Last week Astral Tequila (‘Astral’) introduced smart bottles of its award-winning spirit to engage with consumers in-store and deliver customized digital experiences with the tap of a smartphone. The AI interactive spirits bottles featuring NFC technology is said to be the first spirits bottle released in the US, and will be available from stores in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Georgia.
Astral is collaborating with NFC (near field communications) mobile marketing solutions provider and Thin Film Electronics ASA (‘Thinfilm’). The smart bottles of its tequila will utilize near field communication (NFC) technology to provide exclusive content to smartphone users.
An NFC neck tag comes attached to every bottle, and when tapped with a smartphone, it directs users to Astral content, including a video featuring Jonathan Goldsmith – the actor best known for his role as ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’. Consumers can tap their smartphones to bottles of Astral Tequila, when they are in store at the point of sale.
Thinfilm offers solutions designed to help brands turn physical products into mobile-interactive touch points. The technology enables brands to tell their story in their own words at moments of high consumer intent – when consumers are holding or are in the proximity of the physical product. It is also offering end-to-end mobile marketing solutions that feature hardware, cloud-based campaign management tools, and comprehensive reporting and analytics. Collectively, these components deliver a powerful 1-to-1 digital marketing platform through which brands of all sizes can connect directly with consumers, all with the simple tap of a smartphone.
This is not the first time that smart technology is finding its way to beverage consumers. Last month we presented “Vocktail”, a smart glass that is capable of tricking your senses into thinking that the water you’re drinking is actually whatever you want to drink in the moment. Now we can hope for a smart brewery, or at least a barrel.
