NFC marketing comes out of thinaire with the NFC billboard

NFC marketing comes out of thinaire, marketing WILL never be the same

We posted about the thinaire NFC billboard last week and you, our readers, were inspired. We received a lot of visits and shares to the post and we could tell from emails we received how innovative you felt the NFC marketing campaign was. We love NFC marketing – its potentials are colossal and we expect to see NFC marketing rule supremely over out-of-home and print marketing in the coming years.

For the first time marketing has become a two way engagement between consumer and company. A true conversation can now happen between brands and their fans and word of mouth marketing truly is coming of age with a viral aspect that has never existed before.

The world’s first NFC billboard was impressive but it is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what thinaire has to offer. We were shown a glimpse of what thinaire aims to roll out and how far its plans extend and evolve. To be frank, it is at a level of sophistication we thought NFC marketing would go in a couple of years and the firm has the full system today, which goes a far way beyond the NFC billboard we all thought was visionary. More on that in upcoming posts, but for now we want to show you more about the NFC billboard.

NFC marketing using the NFC billboard in Times Square

NFC billboard event in New York

Let us set the picture. As you can see from the photograph above, the 38 feet of engagement messaging that was embodied in the NFC billboard was impactful. Now that’s what we call a call to action. Seth Godin, who is a thought leader for marketers, suggests that by doing something extraordinary a campaign can be more successful than a campaign that is equally expensive but is broken down into many mini campaigns. The thinaire team went big, and we mean really big. The NFC billboard loomed over Times Square for everyone who passed by to see. The screen rotated between five flips, or ads, which coordinated with NFC smartposters that were positioned below the billboard.

NFC Rumors learned that thinaire can actually connect a digital sign with the thinaire platform and experience depending on the digital system and the timeline for execution. In other words the order of ads, by time of day or amount of time an ad is displayed for, or even by views, can be controlled by the thinaire platform. From what we understand, that platform has the ability to manage many different campaigns. We think it is only a matter of time until smart screens actually have active NFC card emulation built straight into true NFC billboards. As a side line we know for a fact TV makers are already working on smart TVs that will allow this type of engagement for consumers.

How the consumers interacted with the NFC marketing on the NFC billboard

The thinaire message on the 38-foot sign directed passersby to tap the NFC enabled poster below. Where things get clever is what came next. The experience the user received from the tap on the poster coordinated with the ads (flips) on the sign.

This allowed the users to scroll through the different ad options, which all displayed on users’ NFC phones. All the user needed to do is decide which ad they wanted to learn more about or engage with. When they clicked on the NFC marketing ad it brought them to that advertiser’s customized experience. This custom experience could theoretically be anything – whether that be directing them to a mobile site, making a purchase of a particular product, or getting directions to a store that has a sale on. It could also be content based marketing and show videos, photos, or even take on a viral aspect to any campaign that gives rewards for sharing discounts and content with friends. That is the power of NFC marketing.

However, in this particular NFC marketing campaign the customized experience on the phone for the DRIVE movie ad allowed a user to view a trailer or like on Facebook. This campaign in particular is similar to the VH1 NFC marketing campaign Blue Bite was involved in for the VH1 Rizzoli & Isles show that converted a whole store into a crime scene.

The customized experience on the NFC phone for a Fendi ad allowed the user to see the new perfume and it automatically played a perfume commercial, then allowed the user to share and like the content and brand on Facebook. Yes, we haven’t quite reached smell-o-vision as pf yet, but until that happens this is the nearest experience you can have out on the street using a 38-foot ad that drives you to video content and invites you to share what you learned with friends. The customized NFC marketing experience on the phone for the NFC Bootcamp page allowed the user to register for the event and like the brand on Facebook as did the experience for thinaire.

NFC billboard event NFC marketing summary

This level of engagement on the street has never been available before. Leaders are starting to emerge in this type of NFC marketing. We see it in Australia with Tapit, in the UK with Proxama, and here in the States with Blue Bite. We can say that we have never seen such a robust system as thinaire appears to have. NFC marketing is evolving quickly and the NFC billboard is just the start. We have said it before and we will say it again, marketers who do not invest in their skills and embrace NFC marketing will be left behind.