Between my time volunteering for science fiction conventions and my time as a professional graphic designer, I think you would be surprised with just how many times the topic of promotional fake vending machines has come up. Ok, yes, I am always the one who has to bring it up and, no, they have never let me make one. But all the same, I have had these pieces of inspiration just stewing at the back of my head waiting for the day these examples of cool guerrilla marketing are finally relevant. 

In researching for this blog, I realized that, even within this niche concept, my interest was even more specific than just weird vending machines. I am specifically into machines that have a very personal feel because they have a person inside choosing the items. They are more similar to the children’s carnival game where they put their fishing poles behind a curtain and someone clips a prize to the end.

I think what I loved about this idea is that it made a surprise and delight moment that was unique every time. There is nothing wrong with like/tweet-powered vending machines and I have seen a lot of great non-profit vending machines with powerful messages. But ultimately, I just want to make a vending machine with a mind of its own.

I thought I would share two examples of this.

Coca-Cola Happiness Machine

This one holds a special place in my heart because Coke had one on campus while I was at KU. It must have been some kind of promotional day because there was also a pop-up makeover station from a makeup brand. But in the Student Union, there was a long line leading up to a Coke machine. The laughter and shouting could be heard from outside the building. I saw people get flowers and 2 liters, hats and mini cokes. In the end, I ended up with just a can of coke but the experience was worth it all.

Coke has put out several different vending machines with interactive concepts. These range between a huggable machine and a swedish machine which vends based on dialect. They have a real viral quality which I haven’t seen duplicated for a long time. Until I found…

Exploding Kittens Machine

This much more recent example made me so excited because it meant that I might start seeing more of these. For people who are unfamiliar, Exploding Kittens is a card game by Elan Lee, Matthew Inman from the comics site The Oatmeal and Shane Small. “A card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats”

They had this booth on the convention floor at Gen Con, a tabletop-game convention. It sold games and merch but also handed out random items and interacted with the growing crowd. For a clear picture of how hilarious this was, I recommend watching the videos.