When you go out to festivals like SXSW, Lollapalooza or heck even CES you can always find some promotion where you can get something free for a tweet. With over 100,000 followers I get offered all kinds of amazing free stuff in exchange for a tweet.

Well now there is something that takes that concept literally. The social vending machine, allows users to tweet and then redeem a free prize, right out of the machine. At the 2014 International CES we ran into a social vending machine in the central hall.

All you had to do to get a free t-shirt was tweet the official International CES Twitter account with a special hashtag and voila, a t-shirt would dump out of the machine, in your correct size and everything.

This concept isn’t new though. It was first introduced by Pepsi in 2011 where you could use your social power to vend drinks out of a Pepsi machine. They took that concept one step further last year when they introduced a machine that would dispense a users favorite Pepsi product for a Facebook like.

Now the social vending machine allows users and brands the ability to put just about any vendable product  a tweet, hashtag or facebook like away from a customer. It’s the easiest way to get momentum going for any brands social campaign.

Obviously the person tweeting or liking needs to be near the machine but the social engagement is still sent out to the world. Of course companies and brands could use two person engagements to receive prizes like getting someone to tweet from a distance so that you can unlock the free prize.

The possibilities are endless and they’re here. The social vending machine harnesses the power of social media with actual, physical products and prizes.

Check out the video below: