BMW releases NFC print campaign

London-based tech start-up Tamoco has created Europe’s first magazine advertising campaign enabled with near-field communication (NFC) tags.

The print campaign which features in Spiegel Wissen, a quarterly spin-off of the world-renowned Der Spiegel was created for BMW and invites users to tap the advert with their smartphones to instantly download the BMWi app. The technology works through placing a small chip into the advert that can be picked up by the users’ mobile phone using the NFC tag. This isn’t the first time the technology has been used in this manner. In 2014 Tamoco placed NFC tags into beer mats so revellers could order Uber taxis home enticed by money saving offers.

shots speaks to Tamoco’s founder and executive chairman Sam Amrani, about the technology and where he sees its future.

Is near field communication something that you think will continue to impact on publishers’ and consumers’ lives?

NFC is certainly something that is now in the mainstream. With the technology now being used for payments and ticketing, it is no surprise that it is now coming to the fore in terms of a tool for marketing and publishing. It makes content easier to access for the consumer, and easier to distribute for the publisher. 

The QR code has never really taken off but has technology improved enough now to make these sorts of applications more user-friendly?

It's a fairly common misconception that the QR code never took off it's actually used everywhere as it is a very easy, low barrier way to create a digital touch point on a piece of media. Even when campaigns include both a QR code and an NFC tag around 30 per cent of the interactions are still done via QR as people recognise them and know how to interact.

The same is starting to become true of NFC, but it will take a bit more time before everybody understands that they can engage with NFC on their mobile phone. This will happen as the good thing with NFC is that it is commonplace across multiple channels including bank cards, access cards and travel cards as well as in mobile phones. 

Will NFC be something that impacts heavily on 2015?

2015 will be huge for NFC, as was 2014 but where last year was about education and traction, 2015 will be the first year that really makes use of the technology to its fullest extent. This will be the year NFC becomes a mass market tool.  

You’ve worked with BMW and recently with Uber on a pub-based NFC application; what other brands and clients are you working with?

We continue to work with a range of businesses as the technologies we use are so versatile, meaning everyone from the small business owner right through to the global conglomerate can use our technology. We partnered with several startups such as Orderella to make their marketing strategies stand out from the crowd, as well as global telecommunications providers such as Vodafone to give them the ability to improve their customer in-store experience.