Check-In with Your Face

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Cool but very scary.

NFC is not just mobile payment - 6 other uses

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


NFC or Near Field Communication is the big buzz word at the moment and everybody is talking about it. The truth is that the technology is nothing new and it has been around for a long time. Nokia had an NFC enabled phone in 2007, it was called the Nokia 6131.

Google has made the term mainstream with their announcement of Google Wallet and most people think of NFC as a way to pay with their mobile device. But that is not all.

So what else can you do with NFC apart from using it for payments?  There are already plenty of examples out there.  Below you can find 6 examples on how NFC can be used right now.

1. Use your NFC enabled phone as the key to your hotel room


For the recent Olympics in London a Holiday Inn Hotel gave their VIP customers a Samsung Galaxy S3 as part of their 40 VIP rooms. The guests were able to check in and out of the hotel, as well as change the AC, control the TV, and unlock their rooms with the phone.

Using NFC in your phone as a key to open doors has been used in the Enterprise world as well. The phones were used to enable physical access systems in buildings and track employee time-clock check-ins and attendance, access staff parking areas or cafeterias and pay for services.

NFC tags could be placed inside meeting or conference rooms, and attendees could tap their compatible devices to silence them or to turn on Wi-Fi, for example.

2. Use it as your travel pass

NFC in your phone could replace the paper train or bus passes that we carry around with us. The principal would be very similar to the Oyster card in London, but it would be on your phone. You can easily recharge it when it runs low and you always have it with you.



The City of Nice has already started to roll out NFC based bus and train tickets as well as the possibility to get information on routes and time tables, simple by tapping an NFC tag

3. Use it as a way finder
GPS is great, but it has one major drawback and that is that is doesn’t work indoors.
NFC tags placed all around a shopping mall could simply be tapped and would open a map that accurately pinpoints where you are at the moment because it knows where the tag was tapped.


The city of Sydney has placed NFC tags all around the Rocks to help guide tourists around one of its most popular landmark.

4. Use it to enhance your shopping experience
NFC tags placed next to items in a shopping environment can give the customer more information, nutritional or general, it could let them like a product or add it to their virtual basket. It could give them specials or coupons for direct redemption in store etc.



NFC mobile application could remember your previous purchases allowing you to make a purchase in the convenience of your home.

There have been successful pilot programs being conducted in several countries such as France, Spain, UK, Australia and Korea. Major retailers have adopted NFC to improve sales conversion, up-selling, loyalty programs, couponing etc.

5. Easy device to device sharing
Remember setting up a Bluetooth connection between phones or trying to send a large video file via email?

NFC makes that a thing of the past and sharing files between NFC enabled devices is like a walk in the park now.

Check out Android Beam in action below.

Manufacturers like Samsung went ahead and optimized the technology even further and their S Beam is one of the main features of the new Samsung Galaxy SIII.

6. NFC and marketing
When you ask why QR codes never really took off, the answer could be that you still had to have a separate app on your phone to read one of those. If the phones native camera would have been able to decode them I believe they would have been very popular.

NFC in NFC enabled phones is native and comes out of the box and all you have to do is tap the tag and the information gets transferred.



Users with NFC phones can quickly wave their devices over NFC-enabled flyers, advertisements, billboards or movie posters to instantly collect additional information on products or service, collect awards, get brochures or movie trailers.

NFC is evolving on a daily basis and we can see prototypes and pilot programs everywhere:
The University of San Francisco is currently using an NFC-based system called One Card

Alaska Airlines is experimenting with NFC for boarding passes and security access.
Samsung is working on a system that will let concert goers access shows and events using NFC instead of traditional paper tickets.

BMW has built an NFC-enabled car key that can not only unlock an automobile, but also eventually help you book and access hotels room while you’re traveling.

Source: http://amnesiablog.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/nfc-is-not-just-mobile-payment/#more-6517

Nike rolls out first mobile campaign in China via Tencent's WeChat

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com


After preparations since February, Nike is rolling out its first mobile campaign via WeChat, the Tencent technologies offering that is currently China's most popular social messaging app.

Calling it a 'sports brand subscription platform' with a 'Nike sports-on-the-go' concept, the brand will launch its official WeChat account, which is available on Android and Apple smartphones from 23 August onwards—in time for the Nike Festival Of Sport 2012 taking place in Shanghai until the 26th.

Before that, the QR code (above) is being utilised as a teaser ad for online display and outdoor advertising, such as on Baidu, taxis, posters, billboards, and on retail flyers, to draw attention to Nike's WeChat platform.

More than 100 million WeChat users will be able to opt-in to subscribe to Nike's account. Upon subscription, fans will be able to activate daily news feeds from Nike.

“WeChat is our ultimate platform to build up our CRM system,” said Vicky Huang, media manager of Nike Greater China. “We want to deepen the connection with consumers, from broadcasting to conversing, from 'one to many' to 'one to one'," she added.

“We chose the WeChat platform because mobile penetration for China's youths is extremely high, tipping over 50 per cent. In terms of usage habits, they practically depend on their mobiles for all forms of communication,” explained Stella Jamie Lui, digital partner of Team Nike at Mindshare.

RazorFish's Carolina Lam and Martin Li will be responsible for pushing daily content on the Nike WeChat brand subscription platform. Nike's mobile campaign will be launched in three phases. In the second phase, Tencent has allowed Nike's agencies on its open API (application programming interface) to integrate existing sports applications such as the Nike+ running app with WeChat.

