There are countless uses for near field communication (NFC). Through NFC, opportunities to connect people with the brands they use, the events they attend, and much more are quickly becoming more available, and are only limited by the imagination. Now that Apple added NFC capabilities to iPhones, NFC is becoming much more ubiquitous.

Headquartered in The Netherlands, Tapp.online has quickly brought its expertise in printing to NFC, collaborating with major brand owners including T-Mobile, DS Automobiles and Lipton/Unilever to develop innovative uses for NFC. Tapp’s Niels Postma spoke about Tapp’s journey, from a conventional printer to becoming an NFC specialist, using the evolution of the DVD business as an example.

“We started our business out of a regular printing business,” Postma said. “Paper will eventually disappear, in the same way that DVDs have disappeared. But that didn’t stop Netflix from reinventing itself. Now look at where it is.

“We have done the same thing,” he added. “We have asked ourselves the question, ‘Why is paper disappearing?’ Well, because it isn’t flexible, scalable and trackable. To tell your customers about your brand or event, a flexible environment is way more efficient. But at the same time, you cannot always reach your goal audience online. For us, as printers, our product is, in essence, a way to connect people.

“With a brochure, you want to tell your story,” Postma continued. “With a label, you want to show ingredients. With a poster, you want to tell about your event. What you want, with paper, is making a connection between the brand owner and the customer. We took that very literally. How can we establish a real connection between people and brands? How can we merge the digital and the analog world together? How can we connect the unconnected? How can we get paper interactive?”

Tapp has found a way to make paper interactive, providing NFC chips, software and apps.

“We found out a way to place NFC chips inside paper, on a spot that our customers can pick,” Postma reported. “We can print and finish the paper product in any way that you want. And we do the programming plus mobile web-apps as well. So, the full package: the paper, the connection and the digital environment.”

Postma said that it is critical to partner with brands that have the same vision.

“We focus on brands that want to put IoT into use in their marketing,” he said. “Brands that will use the synergy between the real and the digital world to make a full, tangible experience. We have worked for T-Mobile, DS Automobiles and Unilever/Lipton in the past.”

The ability to offer a complete solution, from printing to apps, sets Tapp apart from other providers.

“We differ from other companies because we do the whole experience,” Postma observed. “We are creative thinkers who will do the strategy, creation and production all under one roof. First, we do the printing, finishing and creation of the paper product. We have a team of designers that can make the most beautiful paper products, enriched with NFC technology in any spot that our customers want. 

“Second, we will create the bridge into the digital world. We have consumer psychology specialists who will make the transition seamless and 100% relevant,” he continued. “Third, we will analyze and present the data that our paper will generate. With that data, we can measure the KPI’s and, if necessary, adapt. As you can see, we have all the different areas under one roof. That will result in a genuinely good product. We keep track of every step in the production process, and nothing will escape our attention.”

Tapp.online has worked with numerous companies, as noted above. For Lipton/Unilever, Tapp.online created interactive menus and NFC-enabled stickers for restaurant terraces, allowing customers to place orders and pay their bills rather than waiting for the wait staff.

For DS Automotive, Tapp.online created NFC-enabled test drive invites, where potential customers could book a test drive for a DS7 Crossback and have the vehicle brought to them. Testing showed a response rate of 8.5% for the NFC enabled invite compared to 1.5% for the non-NFC enabled invite.

For 3FM Serious Request, an annual radio and multi-media fundraiser, 3FM DJs walk across The Netherlands to raise money. By placing an NFC-enabled sticker on the DJ’s backpack, people could use their phones to donate digitally. The DJs raised more than €1.4 million ($1.52 million) to help victims of human trafficking.

Postma said that reaction to NFC depends on the brand owner, as NFC tags are, compared to for instance a QR code, expensive – especially in smaller quantities. 

“To be honest, pricing is a ‘thing’,” he noted. “For larger companies, money might be less of a problem; however, they want a positive ROI. And there lies another big challenge: the current awareness of NFC. That is increasing with payment services like Apple Pay but isn’t where it needs to be. Thirdly, the problem that older iPhones still need an app to read out an NFC tag. Those three problems are currently the main issues for the brand to decide not to move forward with an NFC project. Innovative companies with a budget for innovation in marketing will sooner be piloting with the technology. For the big breakthrough, however, we will need to wait a little longer.”

Postma feels that ultimately, the biggest challenge for NFC in marketing will be to distinguish itself from QR, showing the value that it brings to consumers and brand owners alike.

“Obviously, these are two very dissimilar technologies,” he added. “QR is a 2D, barcode reading technology, where NFC is a radio frequency/microchip technology. NFC is capable of a lot more things than QR.

“We love the Tamper Tag feature; we are using it a lot for our customers,” Postma concluded. “It really adds magic, unique value and is unlocking great applications for brands. We are also, for instance, currently linking NFC chips with temperature sensors in a regular sheet of paper. That is something that QR will never be able to. Those are the applications that will add value in a way that no other technology can. I’m hoping that NFC will keep broadening on unique applications.”