Boston Ad Agency Experiments With RFID-enabled Marketing Strategies

At advertising agency Allen & Gerritsen's two East Coast offices, the traditional pencil-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe has been transformed into a virtual, two-city contest using digital displays and featuring images from staff members' Instagram accounts, along with Xs and Os, via RFID readers and tags. The company has been testing radio frequency identification technology as one strategy to bring new consumer engagement to the world of marketing. But while its goal is RFID-enabled marketing strategies for its clients, the firm's own employees are having fun with it in the meantime. The company's research-and-development unit, A&G Labs, launched two years ago, has been experimenting with RFID and other technology innovations.