NFC Mobile Marketing Pilot Delivers for Kraft

News America Marketing (NAM), publisher of coupons in the U.S. and Canada, in partnership with thinaire, a cloud-based platform for NFC marketing campaigns, and Kraft, recently teamed up on a retail innovation pilot in the San Francisco area using smartphone technology.

The experience focused on drill-down user engagement and activation through tap and engage technology, increasingly integrated in consumer’s lives. Predictions are there will be 630 million NFC-enabled smartphone users by 2015.

The program launched at five grocery stores in the Bay Area, embedding readable RFID (radio frequency identification) chips within shelftalks promoting the Kraft cheese and Nabisco cookie brands.

Shoppers were invited to tap their smartphones for interactive experiences that included a series of recipe interactions, instant download of the brand's i-Food Assistant app, input on other Kraft products and sharing on social media.

The results were presented at the Direct Marketing Association 2012 Conference & Exhibition by Patrick Meyer, CMO thinaire, and Edward J. Kaczmarek, most recently Director of Innovation & Emerging Technology, Kraft (now part of newly formed Mondelez International).

"The NFC direction is now being decked up by smart marketers in almost every category for 2013, as smartphone use of NFC triples in 2013, and consumers can be engaged in a more compelling, occasion-based and purchase-driving way," said Meyer.

Core findings:

• Compared to QR codes, the overall NFC "tap" engagement level was 12 times higher than app-required bar codes.
• Consumer's engagement time increased from regular 5-10 seconds at shelf to 48 seconds when NFC was involved.
• More than 36% of shoppers who tapped the NFC enhanced shelftalk converted it into action.

"We have explored many forms of mobile innovation to date. To have these initial results from our pilot are very positive and sets the stage for our 2013 brand efforts in mobile," said Kaczmarek in the Mobile 3.0 panel discussion.

Meyer referenced a senior Kraft media executive’s statement that 10% of media would be shifting to mobile in 2013.