Does NFC Drive Greater Consumer Engagement?

With all the talk about near field communications (NFC) coming to smart phones, I thought this report on a pilot program in Safeway grocery stores was interesting.

This past August, the food giant Kraft partnered with coupon publisher News America Marketing and NFC specialist Thinaire, hoping to measure the engagement of consumers using NFC-equipped smart phones.

During this pilot testing phase, NFC tags were embedded in promotional units showing ads for Kraft cheese and Nabisco cookies. The testers also printed QR codes on the shelf ads for customers without NFC-enabled phones.

The pilot study showed some interesting results.

(1) Consumer engagement time (at the grocery shelf) increased by more than 30 seconds when NFC was involved.

(2) More than 36 percent of the shoppers converted an NFC tap into an action, like saving a recipe, downloading a mobile app, or sharing with friends.

It's hard to get much out of one small study conducted at just five grocery stores, but nice to see studies using NFC in a different venue.

What's your take? Have you seen any NFC test marketing in your area? Tell us about it in the comments below.