Tapit forms Australian NFC advertising network with JCDecaux

Tapit forms Australian NFC agency out of home advertising network with JCDecaux

We can barely get through a week without Tapit announcing another way in which they are growing and becoming a bigger player in the NFC marketing world. The company formed an alliance early on with out-of-home advertising giant, JCDecaux, and today that relationship got broader and tighter. JCDecaux and Tapit have announced that they have created Australia’s first Near Field Communications advertising network.

With a dedicated out-of-home NFC network across Australia, agencies and brands can now extend their reach onto the customer’s mobile phone. The two companies now have the ability to execute, deploy and manage everything from treasure hunts to localized coupon offers. Tapit will connect 240 panels across JCDecaux’s street furniture inventory to Tapit systems. This will enable advertisers to create OOH campaigns that consumers can interact with via their mobile phones. People walking past an enabled JCDecaux panel will simply be able to tap their NFC enabled phone on the Tapit symbol to retrieve all types of mobile content.

At the moment NFC marketing is still seen as a novelty by consumers, but within the next year it is expected that more aware consumers will use NFC marketing messages on a regular basis to get more information or interact with brands they are interested in. Tapit with JCDecaux are getting the system live so progressive brands can utilize these new NFC capabilities today.

Tapit & JCDecaux NFC Campaign ad

A video showing consumer engagement with a recent NFC marketing campaign

Steve O’Connor, CEO of JCDecaux, Australia said, “By the end of 2011 it’s anticipated that over 80% of mobile handsets in Australia will have internet capability. As a consequence, Outdoor is set to play an increasingly important role in helping advertisers drive an online offering. Recognizing this growth potential we have partnered with an established specialist company in Tapit to ensure we deliver for advertisers the best possible connectivity.”

“This is exciting stuff, because of the JCDecaux / Tapit combination, new types of OOH mobile campaigns are now possible. This is not only about downloading content from street furniture, we can now drive people from the street furniture into the nearest store to increase sales through incentives,” said Jamie Conyngham, CEO of Tapit.

The Tapit and JCDecaux teaming has already executed four NFC campaigns together including a TV series in Australia called “The Renovators”, a popular Sydney radio station “Nova FM”, and in QVB, which is one of Sydney’s premier shopping centers. Legacy systems also are still used to engage consumers who don’t have NFC phones. Tapit provides integrated SMS and QR capability. JCDecaux clients can request any or all of the mobile options. “Both JCDecaux and Tapit believe NFC is the future,” the companies said.

The NFC advertising network is now, live so ad agencies can now start to design innovative physical world campaigns that either drive traffic to physical or online properties. The Tapit system that is available on all Australian JCDecaux properties has the flexibility to manage NFC campaigns where each panel does different things depending upon its location and time of day, which obviously brings new opportunities that engage consumers.