Japanese vending machine operator Apex and ad agency WillB are introducing vending machines that will give users a free or discounted drink if they are prepared to watch an advertisement that plays on the touch screen that’s also used to order the drinks. Apex is the country’s second largest vending machine operator and the ad funded freebies will include coffee and soft drinks. Ads will appear on the cups, too, with advertisers paying 70 to 80 yen (roughly 30p, 40 Euro cents or 60 US cents) per cup distributed.

When you consider that 19-inch LCD displays are already built into existing machines, you realise how great this idea is. The scheme simply uses redundant space on already available media. And to top it all, since the screens are activated by touch, there’s the possibility of developing interactive ads in the future. Just mind you’re not on your third drinks order whilst interacting (think about it).

It seems filling up a cup takes around 30 seconds, so it’s no great effort for a consumer to watch the ads. The service has an initial trial period using several dozen machines in June and if it takes off, Apex may develop the idea to all the 35,000 cup vending machines it currently operates across Japan.

The service was invented by WillB who are traditionally a recruitment outfit. Maybe the bright idea light came on whilst some potential employee was waiting to be interviewed somewhere. They’ve named the service Medicafe, which no doubt works in Japan but maybe needs a little ‘a’ in the middle there to stop western language speakers thinking this whole thing belongs in an hospital foyer.

During their research for MedCafe, staff at WillB tried the idea out using a vending machine located in a Tokyo company cafe. The juices, coffees and teas at this outfit were normally costing consumers 100 Yen. No surprise that the idea went down great. But WillB got a little more success than they bargained for - no less than 30,800 cups were drunk within a week.