I suspect the use of RFID with social integration will step up a few notches this year, we’ll see it at more events, in more stores and as part of more brand experiences as agencies tech-up and brands look to innovate in 2011. Infact, I’m working on a very cool brand experience using RFID technology for the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia as we speak (more on that next week!).

For the Amsterdam Motorshow “AutoRAI” in 2011, Renault set out to empower car fans to “Like” specific cars as they experienced them live at the show. Guests were prompted to activate a free RFID card and branded lanyard at the Renault Facebook Check-in desk, then connect their Facebook account details to be stored on the card.

Each Renault car was accompanied by a RFID scanning station that was hooked up to an iPad. The scanning stations prompted you to “Like” the car by swiping the RFID card, essentially posting that car and associated content to your FB wall in real time. It reminds me of a campaign I posted from Coca-Cola in Israel this time last year, called the Coca-Cola Village, which was a waterpark that used RFID wrist bands to post each activity or slide to the Facebook walls of everyone at the event. I’m pretty sure that was the very first time that RFID had been integrated with Facebook.

While I think this is a great step forward “socially” for motorshows and car companies in alike, I’d love to have seen a “Like” leaderboard or some sort of battle aggregating the “Likes” and real time social interaction back into the event screens to close the branding loop and maximise the experience for people at the motorshow, along with their friends who were following on Facebook. Via the guys at TNW / Martina on Adverblog.

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