Meta’s swag, on demand, in every London lobby.

Meta’s London campuses host teams, events and guests all day. Staff needed to hand out swag there and then, not wait for an order to arrive. Meta already had an online store, but no way to give something instantly.

Underneath that was a bigger aim. Anthony Almir, Community Experience Partner in Meta UK’s People team, wanted to “enhance that overall sense of pride and belonging for our Metamates across the campus”. And Meta wanted one supplier for all of it, rather than several.

The vending machines were Anthony’s idea. We had never built one, and told him we would make it happen. In his words: “When I approached them with this hare-brained idea that I had of introducing vending machines, they were incredibly enthusiastic. They were very, very confident in their ability to bring this to life.”

We took classic vending machines, removed the front and fitted a high-definition touchscreen. Staff walk a guest up, the guest picks what they want, and it drops. Ben Greenock, our co-founder: “They can take them up to the machine and say, what do you want, choose what you want, and it literally appears. It is like this weird little TARDIS packed full of really exciting product.”

Anthony calls the project “a huge success”, with feedback that has been “overwhelmingly” positive. “Not only is it a first for us, I think it’s also a first for big tech in general, certainly in the UK.”

Ben: “When you go into any of the lobbies of the big Meta campus offices, you are faced with a Go Swag vending machine and instant access to their top line products. It has transformed the way they wow guests.”

The machines and the store are in daily use, and we still run both. More than 600 orders have come through the machines, and more than 1,600 through the store. The work has grown into the wider account: welcome and onboarding packs, the Meta Giving Event, All Hands, London Tech Summit, swag for the Zurich office and its 10-year anniversary, and Meta Connect in Dubai.