MasterCard travel coup and the opening of the 2015 CMAs
If you were in London last Friday taking the Tube, chances are (if you were smart) you used your contactless MasterCard. After all, why wouldn’t you - it meant free travel for the whole day! In fact, in an attempt to encourage customers to pay with a contactless card, Mastercard is actually offering two free days of travel this November. If the amount of tweets about this subject are to be believed, users were impressed.
If you didn’t use the Tube last Friday - never fear. Those who find themselves in the capital on November 28 and own a contactless Mastercard will get another free travel all day across TfL's (Transport for London) network including buses, tubes, London overground and the DLR. The good news is that users don't have to sign up or enable any option on their account, they just simply turn up and tap on the oyster reader at the corresponding station gate or London bus. Daily spends will be capped at £21.80 (the price of a full day of unlimited travel on TfL services), and this will be automatically refunded to the users account. A Mastercard spokesperson is on record saying, “We (MasterCard) are looking to encourage the use of contactless, and the offer of free travel should tempt some people to try out the technology”. While just two 'Fare Free Fridays" have been announced so far, the spokesperson didn't rule out similar offers in the future.
We could also start to see proximity marketing, similar to the Apple-type iBeacons from Samsung soon, reported 9 To 5 Mac. The system is called ‘Samsung Proximity’, and while the underlying technology is exactly the same – with the same Bluetooth LE beacons able to broadcast information to both services – Samsung does appear to be taking a slightly different approach in the way that information is delivered. With iBeacon, retailers and other businesses wanting to send alerts do so via their own iPhone app. Samsung is apparently embedding support for Proximity right into its Android overlay, so it’s always on. Businesses have the option of offering customers their own app, but it isn’t a requirement.
While this is good news for retailers – who will be able to send alerts to visiting customers whether or not they are running the store’s own app – it’s not yet clear whether it will be good news for owners of Samsung phones: the company hasn’t provided any detail on how people choose which alerts they do and don’t want to receive. Says 9 To 5 Mac, “Samsung Proximity is a mobile marketing platform that connects consumers with places via cutting-edge Samsung location and context-aware technology. With Samsung Proximity, visitors are able to experience rich content related to their location, and marketers can better engage with customers for increased sales and brand awareness”. Samsung has not revealed when their new Proximity service will launch, in the meantime, the company is apparently working with a number of retailers on the service.
I have highlighted these two stories, a marketing campaign to get people using contactless cards and the growth of BLE/Beacons, to illustrate that there are still new areas out there for the industry. Why is that more relevant than last week? Well, the Contactless & Mobile Awards 2015 nominations are now open. Now in its 8th year, the Contactless & Mobile Awards are presented to those companies, organizations and retailers who have done the most to embrace and implement contactless/NFC technology into their day-to-day operating practices. These awards represent a real promotional springboard and give the winners a reputation and credibility for their efforts within the industry. The competition is open to all implemented contactless applications within the relevant sectors, regardless of geographic region or size of corporation. In fact 2014 saw our most diverse percentage of nominees per region than ever before, with 13% based in the UK, 34% based in mainland Europe, and 53% Rest of World.
This year there is a total of 14 categories, including the 2 Visa PayWave Awards as well as the popular Industry Choice Award. This year we have 3 new categories; Unattended; Vending & Parking, Contactless ID & Security and Gamechanger. Here is a little info about the 3 new Categories;
Unattended; Vending & Parking
In an increasingly convenience-focused market, we will look at the customer driven, practical innovations and how it creates new solutions. From interactive services, to multimedia output and online connectivity, today’s service oriented kiosks, ticketing and self-service applications may be one of the key drivers for contactless and mobile implementations.
Contactless ID & Security
Security is key when it comes to securing people’s identity. Contactless and mobile technology adds the convenience to ID applications, facilitating the use of government and or private sector issued schemes. Awarded to the most prolific secure ID system out there.
Gamechanger
Popular Kickstarter (or as we refer to them – ‘Gamechanger’) projects have included potato salad or the perfect butter knife. This new CMA category, however, is a bit more technical than that. This award is handed to the individual or company with the most convincing business idea using NFC and mobile. The kind of idea that could work on a crowd funding platform because it fills a void or catches people’s imagination.
All CMA entries are free and you can enter as many categories/solutions as you like. Although this does not apply to the Visa PayWave Awards as these categories are not open to nominations. If you are interested in nominating your company/partner/supplier, please complete this form by 31st December 2014, providing the name of the company you are nominating, the project/solution and the categories you would like to enter. We will then contact you to provide you with details of the submission process.
The competition is open to all contactless applications within the relevant sectors, regardless of geographic region or size of corporation. You can be a one-man-band or a multi-national company; a charitable organisation or major retailer; a system integrator or government department. Your project/solution doesn’t actually have to have been implemented, as long as you can provide strong evidence for a successful implementation and support. You can submit as many entries as you like: multiple projects under one category, the same project across different categories or different projects across different categories. But when it comes to making the full submissions, we will ask you to send in a separate document for each entry you make.
On the initial form all we need is your name, who you are nominating, which project and which categories you wish to enter. We will then send you details on how to submit the full nomination, which will involve answering 10 questions as fully as possible. You will also be able to include any links to web pages, videos or reports. Once we have received all the nominations, the Contactless Intelligence team selects four Finalists in each category. These Finalists are then judged by a panel of industry experts, the results are collated and a Winner is produced. The Industry Choice Award is different, as all Finalists are eligible and the votes are cast online by the industry as a whole. The Visa PayWave Awards are not open to nominations and the Winners are selected directly by Visa Europe. The CMAs are totally FREE OF CHARGE – to enter, become a Finalist or even become a Winner. The Winners will be announced at the CMA Dinner on 28th April 2015.
So take this opportunity to visit the nomination site and get nominating. It’s free, its fun and for the finalists and the winners - well worth it. We look forward to seeing your nominations. Good luck.
Until next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
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