have a captive audience, stationary, bored, waiting for their bus or rain to come in, dying for something else to do than looking at the same bored faces around them, day in day out.
Furthermore, coffee machines are EXTREMELY localized. You could get feedback on your recent TV ad campaign or localized info: which ad you liked best? What do you think will happen next in the storyline? Which upholstery would you choose with this body color? What would you think if our restaurants in the area (up the stairs, 100 yards down 34t street, to your left!) extended serving breakfast up to 11:30?
Collect this kind of information, cross it with socio-economic data about the location in which the coffee machine is located, and you have a pretty reasonable neighborhood profiling, bus stop after bus stop, underground station after underground station. At the cost of a few coffee cups.
Cheap cheap cheap!
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Pavlov's Dogs
I don't know how well it would work in the real world, but it sounds like a good idea for a Dilbert cartoon.
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Re: Pavlov's Dogs
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Re: Pavlov's Dogs
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Question answers
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Sort of Like.....
Oh, wait a minute......
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Ad Support
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Sign me up for 30 seconds and free.
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Works for me
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But then, my coffee machines at work are free anyways, so maybe that isn't such a good idea.
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