Vodka Brand Creates Mobile App To Program Personalized LED Messages On Bottles

You've heard of a message in a bottle, right? Medea Vodka thinks people will be equally intrigued by a message on a bottle.

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Last week, a chocolate bar brand launched a QR code-based mobile app that allows people to add personalized messages of love on their candy bars. This week, a vodka brand is upping the game with LED and Bluetooth technology.

Medea Vodka, which has had manually programmable LED strips on its bottles since 2010, has introduced a mobile app that uses Bluetooth to assign personalized messages to LED strips on vodka bottles. The company will showcase this technology at the upcoming Nightclub & Bar Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas later this month and introduce the bottles in June.

Here’s a look at the original, non-Bluetooth LED bottles in action:

The new LED bottles will use Apple’s iBeacon technology and an app to enable a smartphone to wirelessly set and display scrolling messages. The Medea App, not yet available in either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, will be able to determine what bottles are in the area without having to connect or find every Bluetooth-enabled device. The app will keep tabs on which bottles are around and available to be registered.

Once a person registers a particular bottle using the app, that bottle — and the ability to post messages to the bottle — can be accessed by anyone who the initial registrant chooses to invite. Anyone with access to a bottle can also share their messages to Facebook, Twitter and email. Since users reportedly must register to program their bottle’s message, the app may be a source of useful customer data for Medea.

The bottles are pre-programmed with six phrases including, “Happy Birthday,” “Congratulations” and “Thank you,” which scroll across the LED label.

Medea is promoting the new bottles and app on Facebook and Twitter:


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Steve Hall
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Steve Hall is a marketing professional, publisher, writer, community manager, photographer and all-around lover of advertising.

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