NFC Advertisment (TCD Project TU Delft, by Niels Poiesz)

With NFC a lot is possible, from paying to sharing a link. However, I think we can do it more in the area of sales and promotion. To kick-start the idea, I found it useful to post a very simple idea for advertisements in public places and shops, such as; buses and supermarkets. Let’s imagine it is almost Christmas and you have local bakery selling top class Christmas breakfasts packages. To reach some more people you have made posters that you are allowed to hang at community places etcetera. Instead of, just having a plain poster you could make the poster more interactive and attract people to quickly order the breakfast by adding a NFC tag on the back. In the poster you ask people to place their phone at the spot where the NFC tag is placed and they could be directed towards your website immediately and another breakfast is sold. Of course, a QR-code might be an alternative, but this does not seem to get used with a large audience anymore. The same is true for NFC, however the possibilities with this technology are much bigger. This idea of interactive promos could of course be elaborated in the future. But let’s start with this.

FOR VISUAL DEMONSTRATION I USED AN IPHONE, but currently Apple has not released any code to use the NFC of the phone.... If you have a Android phone it should be no problem

This project is done for the course Technology for Concept Design at the TUDelft.

Step 1: Step 1: Gathering the Materials

The first step is to get a few NFC tags. Nowadays these can be bought for $4 dollars for 6 tags at Ebay. It does not really matter what kind of NFC tags you get, as long as they are writeable. Meaning that we can program it with a few lines of code.

Step 2: Step 2: the Advertisement

Making a nice advertisement is always important, but in this case make sure you clearly show where the user has to put his phone in order to read the NFC. NFCs have a reading distance of maximum 10 cm / 4 inches. This could be in any form. For now I kept it to an paper advertisement.

Step 3: Step 3: the Webpage

Do not forget about this one. You have got to direct the user to a webpage or application that allows them to order it as quickly as possible, keep it short!

Step 4: Step 4: Programming the NFC

The NFC tags need to be programmed to do what you want them to do. The programming can be done using multiple programs on your phone, one of them is NFC-task-launcher. By putting the phone over the NFC tag, the tag can be read or be written. Using the application, you can determine what should happen if someone’s has scanned the NFC. In this case you must direct the user to the url of the webpage.

Step 5: Step 5: Putting the NFC in Place

Whatever the type of advertisement you decided to use, you need to attach the NFC to the advertisement. The easiest way to do this is by using a small piece of double sided tape or the sticker that might come with the NFC tag. Make sure that it is placed in the right spot. The interactive poster is now ready for the first test.

Step 6: Step 6: Testing

Hang the poster on the wall and use your phone to read the NFC. By scanning the right webpage should be opened.