It's not exactly a message in a bottle, but it's pretty close. The California-based spirit company Medea Vodka is rolling out an app for its vodka that enables users to program customized messages to appear on the LED strip wrapped around the bottle. Medea's programmable vodka bottle has been on shelves since 2010, but it previously had to be manually programmed by pressing buttons on the bottle. The company's new bottles, slated to go on sale in May, will include Bluetooth technology that will enable users to not only program messages, but also track the bottle's location.
While an interactive liquor bottle may sound like a gimmicky marketing ploy, it actually helps Medea collect valuable data, said Brandon Laidlaw, the company's chief operating officer. Because users have to create an account with their email to use the app and because the bottle uses Bluetooth, the company is able to find out the age and locations of the owner. The company can also tell when someone shares access to the bottle, allowing others to customize messages for the screen.
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--- Cadie Thompson, CNBC