Tag: nfc marketing

Geolocation based marketing may be a game changer for local retailers

| January 3, 2014

This technology is being seen as one of the most promising trends that will be seen in 2014.

According to experts from many different reputable publications, geolocation based marketing has become one of the most promising trends that will be available to local businesses this year.

The technology is being called one of the biggest possibilities for businesses to boost revenues.

By using geolocation based marketing, businesses have the chance to increase their revenue by encouraging a growing number of people to actually step inside the doors of their stores. This form of advertising and promotions can provide shoppers with targeted messages based on specific locations. Their mobile devices, such as their smartphones provide the preferences and locations of the device users so that a store will be able to properly communicate with them in a timely and relevant way.

There are many different ways in which businesses could potentially benefit from geolocation based marketing.

Geolocation Based Marketing for RetailThere are many different ways in which this technology can be used, including everything from location and checking services such as Foursquare and Yelp, but also through device tech such as near field communication (NFC). Beyond that close proximity tech that allows for information exchange in close proximity, there is also Bluetooth and GPS that can be used for geo-fencing that can automatically locate the consumer and send him or her a message when they have walked within a specific predefined zone.

This type of advertising has already been used by a number of companies. Perhaps one of the most famous uses of the tech to communicate with customers is from Subway. They have already successfully launched a “You are here” campaign. This allowed users in close proximity to one of the restaurants to be prompted to opt in. When they did, they received MMS messages that gave them the opportunity to take advantage of special discounts as they walked by one of the restaurants.

The Domino’s pizza chain has also used geolocation based marketing to be able to better their customer loyalty and to help to encourage repeat sales from among their existing customer base.

NFC technology used for E-Ink display

| September 2, 2013

The strategy was used to help to provide the wireless powering of the tags.

Although when the majority of people who have heard of NFC technology think of it in terms of advertising and mobile payments, as well as pairing smartphones to other devices, it has now been made possible to use this tech for wireless powering of an E-ink display.

A team of students and researchers came together in order to create this unique high tech tag.

The team was made up of individuals from the University of Washington, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Intel Labs. It created the NFC-WISP E-Ink Display Tag, which is based on NFC technology as well as a low power E-ink panel so that Android smartphones can transfer data (both sending and receiving) as well as power without the need for any cables or wires.

The NFC technology achieves this goal through the use of inductive coupling.


By applying NFC technology in that way, it can provide power by way of otherwise passive tags. The E-ink display can then take advantage of this capability through the use of a microchip that provides wireless power harnessing and a 1mAh battery. As one can expect, the initial form of this tech doesn’t provide a tremendous amount of power, but it remains very promising for the future.

The current use of NFC technology for power transfer doesn’t provide a huge amount of power but it was capable of offering enough that it could power a 2.7 inch display with enough stored energy that it could be used to cycle through images, even when it was not actually paired with the smartphone.

As of yet, using NFC technology for that purpose is relatively useless other than considering it a way to provide power to a secondary smartphone display, but it does hold some potential for the future development of power transfer tech. The E-ink screen could end up becoming popular for things such as maps and directions and shopping lists without having to draw on your limited battery power from the power-pig of a smartphone screen. The device’s 0.5MB of memory can hold an estimated 20 images.