NEWARK — Quarters are so 20th Century.
Prize-seeking fans at Newark’s Gateway Center Wednesday played a vending machine with a tweet, and were rewarded with some New Jersey Devils prizes.
The “Twitter Vending Machine” was set up by the team and manned by defenseman Jon Merrill. Fans who tweeted a selfie with the player at the Devils’ Twitter account got a randomly generated code tweeted back at them. They then entered that code in the machine to win prizes ranging from team key chains and t-shirts to signed hockey sticks and game tickets.
“I just walked near (the machine) by chance and thought I would check it out,” Siobhan Wolohan, 45, of Cedar Grove, said. She had come to the Gateway Center on other business Wednesday afternoon, she said.
The longtime Devils fan got a photo with Merrill and won an autographed puck.
“My kids are going to be so jealous,” she said.
The team said the booth, which was manned by forward Adam Henrique in Hoboken Tuesday, is a new way that they can reach out to fans throughout New Jersey.
“It’s definitely a cool and unique thing,” Merrill said.
“A big part of this franchise is making sure all of our great fans get to know the players, not only in terms of how they perform on the ice, but also about how they get involved in the community.”
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.