It is not April 1st, and we have not taken to drink.
In the near future, you may be able to buy insurance by touching a poster with your mobile phone.
Please do not try it on any poster you see with any mobile phone, all you will get is a broken phone and a police record for vandalism.
Insurers are conducting pilots and trials with special posters, but as yet who and where they are is unknown.
The mobile phones must be the new NFC (near field communication) enabled ones. The first Nokia NFC-enabled phones became available in May with most other handset manufacturers planning to introduce NFC models later in the year.
The posters are special NFC smart ones. These include a range of advertising media tagged with an NFC chip. The chip passes information to viewers on demand, through their NFC-enabled mobile phone. The information could be a link to further product details accessed through the mobile, the internet or a money-off voucher.
Step 1 - the user touches their NFC phone to a smart poster. When the connection is made, the active NFC chip on the phone passes information and services to viewers through their NFC-enabled mobile phone. The data on the tag is simply a URL, telling the phone the location of the advertiser’s website.
Step 2 - the phone connects to the advertiser’s website which displays branded information on the handset relating to the advertised product. This information can also contain a hyperlink to purchase the product.
Norwich based marketing technology company Glue4, the only full service proposition of its kind in the UK, has launched a unique solution for insurers seeking to explore the full potential of near field communication (NFC) smart posters.
Customers needing travel insurance urgently could buy cover 24 hours a day, at the airport or port.
Travel insurance: News update: June 2007
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