This is the third post in a series that NFCdog have written about NFC for the Clove blog. The first one is here and second one, here.
As highlighted in our second post, mobile payment has always been seen as the primary use case by the mobile and finance industries, but to call NFC a one trick pony is very much missing the point. Due to the fact that NFC can open URLs, device applications and also be used to share information (such as contact cards), it lends itself very nicely to interactive advertising and mobile marketing.
The potential for those advertising is made even greater by being able to directly track how consumers are interacting. When the consumer goes online it is possible to track what they access instantly. Via backend analytics it’s then very quick and easy to build up a picture of user’s behaviour, their demographic and also location where the campaign is succeeding or failing. This information allows the advertiser the ability to modify things very quickly (new video, offer etc.) which just hasn’t been possible with traditional advertising.
For example, take a smart poster campaign which has embedded NFC tags with a URL to a website or video. By tapping the tag the consumer is taken straight to rich media which is incredibly powerful in getting the message across. The same poster could also have tags which opened social media sites so comments could be made straight away. Also the advertising could be combined with a voucher which is stored in the consumers’ mobile wallet, which could then be redeemed later.
This could also be extended further with intelligent video/online digital signage or pods so you can interact with the content simply by tapping it.
Of course this complexity isn’t mandatory; therefore it’s not limited to big brands. Due to the cost of tags being very affordable it’s possible that many small to medium sized businesses could benefit from this type of thing combining their print advertising with online resources such as websites etc.
Think of one possible scenario, currently a lot of commercial vehicles have sign written graphics with the companies contact details. By embedding an anti-metal tag programmed with the contact details in the vinyl, a consumer could instantly get the contact details on their handset saving them having to try and remember them.
When you look at the wide ranging possibilities this brings, it’s not hard to realise that NFC has huge potential in changing the way we interact with advertising in the very near future. The advertisers are already realising that the future lies in online and mobile and this is reflected in the amount of money which is now being spent on online and mobile advertising, this trend is only going to grow in the next few years.
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