Out-of-home media owner Exterion Media UK is to roll out Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons across public transport services in “major cities” in the UK to deliver marketing messages to passengers’ smartphones... More
Eight UK airports are to roll out a network of 200 Bluetooth Low Energy beacons that will deliver notifications such as offers and rewards to passengers while they wait for their flights... More
O2, one of the three UK mobile network operators that formed the mobile commerce joint venture Weve three years ago, has bought out partners EE and Vodafone to operate the brand as a wholly-owned subsidiary — and has confirmed to NFC World that it has abandoned Weve’s mobile payment ambitions... More
Twitter has invested an undisclosed sum in Boston-based proximity marketing specialist Swirl, hinting the social media platform could be looking at using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to push messages. The social media giant has invested alongside Hearst Ventures, Softbank Capital and others in an $18m series-C round, taking the total raised by Swirl so far to $32m... More
Only 18% of marketers are aware that out-of-home (OOH) advertising campaigns can make use of NFC and QR codes, survey data from Clear Channel UK reveals, despite them citing ‘innovation’ as one of their top buying considerations when under pressure to find new ways to reach mass audiences. More
Jameson Irish Whiskey is distributing 25,000 NFC bottle holders that allow drinkers to enjoy online content and competitions, to promote its links with an Australian comedy festival. More
Sweden-based mobile payments provider Seamless is offering users of its Seqr mobile payments service up to 3% cashback on their purchases, “valid on all purchases and effective on top of any other loyalty program or discount.” The offer is designed to persuade more consumers to adopt mobile payments, CEO Peter Fredell has told NFC World, and is financed via a mixture of revenue streams. More
Google is in a new round of discussions with mobile network operators to get its Google Wallet payments service widely distributed on mobile devices, the Wall Street Journal reports, with incentives on offer believed to include paying carriers to feature Google Wallet prominently on their Android phones and, potentially, a share of advertising revenues... More
2,500 US banks and credit unions will soon be able to add an “additional potential revenue source” by sending out branded, local offers to users of their mobile banking apps... More
Glasgow City Council-owned bus shelters around the Scottish city will be fitted with NFC tags and QR codes to allow people to engage with advertisers by accessing interactive content such as vouchers, games and videos using their smartphones... More
Apple Pay could be available in Canada within the next two months and the company is already in talks with partners to launch the mobile payment service in the country, 9to5mac reports... More
US carrier-owned mobile payments venture Softcard has laid off 60 employees out of an employee base of “hundreds” as part of an effort to “reduce costs and strengthen its business”... More
Car maker BMW has embedded NFC tags in a four-page advertisement for its i3 and i8 models in German magazine Spiegel Wissen... More
Mobile proximity solutions provider Ubudu has unveiled uBeacon Mesh, a platform that enables Bluetooth beacon installations to be used to create two-way mobile communications with consumers... More
Mobile marketing and advertising platform BeaconStream is to pilot iBeacon technology in malls in Bengaluru and Chennai, India, within the next three weeks, The Hindu reports... More
Mobile in-store marketing solution provider inMarket’s iBeacon platform now reaches 31.5m monthly active consumers, the equivalent of 18% of all US mobile users, according to research conducted by Comscore... More
US carrier mobile payments venture Softcard has unveiled Tappy, a mascot designed by the company behind The Muppets that will be used initially in an online advertising blitz reported to be valued at US$1.5m. More
Samsung has unveiled Proximity, a location-based marketing platform that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and works in a similar way to Apple’s iBeacon system — but without the need for consumers to be persuaded to download a marketer’s own app to access the service... More
NFC World is six years old today and we are celebrating with a top 50,000 website ranking on Alexa.com, 129,493 unique visitors in October and a new rate card designed to make advertising on NFC World the single most effective way for mobile commerce suppliers to reach new customers in the year ahead... More
Ralph Lauren has taken over a 15-window display at luxury retail store Harrods in London to promote the launch of its new Polo Ralph Lauren collection using NFC and QR code stickers provided by proximity commerce specialist Proxama... More