Garanti scoops loyalty innovation prize
The technology affiliate of Turkey’s Garanti Bank has won the “Best Innovation in a Loyalty Programme” award at the Cards and Payments Europe 2008 event.
Garanti Technology (GT) was awarded for the Bonus Trink Sticker project, based on a smart sticker contactless payment device from On Track Innovations (OTI). Oti provides contactless microprocessor-based smart card solutions for homeland security, payments, petroleum payments and other applications.
Bonus Trink is the brand mark of Garanti’s contactless suite of payment forms including plastic cards, watches, key fobs and the above mentioned smart sticker, which are all supplied by OTI.
OTI’s smart sticker is a self-contained, contactless payment device that adheres to multiple surfaces including mobile phones and PDAs and removes the need to carry a separate credit card.
This adhesive feature enables issuers to add contactless payment capabilities to existing mobile devices independent of the handset type and model. The smart sticker upgrades products which are already in circulation, providing a quick time-to-market solution, which aims to assist card issuers in increasing market share.
The award judges said that another aspect that has emerged regarding the Smart Sticker, both in Turkey and in its initial introduction in the US has been the “cool factor” especially among university students and the 20-35 year old age group.
Payments are made by placing the smart sticker a few inches away from OTI’s Saturn 6000 contactless reader. OTI has delivered several thousand readers to Garanti Bank for the Bonus Trink Programme.