Different from traditional text-based mobile communication tools such as QQ, SMS/MMS etc, WeChat supports voice chats (one to one and group) as well as sharing of photos and videos.

A Tencent spokesperson told Campaign Asia-Pacific that other multinational brands such as Pepsi and Starbucks have used WeChat for mobile campaigns before, but Nike is the first sports brand to do so in China.

Source: http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/311889,nike-rolls-out-first-mobile-campaign-in-china-via-tencents-wechat.aspx?

Nike Rolls Out its First Social Loyalty Program via Facebook in Hong Kong

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

Typically, using hashtags on Facebook is redundant. But for Nike Hong Kong, you can show off how sporty you are by posting on the social network sporting activities you’ve completed, earn points, and get rewarded.

Instead of a viral video traveling around the world inspiring fans, Nike Hong Kong knows the way to get youths in the city to participate and engage with its Make It Count campaign is by taking the gamification approach leveraging Facebook’s social graph.

Targeting youngsters aged 15 to 25, they first need to visit Nike Hong Kong’s campaign site to register via their Facebook logins.

The system will analyze the user’s account to determine how sporty they are and award basic points.

To earn more points, participants have to complete a number of “missions,” ranging from sporting activities such as running, skateboarding, football to basketball as well as other outdoor activities like walking a pet, taking a picture of their sports gear, or attending a Latin dance class.

After completing the missions, participants would need to share on Facebook either through a status update, photo upload, or location check-in using the #makeitcount hashtag to accumulate points.

The accumulated points will be used to redeem “rewards” for Nike products or join sporting events. For instance, with 7,000 points, a user can exchange for a gym sack but will need 22,000 points to attend Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco in October.

“It is the first loyalty program that leveraged on the organic function of social media,” said Jade Lau, brand communications manager for Nike Hong Kong.

She explained after users joined the campaign, they could tell their friends about the completed activities via the social platform and the system would automatically reward them with points that could be exchanged for rewards and special sporting events.

The campaign, supported by its digital agency Razorfish in Hong Kong, aims to educate users on the concept of “make it count” and get them to add the campaign hashtag on social media. The campaign will begin on Facebook initially, with plans to extend to China’s Weibo and photo sharing social network Instagram in the coming weeks.

Make It Count rolled out in March and has been gaining momentum since, with more than 20,000 users signed up and over 70,000 missions completed.

According to Nike, no traditional media was used in this campaign. Instead it is run mainly from its campaign site and Facebook, supported by major local media portals such as Yahoo, Sina, Apple Daily, On.cc, and vertical sites.

However, a recent mission under the football category is aligned with an outdoor event that featured a digital installation in Langham Place shopping mall. The mission merged with another campaign called My Time Is Now, which ran concurrently. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNIky-Mb3m4

Because Make It Count Hong Kong relies heavily on Facebook’s API, one of the key challenges was to integrate with the social platform seamlessly as many unexpected issues occurred such as errors during deployment that were outside of the agency’s control.

Razorfish’s advice if you plan to do a similar campaign of this scale leveraging Facebook or other social media platforms: sufficient testing time is critical.

Make It Count in Hong Kong will run till the end of this year.

Source:  http://www.clickz.asia/7666/nike-rallies-hong-kong-youths-to-make-it-count-by-earning-points-off-facebook

Why using Olympic athletes in campaigns is risky

PumaPulse Curated By ZenithOptimedia, The ROI Agency Find out more at http://puma-pulse.blogspot.com

A series of ads using successful and popular Olympic athletes shows the the risks of using a sporting star in your ads. The importance of great casting cannot be underestimated to make an idea work and writing an ad to meet the limitations and strengths of that individual is of paramount importance. 

Dame Kelly Holmes, won two Gold medals at the Sydney Olympics for the UK and became a bit of a hero. She holds a soft spot in the heart of the UK population. 

So using her to endorse the importance of eating breakfast (a social message to say everyone performs better if they eat breakfast), and then saying Kellogg's cereals are great must have seemed like a good idea. 

I am sure she must have been a costly sign-up. But a great athlete is a great athlete. They are not automatically a great performer and actor. So, in my view and many others based on comments, is that her acting is cardboard and uncomfortable. It distracts from the message, as you focus on the acting. It is less compelling. 

It just goes to show how important casting is to make an idea work and credible. Or, if you really want to use a great Olympian to endorse your product understand them and their acting constraints and write to their strengths and weaknesses. 

Dame Kelly Holmes: Skip breakfast and you may miss out on fuel for your brain 



Take these more recent examples of using an Olympian athlete:

Tom Daley: UK Olympian diver
Nestle: Get set Go Free Activities using UK Diver Tom Daley 


Tom is cheeky and friendly. But this ad again distracts as they have him trying to perform a highly complex acting and interactive move. Something even experienced actors would struggle with. You focus on his actions, not the message.

Adidas Tom Daley: Take the stage 
However, Adidas (who probably understand sportsmen better and their strengths and weaknesses) created an ad for London 2012 which uses his life story, which is well known on how he lost his Dad and dedicates his sport to his memory, and focuses on the diving without acting and a voice over. It works so much better as the acting does not distract from any message. 


Gillette also understood better how to use their Olympian: Sir Chris Hoy Sir Chris Hoy endorses Gillette. He is Scottish with an accent, and is a charming but fairly serious guy when you safe him in media. So they show him competing and using the product, and gave him a voice over to record. This gives more flexibility and opportunity to play to his strengths. You don't focus on his performance as an actor - but the message more. 

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/32358.asp