Canada’s Astral Adds NFC To OOH Capabilities
March 14, 2012 by Dave Haynes
Montreal-based Astral Out-of-Home, one of the largest OOH media companies in Canada, has announced plans to start using NFC technology with its street furniture inventory in two major markets.
Astral is using Vancouver-based Gauge Mobile’s capabilities to let consumers walk up with their smartphones to transit posters – static or digital – and tap a section of the faces to do things like download movie trailers, coupons or digital brochures.
“Consumers are very active and increasingly demanding, and our NFC-enabled street furniture will allow them to quickly get relevant information about products that they like,” says Debbie Drutz, Director, Media Innovation, Astral Out-of-Home. “For its part, the advertising community will have at its disposal the most advanced technology to prolong its interaction with consumers.”
The campaigns will integrated into bus shelters in Toronto, and Columns and MegaColumns in Montréal. Astral Out-of-Home has more than 9,500 advertising faces in key markets in Québec, Ontario, and British Columbia.
I recently got an NFC-enabled Google Galaxy phone and tried the tech last week in Las Vegas. It beats the HELL out of fussy QR codes.
The NFC format is good, but without Apple adopting the format in the iPhone you miss out on a huge market segment. I am pretty sure until that happens if it ever does, the adoption rate will be quite low.