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Kinetic and JCDecaux pioneer first large-scale deployment of NFC along with QR codes

Reading Kinect/JCDecaux NFC trialKinetic and JCDecaux pioneer first large-scale deployment of NFC along with QR codes

 

Digital advertising companies Kinetic and JCDecaux have teamed up to this week launch a four-week trial of the UK’s first large-scale deployment of near field communication (NFC) technology.

 

Digital out-of-home (DooH) company JCDecaux is using all of its six-sheet poster sites in Reading – providing 325 ‘touchpoints’ – in total to promote exclusive content and NFC voucher experiences from a range of 13 high profile brands.

 

The companies said that, under the ‘Test the Near Future’ project, over 300 bus shelter poster sites across Reading and poster sites in the Oracle Shopping Mall would become near field communication (NFC) and quick response (QR) code enabled.

 

With support provided by interactive technology specialist Zappit, people will be able to interact with the NFC and QR elements of the posters to download information, offers and games with a smartphone either loaded with QR code recognition software or enabled for NFC payments.

 

Wide ranging brand interest

 

Advertisers taking part in the trial include: Morrisons, H&M, Universal DVD, Universal Special Projects, Mercedes, ITV2, Lucozade Sport, EA Games and Unilever’s Lynx, TONI&GUY, Magnum and Vaseline. Content will be updated regularly across the month, with different advertisers providing different content each week.

 

Nick Mawditt, director of insight and marketing at out-of-home advertising planner and buyer Kinetic said: “This is the first large-scale deployment of NFC technology on the street and is bringing the future of out of home to the here and now in Reading.

 

“During the trial shoppers and commuters can choose to download content from 13 major advertisers including special offers, vouchers, games and music simply by swiping their smartphones on poster sites. NFC is widely regarded as a technology that could transform the way consumers use their mobile phones to interact with their environment. We will be looking closely to see how consumers engage and interact with the content during the trial.”

 

Mawditt also confirmed the town of Reading was chosen for the trial because it is one of the UK’s most tech-savvy, with a high proportion of smartphone users.