Coca-Cola Event Exploits RFID on Facebook

Today, we posted a news story regarding Coca-Cola Village, an event sponsored by Coca-Cola Israel that was held at a water park in that country (see RFID Helps Make Friends for Israeli Teens).

Visitors to the amusement park wore RFID bracelets enabling them to log onto their Facebook accounts and indicate that they "liked" certain activities, such as a water slide or a wave pool. Coke's advertising agency, E-dologic, developed the idea and installed the RFID system.

The project succeeded beyond the organizer's expectations: A total of 6,500 teenagers attended throughout the six-week period, 1,500 RFID-enabled wristbands were put into service, and the event became the most popular Facebook page in Israel, with 80,000 users and 652,700 daily post views.

Enon Landenberg, E-dologic's chief executive, was quoted in an article on Adland as saying, "We are continuously looking for ways to connect the physical world with the virtual world. The idea behind 'the Like machine' is an ultimate solution. It is an innovative and pioneering method, and through it the possibility to involve your Facebook friends in events and experiences that are happening to you around the world becomes a very true reality." (Click here to read Adland's story.)

This is the first use of RFID in this way, and I think it made the event more fun for the teens—and delivered a lot of extra promotional value to Coca-Cola in the process. This is the right demographic for this type of promotion, and I have no doubt that we will see more creative ways of using the technology to enhance the customer experience at amusement parks, museums, sporting arenas and shopping malls.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor's Note archive.