Interactive Print - Near Field Communications

As if Tokyo subway cars didn’t have enough ads already, the printing company Shunkosha stuck one onto hanging straps earlier this month. They call the ad “Strappy.” But Strappy isn’t your typical inanimate advertisement. Rather, it’s an interactive ad that communicates with your phone.

When riders touch their smartphones to Strappy, a browser pops up with an advertisement, coupon, video, or whatever other marketing device companies choose to employ. For the trial run...Strappy sent ads to passengers from the travel agency H.I.S.

The device works through the use of near-field communication, a short-range wireless connection that turns a smartphone into an advertisement

Mobile technology opens the door to make print and other media types measurable, interactive and engaging through the use of mobile barcodes (QR Codes, Microsoft Tags and more), mobile messaging and even Augmented Reality. Over the past few years, InfoTrends has been tracking the increase of these mobile elements being integrated with traditional media.

NewPage Corp. has been awarded patents for PointTrac TT, a new paper-based substrate for printed Radio Frequency Identification labels. This technology facilitates low-cost production of printed paper RFID labels when compared with traditional multilayer plastic film substrates.

PragmatIC Printing announced collaborations with a range of companies that together provide all the key technology elements for complete printed electronics products. PragmatIC, Printed Electronics and Enfucell have developed an integrated printed electronics concept in business card format.

"A lot of marketers—like most consumers—still have no clue what NFC really is or what it is capable of," says Marcelo Eduardo, associate design director at Huge. "While a reasonable number of marketers have heard about NFC, the context for most is probably as the technology for supporting contactless payment. Others know they can use it for object hyperlinking, like QR Codes. And maybe a very small number of people know about two-way communications mode.

“So marketers may know NFC can do one or two of these things, but most don't know that NFC can do all of these things

Printed Electronics is on the verge of becoming a relevant technology for several of our market segments. Organic LEDs, flexible displays, RFID tags, printed discrete devices, as well as printed photovoltaic devices, are making an impact in consumer, commercial and specialty electronics markets.

Smart posters and mobile marketing account for over half of the shipments to date of NFC (near-field communication) tags and are expected to be the fastest growing use segment, accounting for 70 percent of shipments in 2016. This market is expected to be worth $298 million over the next five years

In the build up to the annual IDTechEx RFID USA event in Boston this February and the latest IDTechEx RFID forecasts, Raghu Das reviews RFID progress in 2007. January 15, 2008—In round figures, the value of the RFID market grew strongly to $5 billion in 2007, mainly powered by a peak in deliveries of the Chinese national ID card with about $2 billion of cards and infrastructure being delivered by Chinese suppliers. That made China the biggest RFID market but if we peel that away, we see the USA as the biggest market. Globally, the RFID business remained government driven with the Healthcare sector

CONTRARY TO “economic consensus” forecasts1 that are merely opinion averages, the United States will outpace 2007 with annual growth exceeding 6.5 percent nominal (3.4 percent real) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through the next two years. Foreign investment, immigration and productivity gains will more than offset exaggerated “crises” like sub-prime mortgages and rises in oil prices.2 Former GE Chairman Jack Welch advises the obvious: “Move up the food chain and stop complaining about the present. If residential ownership weakens, move to residential rentals.” The same applies to printing sales. Migrate to where the markets are hot and to the places and sectors underserved by our

Firstly, selling RFID to consumer goods companies mandated by major retailers usually breaks one of the fundamental rules of marketing “Never sell to someone who does not want to buy from you”. Most of the consumer goods companies in the USA see no payback from fitting the passive UHF labels mandated by retailers, indeed, they may have lost a mutual $100 million so far trying to do so, despite the RFID suppliers losing a similar sum selling tags and readers to them at a loss. The consumer goods companies are therefore quick to point out the technical problems and they use any other valid