With smartphone ownership up almost 34% Y-o-Y and a 10X rise for near field communication (NFC) smartphones, you wouldn’t expect only a 2% increase in NFC awareness by consumers (from 6% to 8%).
This big gap reinforces the need for the industry to further educate consumers on the benefits of the interactive advertising technologies available.
“People now have the technology to interact, if not necessarily the understanding and the awareness,” says CBS Outdoor International after completing its latest Interactive Europe report, a pan-European survey covering nearly 5300 urban consumers in six countries.
“Creative should be explicit in communicating the core message and in showing people if and how they can interact with the ad,” advises the report’s author. Their research into the way European consumers interact with outdoor advertising suggest some “golden rules” for the medium. (See link at bottom).
“There needs to be an obvious benefit (and one of perceived value) for consumers in order for them to interact and take away a positive perception of the brand. And the implications of the halo effect (positive and negative) should be considered – people will watch others interact both in the physical and virtual worlds.”
CBS Outdoor says “the hard part is done. People now have the technology to interact, if not necessarily the understanding and the awareness. It is only a matter of time until NFC technology underpins a mainstream interactive behaviour, such as mobile wallet payments, to make interacting with advertising via a smart device an everyday norm and a very real consumer expectation.”
So, we ask: which was "the harder part?“ Making the technology or getting consumers to use it?
At least we can agree on their suggested Golden Rules…
