Another day, another Spectacles vending machine location. This is the fifth place the Snapbot has appeared, to sell its first-person video capturing sunglasses to droves of willing Snapchat fans (or at least people hoping to turn a tidy profit by reselling them on eBay). Today’s spot is in Pasadena, at the Rose Bowl Stadium where there’s a USC/UCLA game later today.
The previous locations include Venice Beach, Big Sur, Tulsa, and Santa Monica. The random locations suggest little in the way of rhyme or reasons beyond keeping things unpredictable, which is definitely helping with the hype cycle. The lack of a predictable pattern also means that demand at any given location isn’t overly artificial – it’s people who are able to get there with almost no advance warning, basically.
This time is different, in that the Snapbot has appeared near a spot where there’s a big event happening soon. The USC/UCLA game will draw a huge crowd, and it’ll also draw a large number of tailgaters before the game itself.
The idea that Snapchat could start tying Snapbot pop-ups more specifically to special events and locations likely to draw a big crowd is an interesting one. They’re definitely a good fit for this kind of thing, since people tend to share more when they’re at an event like a festival or a game. This could also be just another variant in its loose trend of putting the bots at interesting places, however.
If you’re catching the game, let us know what the lineup looks like. Snap has been selling out quickly even in remote locations, so it’ll be interesting to see how quickly this one goes or if Snapchat refills them once they sell out.