Award finalists continue to demonstrate innovation and creativity in the use of contactless and NFC technology

The global appetite for contactless technologies shows no sign of abating as the 2015 Contactless Intelligence Contactless & Mobile Awards honours achievements across a wide range of sectors and countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Now in its 8th year, the Contactless & Mobile Awards are presented to those companies, organizations and retailers who have done the most to embrace and implement contactless/NFC technology into their day-to-day operating practices.

These awards represent a real promotional springboard and give the winners a reputation and credibility for their efforts within the industry. The competition is open to all implemented contactless applications within the relevant sectors, regardless of geographic region or size of corporation. In fact 2014 saw our most diverse percentage of nominees per region than ever before, with 13% based in the UK, 34% based in mainland Europe, and 53% Rest of World.

11 categories are judged by a panel of industry experts, 1 category is voted for by the industry and 2 categories are selected by Visa Europe – the Winners being announced at a prestigious evening ceremony organized in London following the Contactless Intelligence Spring Conference on evening of the 28th April 2015.

The finalists’ details have been passed to the judging panel who are:

• Wendy Atkins – Contactless Intelligence [Head Judge]
• Mark Austin – Visa Europe
• Michel Barjansky – ex RATP
• John Berry – European Commission (Research & Innovative Transport Systems) – retired
• Paul Chamberlain – Association of Convenience Stores
• Hank Chavers – Technical Program Manager, GlobalPlatform
• Paul Crutchley – GSMA
• Kevin Farquharson – Smart Card Networking Forum
• Stefan Schmidt-Egermann – Certgate
• Kristian T. Sørensen  – Mobey Forum
• Samee Zafar – Edgar Dunn

“2014 was an exciting time for contactless & NFC technology. Despite a slow start, the industry is once more gaining momentum and nowhere is this more in evidence than in both the numbers of this years’ CMA entries and the sheer inventiveness of implementations. This is a technology that will have an impact on the lives of everyone we know, in one form or another. So I am excited that companies around the world are using the Contactless and Mobile Awards to showcase their offerings and both the judges and Contactless Intelligence are looking forward to rewarding them for doing so,” comments Steve Atkins, Editor-in-Chief of Contactless Intelligence and CEO of Krowne Communications, the company behind Contactless Intelligence.

Following are the categories and the finalists;

1. Contactless Payment Collaboration

Effective partnerships when it comes to contactless payments are key to a successful project rollout; be they collaborations between MNOs, banks, retailers, third parties etc. After all, we know that you can’t make the payment industry work in isolation. This category awards the company that has done the most to foster collaboration between contactless payment value chain players. Who’s up for working well with others?

• Vantiv (USA) – “Secure your Future today” campaign
• Smartlink (Switzerland) – SwissOne application
• Zapp (UK) – Zapp mobile payments
• Getin Noble Bank (Poland) – HCE mobile payments

2. Retail

The retail industry is the front line for all consumer oriented technology innovation. In this category, we are rewarding retailers that embrace technology to improve the customer experience. From digital signage to virtual storefronts to smart mobile payment systems; in the retail category, the judges are looking for forward looking, integrated solutions that take shopping to the next level.

• BitPay (USA) – Bitcoin Checkout Application
• Piper (USA) – McDonald’s Piper iBeacon campaign
• Dot Origin (UK) – The DTAG100 Varibeacon
• Sunoco (USA) – Secure PumpPAY w/VNET

3. Transportation and Ticketing

Awarded for the best use of contactless / NFC technology within the transportation and ticketing environment. Be it public transport or tickets for events, this award is aimed at those companies who have embraced the new contactless / NFC technology to deliver their specific products to a mass audience.

• Nottingham City Council (UK) – Citycard Retail Network
• Oberthur Technologies (France) – cityGo CIPURSE™ T
• Transport for London (UK) – Contactless Payment Card travel
• Oti (Israel) – WAVE dongle

4. Innovation

Contactless and NFC technology is moving beyond payment to new applications, be it location marketing, museum guides, or online note-taking. In this category, we are rewarding innovative uses in practice of NFC and contactless technology.

• Vix Technology (Australia) – Vix SmartSite® system (intelligent remote village solution)
• Sing London (UK) – Talking Statues (interactive arts project)
• Creating Revolutions (USA) – Touch & Discover; makes the real world clickable (opening up NFC capabilities to over 90% of smartphones in US)
• Clear Channel (UK) – Cancer Research contactless donations (enabling contactless donations in shop windows)

5. Customer Experience

Awarded for the most convenient use of contactless / NFC technology creating a great customer experience. Be it public transport or tickets for events, this award is aimed at those companies who have embraced the new contactless / NFC technology to deliver their specific products to a mass audience.

