Kovio Selects Symphony Teleca as Strategic Development Partner; Collaboration Brings Big Data Analytics to NFC-Enabled Mobile Marketing for Retailers and Brands

Partnership Creates New Era in NFC-Based Consumer Marketing

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Symphony Teleca Corporation, the services organization dedicated exclusively to helping clients manage the global convergence of software, the cloud, connected devices and big data analytics, announced today that it has become a strategic development partner to Kovio, Inc., a leading provider of Near Field Communication (NFC) products and services. Symphony Teleca will leverage its expertise in the development of big data analytics platforms for retailers, brands, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries to co-develop mobile services and applications that enable marketers and advertisers to conduct dynamic and integrated NFC-based mobile marketing campaigns using NFC tags activated by consumers’ own NFC-enabled mobile phones.

“The wide availability of NFC mobile phones and other NFC-enabled devices capable of reading Kovio’s breakthrough NFC products is creating enormous opportunities in permission-based brand marketing, advertising and loyalty-building”

The development of NFC-based mobile marketing creates a new era in the way brand marketers engage consumers, drive conversion and build brand loyalty through opt-in, personalized, authentic, and contextual experiences at both point of purchase and point of use. The combined NFC-based platform and solutions enable an integrated mobile consumer-brand engagement, encompassing printed media, out-of-home displays, in-store shopper marketing, and item-level packaging.

“The wide availability of NFC mobile phones and other NFC-enabled devices capable of reading Kovio’s breakthrough NFC products is creating enormous opportunities in permission-based brand marketing, advertising and loyalty-building,” said Amir Mashkoori, CEO of Kovio, Inc. “Our NFC technology, combined with Symphony Teleca’s expertise in big data analytics, is enabling a new marketing and advertising platform for consumer brands and retailers to directly engage with consumers and drive a new level of brand loyalty and trust."

NFC is sparking a wide variety of innovation in retail and marketing, and Symphony Teleca is a leading innovator in this space, working with a wide variety of customers, including comparison shopping sites, online retailers and retail analytics firms. Symphony Teleca has developed technology solutions for a leading online shopping comparison network, enabling the client to provide real-time recommendations and increase cross-sell and up-sell by using big data technologies to acquire data using web crawlers, classification and attribution, keyword scoring, SEO and search engine marketing. Symphony Teleca has also partnered with a UK-based leading retail analytics provider to help retailers and brands increase the effectiveness of their marketing spend through targeted campaigns using household segmentation and scoring, campaign management and post campaign analysis.

“Symphony Teleca has been at the forefront of innovation in consumer-focused analytics for some time,” said Venkat Rajan, SVP and General Manager for the Analytics Division, Symphony Teleca. “NFC-enabled mobile phones are bringing about a new era in consumer marketing, enabling manufacturers and retailers to gather highly specific data about consumer buying patterns and habits, and delivering targeted promotions, loyalty programs and other campaigns that appeal to specific consumers. Leveraging our experience in big data analytics for consumer and retail markets, we’re looking forward to working with Kovio to develop advanced NFC-based solutions that redefine mobile marketing.”

About Kovio

Kovio, Inc., a privately held Silicon Valley company with origins in the world-renowned MIT Media Lab, designs, develops, and manufactures printed silicon products for Near Field Communication (NFC) and Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) markets, including NFC Barcodes. By combining the power and functionality of high-performance silicon inks and low-cost graphics printing technology, Kovio enables its customers and partners to deploy innovative products and solutions in the areas of mobile marketing and advertising, brand authentication, retail operations, and ticketing. For more information about Kovio, visit www.kovio.com.

About Symphony Teleca

Symphony Teleca Corporation, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., is the world’s first services company dedicated exclusively to helping clients manage the global convergence of software, the cloud and connected devices. The company delivers innovative products combined with contemporary product development, systems integration, analytics and managed services to hundreds of organizations around the world. Symphony Teleca’s 5,800 employees support customers from 32 offices globally, including delivery centers in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. For more information visit www.symphonyteleca.com.