Perhaps it’s a sign of things to come for the fast food giant on a global scale.
McDonald’s is now actively testing near field communications technology at one establishment (for now) in Singapore. Specifically, NFC is being used to see how it may help drive mobile engagement.
The NFC strategy in question has manifested in the form of a game called The Happy Table.
The target audience is children.
“It is a good step for them to engage customers in a low-friction way,” Tim Daly, co-founder of Thinaire, tells Mobile Marketer. “It will create engagement with kids who will want to stay longer and come more often.
“The app will be a gateway between McDonald’s, parents and kids,” he added. “It is a new distribution channel that they can remarket back to.”
Although NFC has been slow to catch on in much of the world, optimism for the technology’s future remains buoyant.
“I think they are going to drive in-store traffic,” Daly says of the efforts underway at McDonald’s. “They are going to bring more people in and the people will stay longer which I believe will result in higher revenues.”