• Richmond Events Management (UK) – DOSH prepaid contactless card
• Dundee City Council (UK) – Smart Bursary Travel ticket
• ING Bank Śląski (Poland) – Contactless services (contactless ATM, digital wallet, mobile payments)
• PROVA Group (USA) – Legit powered by PROVA using NFC SmarTag^TM Technology to amplify the customer experience and combat fraud

6. Loyalty

What could be a better sector just waiting for contactless / NFC technology than the loyalty industry? With so many loyalty cards out there today – all waiting to be integrated into a mobile phone – surely this industry sector is the one embracing new technology the most?

• Matalan/Mobilize (UK) – Matalan Reward Card app
• Advanced Card Systems (Hong Kong) – e-PLUS Tap to Pay
• Pivo Wallet (Finland) – Pivo Wallet
• S-Bank (Finland) – S-Mobile and Contactless card

7. Marketing Campaign

Smart posters, in-store endorsements, social networking, location marketing – a number of marketing and advertising agencies have embraced NFC technology within the heart of their campaigns. It’s an exciting time and this category rewards both agencies and clients who have taken the leap and used NFC/BLE technology to market their products to the public or produced an exciting campaign for contactless/NFC projects.

• Tamoco (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) – BMW NFC & QR Print Campaign in “Der Spiegel” Magazine
• Blue Bite (USA) – Field Museum “1893 World’s Fair Exhibit” mobile campaign
• Alpha Bank (Greece) – Tap ’n Pay campaign
• Saatchi & Saatchi Zürich (Switzerland) – Tony Card campaign – First national communication by the united card industry in Switzerland

8. Unattended; Vending & Parking

In an increasingly convenience-focused market, we will look at the customer driven, practical innovations and how it creates new solutions. From interactive services, to multimedia output and online connectivity, today’s service oriented kiosks, ticketing and self-service applications may be one of the key drivers for contactless and mobile implementations.

• Verifone (USA) – Self-service transport ticketing options in Poland
• Zeven Media (UK) – Contactless photo booth
• PayRange (USA) – BluKey device enabling mobile payment at unattended machines
• Nayax (Israel) – VPOS – Complete Interactive Cashless Payment Solution

9. Ecosystem

Small-scale pilots have made way for company-, city- or even country-sized projects, bringing together many application areas and user experiences. Payments, posters, tourist information services, public transportation and even parking – in this category we award the efforts behind those contactless / NFC ecosystems.

• Arizona Department of Economic Security (USA) – Discrete Numerical Architecture
• MSI Global (Singapore) – CEPAS Contactless e-Purse Application
• Bell ID (The Netherlands) – Bell ID® Token Service Provider
• EMONEY GROUP (The Netherlands) – iCEIBA “Contactless Brain in the Cloud”

10. Contactless ID & Security

Security is key when it comes to securing people’s identity. Contactless and mobile technology adds the convenience to ID applications, facilitating the use of government and or private sector issued schemes. Awarded to the most prolific secure ID system out there.

• HYPR Corp. (USA) – HYPR‐3 Factor Authentication
• Giesecke & Devrient (Germany) – G&D Dynamic Card solution
• Airside (USA) – Mobile Passport app
• ecsec GmbH (Germany) – SkIDentity – Mobile eID as a Service

11. Gamechanger

Popular Kickstarter (or as we refer to them – ‘Gamechanger’) projects have included potato salad or the perfect butter knife. This new CMA category, however, is a bit more technical than that. This award is handed to the individual or company with the most convincing business idea using NFC, contactless or mobile. The kind of idea that could work on a crowd funding platform because it fills a void or catches people’s imagination.

• Transaxiom (UK) – CashAid contactless smart card
• Zwipe AS Norway (Norway) – Biometric payment card
• Signatur Ltd. (Ireland) – Signatur Vault for cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets
• Cubic & Transport for London (UK) – Contactless Bank Card Payment on London Public Transport Network

New for 2015 are three categories; ‘Unattended: Vending & Parking‘, ‘Contactless ID and Security’ and ‘Gamechanger’. Contactless Intelligence was keen to create these new categories. “We felt that vending and security  are categories that highlight areas with great potential for the contactless industry,” added Atkins. “The Gamechanger category has been introduced to recognise companies leading the way in driving customer adoption or providing innovative solutions.”

Started in 2013 and back by popular demand, the Contactless Intelligence ‘Industry Choice Award’ will be opened on April 7th 2015 and run for ten days. The nominees of this award are the finalists in the eleven categories outlined in this years CMAs. Voted for by the industry at www.contactlessintelligence.com, this award allows the mobile, NFC and contactless industry to vote on who they think should get recognition. The winner will be announced on the 28th April, during the Contactless Intelligence Conference Awards Gala.

Visa Europe will also present the winners of two further awards on 28th April: The ‘Visa payWave Award for Business Leader of the Year’ and the ‘Visa payWave Award for Best Contactless Awareness and Education Campaign’.