First, a quick lesson.
What is NFC? It stands for Near Field Communication.
Great. But what does that mean?
Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimetres.
Present and anticipated applications include contactless transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi.[1] Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip, called a “tag”.
NFC currently exists by way of mobile-payment, but what makes this so newsworthy, is that this is the first time that NFC will be integrated into a print ad (Lexus ad in the April issue of WIRED Magazine).
NFC-enabled Lexus ad (Wired Magazine) - as seen in the Ad Age article.
“WIRED introducing the first NFC-enabled ad could only be made possible by bringing together the creative minds at Lexus with our reputation for pushing the envelope with emerging technologies and ideas,” said WIRED VP and Publisher Howard Mittman. “The WIRED world moves at an extraordinary speed, and this shows how we continue to work with our partners to ensure we all remain on the cutting edge.”
(Reuters – Press Release: WIRED Delivers First-Ever NFC-Enabled Advertisement Featuring Lexus)
You’re probably thinking…ok, this already exists with QR codes. But no, it’s actually different.
Unlike the 2-D barcodes that have been storming magazine pages, readers don’t need to take pictures of anything with their phones’ cameras. The phone automatically detects the NFC chip.
In the case of Wired and Lexus, that brings up a link on the phone’s screen. Click the link and a welcome video loads introducing the car’s in-dash App Suite. Users can then click on each of the app icons — Bing, OpenTable, iHeartRadio, Pandora, MovieTickets.com, and Yelp — to see short videos explaing [sic] each app.
(Ad Age – Lexus Brings NFC-Enabled Print Ad to Wired Magazine)
What I find most fascinating, is that of all industries…it’s the auto industry that is making it’s mark with this new technology.
According to the NFC forum (yes, there is actually a forum on this technology), when asked about the forecasted opportunity for NFC –
Jupiter Research has projected that up to 700 million NFC-enabled mobile phones will be sold by 2013, representing up to 25 percent of the market at that time (November 2008). Jupiter Research has also projected that NFC Mobile Payments will exceed $30bn by 2012 (September 2009).
It’ll be interesting to see how this affects print vs. online advertising, the (hurting) auto industry, the economy in Japan, and the behemoth known as Apple (as it is not on-board with NFC yet…).
Filed under: Automobiles, Business, Marketing, Science, Social Media, Tech, Enform App Suite, Lexus, Lexus GS 2013's, mobile payment, Near Field Communication, NFC, QR code, WIRED magazine
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