ViVOtech enables NFC 'smart poster' marketing
ViVOtech, a provider of NFC mobile phone-based promotions and payments software, is now rolling out the commercial release of its ViVOplatform Smart Poster Management Software (VpSPm).
VpSPm is a one-on-one mobile marketing software system that aims to help merchants drive increased business through the creation, management, and delivery of personalised and context-sensitive information to consumers' mobile phones.
New marketing channels The new platform allows businesses to broadcast new promotions, products, and even make coupons directly available to consumers via NFC-capable mobile phones, through interaction with RFID-enabled 'smart posters'.
"VpSPm-based NFC smart posters represent a new level of consumer opt-in marketing, delivering a very high-touch approach for marketers. By creating technology that completes the entire lifecycle of retail transactions, ViVOtech aims to enable merchants and card issuers to deliver personalised and location-based value to customers," explained Michael Mullagh, ViVOtech's CEO.
How they work Smart posters are similar to traditional posters or billboards but are logic enabled by having one or more NFC tags mounted on their back side. When an NFC mobile phone is waved directly at a smart poster, the device communicates with the NFC tag to receive a message, connecting to the VpSPm backend system using a wireless data network. Consumers simply wave their NFC phones at smart posters and other NFC-enabled media to download personalised incentives and promotions redeemable at local stores and other participating merchants that have ViVOtech Contactless terminals and readers.
VpSPm has already been used in more than one dozen pilot programmes around the world with large merchants that are now pioneering NFC payments and promotion platforms. For example, a pilot of NFC mobile phone promotions and coupons was completed using smart posters, with electronic redemption at the point of sale (with ViVOtech contactless terminals) in Taiwan in February 2007. Other roll outs of smart poster-based promotions, coupons and product information were completed in 2006 and 2007 in Hong Kong, New York, and Singapore.
Intelligent consumer profiling The latest commercial version of the VpSPm allows merchants to personalise offers based on a customer's profile and purchasing behaviours, to track and accumulate the level of customer usage.
This provides merchants and card issuers with an extra level of business intelligence to allow them to deliver the most relevant and valuable communications and offers to customers. The ViVOplatform Smart Poster consists of:
- Smart Poster with programmable NFC tags;
- ViVOplatform Content Management Server;
- ViVOplatform Coupon Server;
- ViVOnfc over-the-air (OTA) infrastructure;
- ViVOpay readers integrated with POS terminals;
- ViVOwallet.
The commercial release of the software will be available in Q1 2008.
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