What Everybody Must Know About Near Field Communication (NFC) | Digital Dudette

What is NFC? 

Wikipedia: Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and connections with a touch. 

How NFC works.

If it’s something like the Bluetooth technology, then WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Bluetooth	NFC
·         Needs pairing.	·         Doesn’t require pairing.
·         Consumes more energy.	·         Consumes lesser energy.
·         Longer range (up to 10 meters)	·         Short range (4cm – which means it’s safer)
·         Setup time is longer (less than 6 secs)	·         Setup time is shorter (less than 0.1 secs)

FYI: It’s already adapted in Japan.

Image from nfcdata.com/blog

In fact, McDonalds have already been doing campaigns leveraging on NFC. Read about it here in digital-examples.blogspot.com. 

Subscribers download coupons from McDonald’s Japan’s website but instead of showing the coupon on the phone screen to the clerk and paying with cash, customers can place their orders, redeem their coupons and pay the tab – with their wallet phones. The customers can punch in their orders on their handsets while waiting in line.

Who’s investing on NFC?

• Google – for Android phone users.  
• ISIS (a joint venture AT&T, Verizon andT-Mobile USA) 
• American Express – for AMEX customers.
• Visa – to be used by multiple cards, paymentoptions and financial institution. 

Nevermind global adoption, WOULD MALAYSIANS ADOPT NFC?

Yes, eventually. No doubt there would be fear of hackers, dead batteries and crashing phones but this is a similar situation when online payment was introduced. Users were first sceptical about e-transactions too but they grew to be accustomed to it. Though banks struggled a little to build consumer’s trust, some brands like AirAsia built confidence and grew stronger with e-payment. Now it’s apart of their daily lives. 

Does This Eliminate The Need Of Banking?

Digital Dudette thinks: It might, if banks do not innovate and grow together with mobile technology. 

The Experts, quoted from ComputerWeekly.com:

•       In UK, the recession has dented consumer trust in banks, making mobile operators' promises of an electronic purse and e-money services even more appealing.

•       Mobile payment systems created by telecommunication companies in Japan and Kenya are more successful than some joint ventures between telecos and banks.

•       And with prepaid development like Vodafone: With M-Pesa, an individual would go to a kiosk, buy a pre-loaded card, enter a code into their mobile device and make transactions. 

“Banks will lose customers and revenue stream.” But then again;

 

•       Mobile operators don't realise how hard it is to develop trust in a payment brand. They have no experience.

So banks must adapt. Mobile’s the future of banking.

Search Engine Marketing Is NOT Advertising?

A controversial SEM article by Josh Shatkin, in Ad Age Digital. Do read the article here first, then read my comments below. Though Josh sounds very convincing in his article, he fails to see many other important things.

• JOSH:“SEM is the worst form of advertising, but bear in mind that it is the best form of targeting”
• DIGITAL DUDETTE: How does he come to a conclusion that SEM is the worst form of advertising? 

Based on a poll, clients’ preference in general or personal judgement? Nice argued by the first commenter, Danny Sullivan who says “the ‘best’ form and ‘worst’ form of advertising depends on the advertiser”. And Josh contradicts himself when he says that search is the best form of targeting. If we could use a medium to target effectively and we pay to use the medium, is it considered advertising?

• JOSH: “Search loses the persuasive power of display” 
• DIGITAL DUDETTE: Why are you comparing oranges to apples? 

Text ads may not be as impactful visually as tv ads, but it has the power to allow consumers to reconsider their preference and it effectively does so within a limited number of characters. This is simply because the ad appears when a consumer is open to receive the information. Search does not need fancy visuals i.e. page take overs, expandable banner ads to be persuasive. Beauty of search is buying the right keyword combining it with the relevant text ad to convince the user. And according to a study by iProspect, “Exposure to both paid marketing messaging drives likelihood to purchase (73%) in the future.”

• JOSH: “Search needs a future”
• DIGITAL DUDETTE: Search is the future.

Has tv advertising/print/radio ad evolved since it was first done? The technology to make the ads has grown tremendously but the strategy of how it’s done remains the same. It’s ability to provide accurate data and reporting for measurement supersedes any other traditional medium.

• JOSH: “Search retargeting and search will (and should) live together” 
• DIGITAL DUDETTE: Retargeting is crucial if client has a long term branding campaign/follow up campaign.

It does not make any sense to use retargeting technology if the campaign is all about short term awareness campaign. Online media mix is very much dependant on the campaign objective. I don’t think anyone can say for sure which medium would work best with the other unless they have ran multiple campaigns from different industries. 

CONCLUSION:
Search possess a great opportunity for brands to connect with their potential clients and expand their user database, with statistics to prove. That makes it a good advertising platform for me. What do think?