Coke is trialing biometrics and facial recognition technology to increase its drink sales in Australia. Teaming up with creative agency TKM9, Coca-Cola Amatil is trialing 50 interactive fridges across Australia which can serve ad campaigns, collect sales data, and detect customer interaction via a clear LED digital screen on the front door and a camera.

Coca-Cola Amatil said the digital coolers are expensive but they’re already boosting beverage sales by about 12 per cent compared to CCA’s drinks in standard fridges. The fancy fridges are a marketer’s dream because they’re capable of collecting a huge amount of data so the company can continually refine its campaigns to improve customer interaction, brand loyalty, and of course sell more beverages.

“Interacting with the coolers using touch, gestures, augmented reality, and their own mobile phones, customers are provided with content and experiences that have already been shown to boost sales and brand loyalty,” TKM9 CEO Mark Hodgens said.

The fridges incorporate a cloud analytics platform so factors like geo-location, facial recognition technology, social media input, and weather can all be taken into account when displaying ads and content to the customer gazing into the fridge.

This means the fridges are capable of crunching data to offer up content or ads that are personalized to an individual in real time. […]