Coca-Cola Using Microsoft's IoT (Internet of Things) Platform

Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), a leading beverage manufacturer in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. CCA wanted to design a new way for consumers to interact with their brand. They teamed up with global creative agency TKM9 and Microsoft to create a solution that capitalizes on the Internet of Things (IoT) by utilizing interactive digital signage installed on beverage coolers (large refrigerator-like vending machines).

In a limited trial run of 50 machines, this Internet of CCA’s Things, built on TKM9 and Microsoft technologies, is already boosting beverage sales — from 12 percent up to 20 percent, depending on the channel and outlet. It builds on existing beverage coolers, equipping them with Windows Embedded-powered touch screens and Kinect for Windows technology to provide immersive content experiences for customers. By linking to rich analytics in the cloud, the solution is also capable of mining a wealth of data to help CCA continually refine and target how the coolers interact with consumers.

According to Stuart Port, manager of Frozen Beverages Strategy at CCA, the company wanted to give existing machines at various locations a digital upgrade that could capture the attention of mobile consumers in a social media world.

“We do spend a lot of money creating customized material for point-of-sale locations all across the marketplace,” explains Port. “We wanted to be less reliant on having a field team execute marketing everywhere, so we needed a more scalable, digital solution that could deliver content remotely.”

The modern hardware links up to an analytics application running in the cloud on the Microsoft Azure platform. On the back end, the solution considers multiple data streams, including geo-location and facial recognition technology, social media input, and weather services, to personalize the flow of content to individual customers in real time.

It appears we know now IoT is simply Windows Embedded rebranded.

Read the full blog post at The Fire Hose