Blue Pony is a solutions provider that creates stunning visual media that engages audiences. While developing a platform for a Major Communications Company (‘The Company’), Blue Pony wanted a solution to be able to capture lead information at trade shows using an iPad Mini 4 device. The platform included a CMS (content management system) where an administrator can log in and update assets such as PDFs and images that trade show attendees can have emailed to them in real-time. Trade show attendees could also take surveys in the iOS application as well as have the brand ambassadors take notes on the attendee and sync them with the cloud.
The platform was and is vital in The Company’s ability to capture leads and follow up on them as they run through their year-round trade show season. For the iOS application to perform well it is critical that the attendees badge information is captured. The attendee badge is usually a lanyard that consists of a QR code or something similar where the iOS iPad app will utilize the devices camera to capture the data on the badge. The trade show decided to use an NFC badge (NTAG216 & DESFire) that the lead collection app would need to scan to get the attendee information
With the inability to scan NFC badges from their iOS Device (iPad), Blue Pony needed to find a device that would allow using the app while scanning the badges. The alternative would be to manually type in the attendees information, which would be simply unacceptable due to slow speed and inaccuracy.
The solution was Serialio’s idChamp® NF2-5011-ITN Bluetooth NFC RFID Reader (supports ITN International bcard.net:bcard format). The light-weight NF2 was attached to the back of the iOS device. Equipped with BLE technology, the application connected the iOS device to Serialio’s NF2. The brand ambassador would meet with the trade show attendee and ask if they could scan their badge. The brand ambassador would then place the badge on to the NF2 NFC Reader and then the iOS device would beep when it received the badge information via Bluetooth from the NF2. The leads data would then populate itself into the application allowing the brand ambassador to then continue on with the conversation and complete the literature fulfillment and survey steps. The NF2 allowed the ability to quickly move through this process. The show captured around 200 leads and the scanning process throughout the show allowed for the brand ambassadors to focus on their conversations with the attendees rather than spending valuable time slowly typing and protecting against a database with potential spelling errors.