Smartphone brands infuse NFC, image recognition into MTR advertising

Interactive panels with eight embedded NFC tags representing weekly-updated information on fashion, travel, astrology, dining, love, beauty, cooking and men's trends have been installed in three high-traffic locations in Hong Kong. 

Nokia's goal is to attract people to tap their Nokia 700 or Nokia 701 phones on these tags. Respective offers from local retailers like Another, Bonjour, Edwin, Reebok, CSL, Saint Honore Cake Shop, KFC, Cafe de Coral, Broadway, Neway, and CEO Karaoke will be instantly downloaded and dispatched on their phones.

Devices using near-field communications (NFC) technology actively generate radio frequencies to read information from, or exchange data wirelessly with NFC tags within very short ranges.

NFC is a more complex version of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, that is already used in many smart cards and transit passes like the Octopus card in Hong Kong. 

From now until mid-November, Nokia's NFC capabilities will be showcased at the Causeway Bay and Mong Kok MTR stations, as well as a Nathan Road bus shelter outside Tsim Sha Tsui exit A.

Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson is pioneering the 'U Tie' mobile application developed by JCDecaux Transport in its Xperia Arc smartphone campaign.

Based on image recognition technology, the app entices MTR passengers to capture key visuals of a Sony Ericsson advertisement to get a chance to win 2 round-trip tickets to Japan. It then directs them to online content provided by partnering advertisers including movie trailers, vouchers and coupons, geolocalisation and reservation services.

These two smartphone advertisers are participants in the 'innovate zones' conceptualised by JCDecaux Transport and MTR Corporation with audience engagement as the main theme. JCDecaux has been managing the advertising sales concessions for MTR Corporation for over 30 years.