A recently released consumer survey by U.S.-based outdoor media company CBS Outdoor and UK-based consumer research company Kantar Media found that only 8% of the survey’s respondents were aware of NFC, up from 6% the preceding year.
The second annual Interactive Europe report surveyed 5,283 “urban” consumers in France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK about their experience with interactive out-of-home advertising. The report also included statements from brands and three out-of-home ad campaign case studies to promote interactive outdoor advertising. CBS Outdoor would like to increase use of interactive billboards and other outdoor panels.
The survey showed consumers had the most awareness of QR codes and that awareness was up substantially in 2012, to 54%, from 40% in 2011, the only technology to show a noticeable increase from the previous year. Also, 31% of respondents said they were aware of promotional text codes and 23% were familiar with touch-screen advertising, according to the survey.
“Yet, in spite of the phenomenally fast uptake of the (smartphone) devices themselves, the great majority of people still remain relatively poorly informed about what interactive technologies are available to them,” said the report, noting the large increase in awareness of QR codes was the exception. The report added: “The results also tell us that for the second consecutive year, NFC still records relatively low awareness. However, as more and more smart devices are NFC-enabled, we expect to see a significant uplift in the short-term.”
The report noted that NFC could be used with outdoor advertising to accomplish a number of “campaign objectives,” including enabling users to tap to download an app or music; drive consumers to social media, such as Facebook and Twitter; allow them to view movie trailers or other Web content; and let them make an immediate purchase or find a store location. NFC tags also could allow consumers to collect and redeem coupons or other discount vouchers and tickets or to get a loyalty card, said the report.
Consumer Awareness Key
Industry observers have noted that tapping NFC phones for content is faster than scanning a QR code, could offer more security and doesn’t require a scanning application on the phone and works in low lighting or other conditions that could interfere with the scanning. But, of course, nearly all smartphones could support QR codes, while NFC requires the device to come with an NFC chip. Also, NFC tags cost more to incorporate into outdoor advertising than QR codes.
Consumer awareness of NFC remains a key issue in discussions of widespread adoption of the technology for smart posters and other outdoor marketing, industry suppliers and other observers say.
Patrick Meyer, CEO of U.S.-based NFC marketing platform provider Thinaire, described consumer awareness and discovery as the greatest challenge facing the use of NFC for advertising in the coming year. “There needs to be NFC awareness pressure until a ‘tipping point’ is reached,” Meyer told NFC Times in February, adding: “In the interim, the NFC marketing activity will move across retail and media to drive NFC until national NFC payments sorts itself out.”
Such uses of NFC for interactive advertising may help build the necessary awareness and contribute to the eventual uptake of mobile payment, said Mikhail Damiani, CEO of U.S.-based Blue Bite, which uses NFC tags in outdoor marketing campaigns.
“The more applications we see in retail, marketing, social, transit, etc., the more likely NFC payment systems are to come into play,” he told NFC Times in February after the “NFC Goes Social” event, organized by the NFC Cluster Boston. “The numerous applications raise awareness and eventually demand from consumers for this sort of interactivity and ease of use.”
In contrast, the Interactive Europe report hinted that mobile payments could drive the consumer awareness necessary to make interactive NFC-enabled advertising take off: “It is only a matter of time until NFC technology underpins a mainstream interactive behavior (such as mobile-wallet payments) to make interacting with advertising via a smart device an everyday norm and a very real consumer expectation.” This might indicate that expectations in the industry remain mixed about the path to wider uptake of NFC.
Despite the single-digit consumer awareness levels, the report remained upbeat about the future of NFC-enabled advertising, based on an expected increase in NFC handsets on the market in the coming year.
U.S.-based ABI Research increased its projection of NFC-enabled phone and tablet shipments to 270 million for this year, up by about 15% from earlier projections, the firm told NFC Times. Total NFC-enabled devices, which include PCs, game consoles, TV sets and cameras, will hit 320 million, predicted ABI, also up from an earlier projection.
Overall, total smartphone penetration increased from 56% in 2011 to 75% in 2012 in the six countries surveyed by CBS Outdoor, with a high of 80% in the UK and a low of 68% in France.
Other reports, however, claim that the handset market still presents challenges to widespread uptake of NFC. In January 2013, UK-based consumer research company ICM Research released a report on its Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2012 online survey about mobile wallets, which said: “A major barrier to take up in 2013 is that smartphone users tend to be tied into long contracts, and people won’t break their contracts just to get an NFC enabled device.”
But market penetration is only part of the story. According to Matt Kammerait of U.S.-based printing house Quad/Graphics, quality campaigns may be an important factor in building that awareness.
“It'll take a critical mass of not just implementation stuff but high consumer value,” he said at the NFC Goes Social panel. “If there are crap NFC campaigns deployed...the consumer will have the same breach of trust that they had with QR with NFC.”