McDonalds NFC coupons in Japan

Near field communication or NFC is gaining quite a lot of interest at the moment.  NFC is a way of communicating digitally by physical touch - for example tapping into a public transport network or an office entry card system.

Colleagues at the Posterscope ran this campaign for X-Men:  First Class a few weeks ago - you could tap onto the poster to download the trailer and more information.

In Japan they've been using NFC for a few years now, and since their NFC chips are often tied to payment details, they can use it for couponing and payment.

A colleague sent me this example by McDonalds from last year:

"The “Kazasu Coupon,” is a loyalty program offered by McDonald’s restaurants in Japan as part of a joint venture with DoCoMo.


Subscribers download coupons over the air just as they have done for years from McDonald’s Japan’s high-traffic Web site, which customers access both by phone and PC. But instead of showing the coupon on the phone screen to the clerk and paying with cash, customers can place their orders, redeem their coupons and pay the tab–all with just one or two taps of their wallet phones. The customers can punch in their food and drink orders on their handsets while waiting in line or even before leaving home.


All of the nearly 4,000 McDonald’s restaurants in Japan are equipped with contactless readers. According to a Japanese media report, 4.5 million subscribers had signed up for the Kazasu Coupon offer as of August 2009, less than 18 months after the launch of the program."

You can see the Japanese McDonalds page here.