RFID Tickets for Mass Transit

RFID Weblog wrote:

Recently the people at Hong Kong-based China Elite Technology sent me a copy of their white paper about "Smart Tokens" for ticketing in mass transit. Steven Wong, Product Development Director, writes:"In this white paper we share what we learned developing...

One of the things I found fascinating is on Page 9 of the white paper. It points out that in the future, advertisers may employ near field communications to enable interactive advertising on the tickets. Thus, a consumer's mobile phone could be used to pick up advertising and messages from the token. What that means is that even the tickets will be talking to us! We are not that far away from the scenarios envisioned in the movie, Minority Report.

Fascinating.

In the report there actually isn't much about NFC advertising, but it's an interesting idea. The report says:

Transit tickets serve a critical role in the relationship between the transit operator and its riders. Stored value smart cards generate immediate loyalty to modes of transportation that accept the card, and advertising on the tickets bring in revenue for the transit operator, as well as providing marketers with a highly targeted advertising media that travels with the rider.

Typically a LU ticket will have one side available for printing advertising, and the other side is reserved for the transit operator’s branding. Currently the advertising has be limited to printed images, however in the future near field communications (NFC) equipped devices such as mobile phones may enable marketers to explore even more interactive modes of advertising.

I've seen Minority Report twice and can't remember any reality which rfid would enable, but using the stored value tickets to carry NFC advertising could actually work. Every time the card is used it can be updated with a new coupon. Promotions would be timely and semi-targeted: everyone getting off at the Times Square station gets a Pret coffee coupon for that day. Redeemable by NFC phone.


re: RFID Weblog, RFID Tickets for Mass Transit