THE MAGIC BOX

TitleTHE MAGIC BOX
BrandOREO
Product / ServiceTHE INDUSTRY’S FIRST VENDING MACHINE THAT COMBINES SOCIAL COMMUNITIES AND MICROT
CategoryA01. Innovation
EntrantCARAT ASIA PACIFIC, SINGAPORE
Media Agency CARAT ASIA PACIFIC, SINGAPORE
Entrant Company CARAT ASIA PACIFIC, SINGAPORE
Media Agency 2 CARAT ASIA PACIFIC, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Stella Jamie Liu CARAT Director Innovation
Clay Schouest CARAT Regional Strategy Lead
Bonin Bough MONDELEZ Vp Global Media/Consumer Engagement

The Brief

Shanghai, China, March 26, 2014 – We are proud to launch the industry’s first cashless vending machine that combines social communities with micro-transactions (mobile payment) -- The `Magic Box`, provides consumers with a unique personalised interactive vending experience controlled with their own mobile devices. The Magic Box was launched with Oreo earlier this year at SXSW– the annual innovation, technology, film and music festival in Austin, Texas, United States. The social vending experience was later rolled out across Shanghai Metro stations as part of Oreo’s annual campaigns. In an unprecedented move by a media agency The Magic Box was conceived, designed and produced entirely in-house by our specialist Innovation and Technology team. It was created to become the world’s first vending machine that connects social communities with the point of purchase, allowing fulfilment to take place across multiple locations and even cities.

By connecting online and offline experiences the Magic Box allows users to control the vending experience with their personal social page WeChat which is linked to a payment mechanism. Consumers can then use the Magic Box to purchase a product for themselves or as a gift for a friend to retrieve at any Magic Box location. The recipient friend is then notified via an alert on their WeChat social platform with guidanceon where and how to retrieve their gift. This was made possible using WeChat’s location based services. By becoming the world’s first official partner ofAsia’s largest social platform WeChat, with over 600 million active users, we were able to scale the experience exponentially. Special edition WeChat Oreo emoticons were created with location based technology to help promote and encourage users to find their nearest Magic Box. Magic Box is also the first vending machine made of interactive glass screens on front and sides of the machine. As soon as a user connects their WeChat social profile is projected to the front glass of the vending machine and any content contained on their social page is also projected. The side panels of the machine feature scrolling digital projections – in the case of Oreo it was their pre-roll video assets. These side screens were commercialised so that other brands could pay to display their own video content as advertising spots. From a commercial standpoint the Magic Box was initially designed to be media-neutral to help offset the cost of build (5,000USD per unit). However commercial demand in advertising space exceeded our forecasts and the Magic Box became profitable with margins exceeding 45%.

The global publicity that this revolutionary solution has created has been unprecedented; Press coverage has included 20 publications (15 of which are international marketing and advertising titles) including Campaign, Marketing and Contagious. Bonin Bough was featured in Marketing Magazine… “Mondelez International has partnered with us to create the world's first "Magic Box", a digitally-controlled vending machine that connects to people's phones, and collects payment through micro-purchases made through the WeChat app. "One thing we see is an Asia-out strategy; we continue to see innovation happening in Asia which we think we can migrate to the rest of the world, and WeChat is one of those platforms.” "In the beginning of that process we are pioneering the micro-purchase platform," Bough said. http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1284337/sxsw14-3d-printed-oreos-wechat-vending-machines-signal-mondelezs-digital-future By helping to close the gap between consumer interaction and transaction the Magic Box truly lives up to our Redefining Media mantra. Ultimately Magic Box enabled consumers to enjoy products conveniently and most importantly to make the experience a whole lot more social and fun. We are now building 50 more Magic Box units and there is an expectation to expand to markets beyond China in the future, thus making Magic Box a truly `Made in China` innovation.