M2M Meets Social Networks

Adegu Canada has developed a wireless instant marketing and advertising platform, branded waveNconnect, which links to social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.   Basically it’s a marketing tool that enables on-the-spot marketing and advertisement.  That’s the spin.

This is how it would typically work at an expo. Visitors’ badges that are given at the check-in desk carry a bar code sticker or they may have an embedded RFID chip. Customized stickers that employ the well known “Like” image are positioned on the products’ display stand, as shown here. 

Tapping the badge generates a like message.

When the visitor taps the badge on the stand a wireless link is established and a message is sent immediately to the relevant social media site. The message would identify the product and tell that person’s friends that he/she likes it. The exhibitor will also be informed about the various “likes”. Access to the platform can also be enabled via NFC enabled mobile phones. There is an app for Android devices: iPhones don’t do NFC.

It’s a simple concept, but potentially a very powerful marketing tool because of the viral effect, as shown here. 

Viral messaging is amazingly effective. It’s the high-tech equivalent to word-of-mouth recommendations. 

Usage of the solution’s front end is simple, but there is a lot of functionality in the back end and more is in the pipeline. For example, there is an administrator panel that manages machines, cards and posts and a marketing survey tool that does interactive reporting, notifications of e-mails, numbers of shares, post clicks by country, etc. 

The back-end also provides the customer with powerful editable parameters that customers can manage themselves for marketing campaigns, e.g. the posted messages. Changes to these parameters can be updated on the spot. Customer can also re-configure the same device for different social media networks.