3D Printed Selfies Drum Up Business as Fast Food and Bank Customers are 3D Scanned with Twinstant Mobile System

When I was a kid, I was wild for Beanie Babies. So when McDonald’s announced that the new Happy Meal toy at the time would be the mini Beanie Babies, I was really excited to make little Beanie Baby families (I definitely played with all of my Beanie Babies, no tag protectors or hopes that someday I would be a millionaire if I abstained). I knew what day of the week McDonald’s introduced the newest toy, and I’d like to thank my mother for her unending patience all those years ago when I would beg for a Happy Meal every Wednesday. Nowadays, we live in interesting and technologically advanced times, and instead of tiny stuffed animals or toys, one fast food joint in India offered up 3D printed figurines with a meal purchase, thanks to the portable Twindom instantaneous full-body 3D scanning system, Twinstant Mobile.

Twindom co-founder Will Drevno told 3DPrint.com,”Recently, more and more of our customers have been getting contacted by larger brands about offering 3D printed figurines to their customers as a way to draw them into stores.”

Headquartered in California, the company launched its Twinstant system over two years ago, and recently announced an upgrade, making its Twinstant Mobile full-body scanner much more portable and easy to set up and use.

“What I personally find exciting about the new version of the Twinstant Mobile is that traditionally full body 3D scanners have been known to be big and bulky and not seen as practical to take to events (where a lot of our customers have found the most success). By bringing the setup time down to 20 minutes it makes taking a Twinstant Mobile to an event more in line with setting up a photo booth or regular photography station which is something no other 3D body scanner has been able to achieve,” Drevno told 3DPrint.com.

KFC India is obviously taking advantage of this new portability, and last month, as a way to ramp up in-store traffic, offered customers miniature 3D printed versions of themselves, but only with a specific meal purchase. Obviously, this was a pretty popular option, and people who ordered the KFC I-Box (really a KFC 5-in-1 box) were excited to receive their own 3D printed Smart Toy figurines.

“Toy collectibles are passé and so are selfies,” said Lluis Ruis Ribot, CMO of KFC India. “The KFC I-Box takes things to a whole new level, the Smart Toy is unique, personalized and a mini-you.”

KFC India worked with 3D printed figurine business Little Me, located in Mumbai, to execute the innovative campaign. Little Me set up a Twinstant Mobile full-body 3D scanner in select KFC stores, and quickly scanned the customers who ordered the limited edition KFC I-Box. While the customer was enjoying their meal, Little Me placed an order on Twindom for their 3D printed figurines, and then provided the customer with a special, personalized link of their figurine, so they could share it on their social media accounts.

In addition to KFC India, Landmark Bank in Texas is also taking advantage of 3D scanning and 3D printing to drive foot traffic and offer its customers a custom experience, by launching its Become a Landmark campaign. The campaign is focused on developing long-term financial relationships with customers, and promising that each person will receive personalized attention when they come into the bank.

Drevno explained, “The idea of using 3D printing as a way to offer personalization to customers is interesting and one I think we will see more of as brands look to differentiate and create unique experiences to drive customers to physical stores.”

Last month, as a way to reward new customers for opening up a Landmark account, one of the new bank branches set up a Twinstant Mobile inside and offered these new customers a free 3D printed figurine of themselves, complete with an attached “I’m a Landmark” base…pretty clever, if you ask me.

The campaign reads, “We’ll make you a Landmark with great personal service, sure, and for a limited time, we’ll literally make you a Landmark with a miniature 3D model of you. Just stop by our location, open an account, get your special photo taken and you’ll have an iconic 5.5-inch 3D version of you in about two weeks.”

The #ImaLandmark campaign slogan is “Don’t be a number, be a Landmark.” Once they were scanned, customers received a GIF version to share on social media, before receiving their physical 3D printed figurines. This is a way cooler welcome gift than the free pens and piggy banks I’ve received for opening an account, and that’s just what Landmark was banking on (ha, get it, a bank?).

“It’s been interesting to watch brands want to use our customers’ 3D scanners this way since most of our customer’s sill use their 3D scanners for family portrait photography or for event photography (youth sports, comic-cons, weddings etc.),” Drevno told 3Dprint.com.”

Drevno tells us that Twindom has heard from its customers that a lot of other brands are interested in taking advantage of its Twinstant Mobile system to offer customers fast personalization, in order to keep them coming back. Discuss in the Twinstant forum at 3DPB.com.