From Oyster Cards to mobile banking, consumers all over the world are choosing to ditch traditional cash payments in favour of more efficient cashless payment systems.
With the cashless revolution upon us, the best festivals all over the world have successfully deployed RFID technology throughout their event sites including Tomorrowland, Rock in Rio USA, Electric Daisy Carnival, Snowbombing, and Taste Festivals. From music festivals of all genres to gourmet food and wine events, from open-air desert environments to harsh winter blizzards, RIFD technology has been widely embraced by events of all types and patrons of all demographics.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is at the forefront of this digital revolution in the live event landscape, providing organisers with the tools to elevate their guest experiences in a more meaningful way.
Access Control
Gone are the days of the paper ticket, RFID uses entrance portals and handheld readers to securely and efficiently manage access control rights to your event site, validated in one tenth of a second with a quick swipe of an RFID-enabled device or wristband. Under a single platform, this technology allows organisers to manage access credentials and patron flow in real-time for multiple zones including GA, VIP, artist compound, production, camping and more.
2015 is the year of ‘Big Data’ and data technology is everywhere, including the festival scene. Promoters and organisers are ever-increasingly looking for ways to easily amalgamate all of their data and this is where RFID is proving invaluable.
The data obtained from an RFID platform allows for insightful post-event analysis, enabling organisers to personalise the festival experience and improve offerings for future attendees. Through the analysis of purchasing behaviour and crowd movements, the most popular event elements can be identified to make tailored decisions, further enhancing future events.
This data capture also allows marketers to create targeted marketing campaigns, create loyalty programs, personalised offers and incentives, or simply identify the best way, and time, to communicate with patrons.
Cashless Payments
RFID technology enables festivals and other live events to benefit from a cashless payment system that is accessible to 100% of the audience. With a double-tap of their wearable tech, patrons can make quick and easy purchases for food, drink or merchandise, whilst eliminating long queues, ensuring festival-goers spend more time enjoying curated event content. Patrons no longer have to carry around cash or risk losing their wallets, which brings added convenience and security benefits to their cashless experience.
Festivals that have gone 100% cashless have also proven to increase on-site spending by at least 15-30% compared to traditional forms of payment. Organisers and vendors also benefit from real-time sales reporting of all transactions, delivering unparalleled audience insight and increasing transparency. Time and financial resources are saved by mitigating the need to count or weigh physical tokens, ensuring absolute accuracy in the digital records of all sales transacted through the cashless system. Simple and fast vendor reconciliation post-event is also made possible from real-time data capture. Due to the significant cost-savings and revenue-generating benefits, the summer’s biggest festivals and events have adopted cashless payment systems, with many more to follow suit in the near future.
Brand Amplification
Brand sponsorships are the foundation of many live events and as digital becomes more deeply ingrained in our everyday lives, organisers are being increasingly tasked with finding new and innovative ways to connect brands with event audiences.
As social media usage continues to rise, live tweeting has become the norm, with event attendees sharing their selfies and experiences in real-time. By deploying on-site brand experiences that are relevant and engaging, organisers can offer patrons a variety of social activities that work to enhance their event experience.
RFID technology is enabling organisers to creatively bring interactive sponsorship and targeted brand content to the live event space. Through the introduction of brand amplification opportunities on site, sponsors are able to elevate their brand experience and generate strong connections with attendees. Brand activation deployments such as social media ‘check in zones’, gamification and photo booth stations encourage patrons to engage with your brand in a fun and creative way.
The exponential growth of social media interactions helps market your brand to a huge online audience, creating an instant digital connection between brand partners and audience members on and off site.
Top Five Tips on How to Take Your Event Digital
Increasing on-site revenue, efficiency and security, while gaining invaluable insight of your audience’s needs through a sophisticated RFID platform is vital to the growth of your live event. If you’re looking to consider RFID technology at your next event, here are our top five tips:
1. Do your research and find a service provider with a rock solid track record. Look at the caliber, size, and reputation of the events they’ve serviced and if any events are similar to yours. Make sure the provider has achieved growth and continues to service the same clients year after year. Client retention is important, and speaks volumes of the company’s credibility and reliability.
2. Experience the technology for yourself. Spend some time at fellow festivals where the technology is used by real patrons! Watch guests interact with the technology. Watch the service staff and customer care. Imagine how RFID would be deployed at your event site and envision what you would change if you had the opportunity.
3. Education is key. For successful adoption of the technology, all event staff, vendors, and patrons need to be educated about the RFID system and how it benefits them – particularly cashless payments. Make the decision about going cashless early and communicate how it works to all your patrons before arriving at the event through all possible channels including your website, email communications, social media, direct mail inserts, on-site signage, and other online and offline media.
4. Mail out RFID wristbands to your patrons pre-event. This speeds up the check-in process at the festival entrance and avoids any confusion when patrons arrive. Include any relevant information and instructions in a direct mail insert to accompany the wristband to help with the education process.
5. Many consumers are worried about safety and what happens to their unspent cash. Be completely transparent in your communications at all times explaining how the system works and how their cash is protected, as well as any associated fees and refund policy. Also choose a cashless system that offers real-time digital records of all purchase transactions that are accessible to registered patrons, so there are no surprises as to what their money was spent on at the event. This also helps with any post-event customer care issues as well.
By Eric Janssen, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Intellitix.
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