Near field communication (NFC) chips are tiny. They’re just a few millimeters long and flat enough to be printed inside a sticker. Today, NFC chips are inside 16% of Canadian smartphones, according to comScore. And as more consumers buy NFC-enabled phones, the tiny chips are likely to be incorporated into an increasing amount of packaging and out-of-home advertising.
In a whitepaper released on Nov. 28, Vancouver-based Gauge Mobile showcased OOH-enabled ads by three of its clients – Scotiabank, Telus and the Best New Products Awards. Gauge Mobile founder Tony Vassiliev said he was eager to show the marketing industry that NFC is useful for OOH, not just mobile payments.
In Scotiabank’s ads, which ran in June, 26% of consumers’ street-level interaction with the ads were through NFC, a number Vassiliev said is significant as it’s higher than the overall penetration of NFC-enabled phones. Similarly, 32% of interactions with Telus’ ads were through NFC, compared to 68% through the QR code that was also featured.
Vassiliev said NFC functions similarly to a QR code, but offers a much more seamless experience. “A QR code, for someone who is tech savvy, is not a problem. You take out your phone, open an app, scan the code, get the content,” he said. “For someone who is not comfortable with that process, that’s a lot of steps.”
By comparison, tapping an NFC-enabled phone against an ad or package leads directly to the marketing material. “You pull out your phone, you tap, you go,” Vassiliev said.
While most Android and BlackBerry devices are NFC-enabled, the iPhone is not, which Vassiliev said has limited mass consumer adoption. Gauge’s paper notes that NFC and QR codes are likely to both be used for several years, but predicts NFC will eventually overtake the latter. As NFC chips get smaller and cheaper (they’re currently about 10 cents each), Vassiliev said it’s becoming more feasible for companies to use them.
“I think NFC will find its home in the consumer package goods area – tags on packaging and promotion material,” he said. “It makes sense. You pick up a box of cereal and want to enter a contest. Instead of having to cut something out, put it in the mail and sent it in, you tap your phone against the box.”
