The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

December 12, 2012 | 2 min read

Tropical Sun has worked with advertising agency The Minimart to help raise awareness of the brand, through a free trial vending machine.

Based on a Caribbean beach, the live feed webcam lets users view the nine Tropical Sun products on offer, and pick one. They can then watch in real-time as their selection is activated in the machine and a Tropical Sun employee collects, packs up and posts it.

Tim Clyde, founding creative partner of The Minimart, said: “We are delighted that Tropical Sun bought into such a confident and original concept. The online vending machine provides us with a powerful communications tool to establish a strong brand personality and introduce the fantastic range of products to new customers in a cost effective way, all with social media at the heart of the idea.”

As well as the webcam itself, there will be a viral campaign, seeding by The 7th Chamber, showing a team of Tropical Sun workers (all called Ray) preparing the products and filling up the vending machine.

“When The Minimart presented this ambitious idea to us, we instantly felt it captured the essence of the brand personality and allowed us to communicate in a fun and innovative way to a targeted audience and reward them for engaging with Tropical Sun”, said Kapil Wadhwani, brand chieftain at Tropical Sun Foods.