iBeacons are the future of retail. However last week I spotted two unique examples of how the technology could be used beyond retail…
SnackBall Machine
GranataPet is a pet food company from the Bavarian Alps. In their latest campaign, they decided to port the fitness hype from the human world to the dog world.
With the help of their ad agency MRM / McCann Germany, they developed a SnackBall Machine that automatically launched a tennis ball (embedded with an iBeacon) in the park when the dog owner checked-in with #snackball on Twitter. The dog that quickly returned with the ball was then rewarded with a healthy GranataPet Snack, that was activated by the proximity of the ball to the machine.
Since its launch across various large German cities, GranataPet has seen a 27% lift in sales at various local pet food shops.
Tzukuri iBeacon Glasses
Australian company Tzukuri (phonetic spelling of “to make” in Japanese) has successfully combined a tiny iBeacon chip with regular sunglasses, that automatically and permanently connect with the users iPhone. So when the user leaves the sunglasses somewhere he is automatically alerted via a custom iPhone app.
More infos on the glasses are available at: www.tzukuri.com
