Proxama Plc., (AIM: PROX), the global mobile proximity marketing, loyalty and NFC payments company, today announced it is expanding its global reach by launching operations in North America.
To lead efforts in the region, Proxama has appointed Pascal Caillon to the position of General Manager for North America. Over the past decade, Proxama's proximity engagement and loyalty solution, TapPoint®, and mobile NFC payment platform, CardGateway®, have acted as core technologies in those spaces. Proxama's solutions have helped well-known brands, retailers, banks and card issuers like Barclaycard, Softcard, Mastercard, Ubisoft, KIA Oval, Domino's Pizza, Guinness and many more set themselves apart from the competition.
Recent market advancements in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon, and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies are pressing financial institutions, media owners, and merchants to rethink how they can create new revenue streams and customer engagement opportunities. For example, the recent Apple Pay and iWatch announcement as well as the October 2015 Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) contactless adoption deadline are making the industry take notice of these technologies.
"Our experience with Proxama came when we decided we wanted to change the way that cricket fans used mobile to interact with the sport at the Fifth Test Match of England vs. India," said Elliott Moore, general manager at The KIA Oval. "With the company's TapPoint platform as part of the event's app, we were able to leverage proximity technologies such as beacons and geo-fencing to create a more enriching experience for attendees and enable digital capabilities, such as gaining access to live score feeds, at the cricket ground. The results were strong, with more than 25 percent of all targeted fans downloading and using the app. We look forward to working with Proxama again in the future."
As part of Proxama's launch into the U.S., the company will tap into its wealth of experience, which includes enabling NFC redemption of offers and loyalty rewards, automating check-in when users enter a store with BLE beacons, and generating offers though NFFC billboards and smart posters, to move the industry into the next phase of mobile payments: proximity commerce. Beyond just payments, retailers and banks will soon be able to leverage NFC, BLE and other proximity and location technologies to provide all smartphone users with more personal, convenient and real-time mobile commerce interactions.
"By using NFC, we hoped to encourage app downloads, increase mobile sales and improve our multi-channel customer experience," said Dominic Pemberton, head of publications & new media at Argos. "When we started looking to improve our proximity mobile marketing, we went straight to Proxama. Their credibility in the market and analytics provided by their TapPoint platform made them our number one choice. Proxama's full support package was also a benefit to us; they have helped train our staff and offered support with implementing the technology."
Proxama's new General Manager for North America, Pascal Caillon, will lead the company's efforts in the region, and will oversee operations in its San Francisco, New York City and Toronto offices. In the immediate future, as Proxama's North American customer base grows, Proxama will expand its engineering and sales teams. Caillon's expertise in the mobile commerce field comes from over 20 years working with the likes Visa, MasterCard and SanDisk, as well as interacting with clients like Dunkin' Brands and PayPal.
"We're on the cusp of widespread NFC technology adoption, so now is the perfect time to bring our expertise into the North American region," said Pascal. "By tapping into our deep-rooted experience in Europe, a region that has been driving a lot of the mobile commerce activity to date, we are confident that we can bring similar success to the North American market. By connecting physical and digital, we are able to help merchants, brands, and banks uncover opportunities for mobile loyalty programmes, targeted offers and deeper customer relationships they never thought possible."