The world renowned brand Coca-Cola is taking the beachfront store in Rio de Janeiro and turning it into a lab for the company’s “Happiness Refill” project. A dispenser that gives cellphone users data credits so that they can browse the internet rather than having a soda. The aim is to target young, emerging middle-class consumers who cannot afford a generous data plan. More than 80% of this target group uses prepaid and doesn’t have an affordable data option. Daniel Tartaro (digital integration director at Ogilvy) states that "We're mixing mobile, the emerging middle class, and a positive brand experience in one application”. This is how the Coke machine will work:

The coke store on Copacabana beach includes bright red and white tables with a bar, the cellphone user will hold up the phone to the bright red dispenser, data credits as well as a Coke browser is downloaded. For ease of use, the browser has 3 buttons: Coke FM radio, Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and the weather forecast. Each data refill is 20 megabytes which has been names “20 liters of happiness” and lasts about 2 weeks for the moderate user and a week for a heavy user. Anybody can refill at any time. Ms. Knackfuss states that "It's a pilot for us to test consumer reaction, and understand what role Coke should play in the mobile space, we'll be filming everything because we're interested in capturing consumers' spontaneous reaction."

Via: designboom.com, adage.com