Thinfilm-powered NFC marketing campaign has positive impact for Kilchoman

Kilchoman, an award-winning producer of single-malt Scotch whisky, was revealed as a Thinfilm customer in November 2017 and deployed its NFC mobile marketing technology soon thereafter.

For the initial campaign, Kilchoman replaced conventional neck-tag booklets with Thinfilm’s NFC-powered interactive neck-tags on bottles of its Machir Bay and Sanaig whiskies. The tags, each of which contained a uniquely identifiable NFC chip and fully integrated with Thinfilm's CNECT cloud platform, created a digital touchpoint that transformed each bottle into an individual marketing channel. By tapping the ‘smart’ neck-tags with an NFC-enabled smartphone, consumers were able to instantly launch unique digital experiences that communicated product details, taste profiles, brand messaging and distillery information.

A post-campaign analysis revealed that NFC generated an engagement rate among consumers that outperformed more traditional digital marketing channels such as display, email, search and social, when referring to eMarketer Performance Metrics 2018. The analysis uncovered several additional actionable insights for Kilchoman, including:

• Consumer tapping activity across 13 countries in Europe;
• A ‘sharing’ element to the consumer experience, with one-third of the bottles tapped by more than one unique user;
• A 7-week average ‘ship-to-shelf’ time, from when an NFC-equipped bottle is shipped by Kilchoman until it appears in market;
• Enhanced geographic visibility into the distillery's distribution chain; and
• 22 percent iOS engagement via a custom Kilchoman-branded app. 

Anthony Wills, founder and managing director of Kilchoman Distillery, said: ‘We saw Thinfilm’s NFC mobile marketing solution as an ideal way to connect with consumers, tell our brand story, and deliver mobile experiences that are engaging, informative and relevant.’

Based on the success of the original campaign, Kilchoman will integrate Thinfilm’s NFC technology directly into the whisky bottle labels, eliminating the neck-tags. The company has placed a follow-on NFC tag order with Thinfilm for use in primary packaging integration and will establish NFC as an ongoing consumer engagement channel. Additionally, Kilchoman is developing new digital content and implementing lead-capture functionality to deepen its relationships with brand enthusiasts.

‘The results of our first campaign were quite promising, and we're using that data to make the consumer experience even more compelling moving forward,’ noted Wills.

Davor Sutija, Thinfilm CEO, added: ‘Kilchoman understands the value NFC delivers when it comes to connecting directly with consumers. It's exciting to see campaign data that validates the power of NFC mobile marketing, and we're eager to collaborate with Kilchoman on the next stage of this initiative.’