Emerging Technology 34 | SunMatrix Ramble

Ibiza Hotel Offers RFID Facebook Sharing

You arrive at Ushuaïa Beach Hotel in Ibiza wearing an RFID-enabled bracelet. Around the venue, pillars invite you to check in, take photos, or post a status update. You step up, scan your bracelet, and your moment is shared straight to Facebook from the beach, the pool, or the dance floor. The objective is simple. “Make all your Facebook friends jealous.”

What Ushuaïa builds with RFID and Facebook

RFID technology and its integration with social APIs is becoming more mainstream. In this example, Ushuaïa Beach Hotel becomes the world’s first hotel to use RFID to engage guests through social sharing. The installation is created by Dorst & Lesser, who also create the Renault RFID installation at the Amsterdam Auto Show.

How the pillars drive sharing across the hotel

The hotel is outfitted with pillars that read RFID-enabled bracelets. Depending on where you are and what the pillar offers, you can check in, take pictures, or post a status update. The pillars are placed at the beach, the pool, and on the dance floor, so sharing becomes a physical action you repeat throughout the experience.

Why this pattern matters beyond Ibiza

The real move is not the gadget. It is the reduction of friction. Sharing is no longer a separate step on a phone. It becomes a “tap and publish” behavior embedded in the space, making social output a natural byproduct of participation.

This RFID and Facebook integration is also used at the Coca-Cola Village in Israel.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Ushuaïa RFID Facebook sharing concept?

Guests wear RFID-enabled bracelets and use scanning pillars placed around the hotel to trigger Facebook check-ins, photos, and status updates from different locations.

Why place pillars at the beach, pool, and dance floor?

Because those are the high-emotion moments guests want to share. Putting the tech at the peak moments increases usage and makes sharing feel like part of the experience.

What is the key design lesson for brands?

Make sharing an outcome of participation, not a separate workflow. When the action is physical, fast, and obvious, publishing scales without instruction.

What should you measure if you run something similar?

Scan volume by location, repeat scans per guest, social reach and engagement of generated posts, and any lift in on-site dwell time around the activation points.

Volkswagen virtual Golf Cabriolet app

The Golf Cabriolet is back after 9 years of absence, since production was stopped in 2002. Volkswagen together with Paris based agency ‘Agency.V.’ have come up with the worlds first augmented reality car showroom app for the iPad2, iPhone and Android.

The app lets you explore the vehicle and play with it’s features like opening the soft-top roof, rotating the car, checking the vehicle’s details, changing the body colour or the style of the rims. You can even take a picture of yourself with the virtual car and share each step of this experience through your social networks.

Why this is a useful AR showroom idea

This is a clean, practical use of augmented reality. It gives people a way to “handle” the car without needing a dealership visit. The experience stays focused on the things people actually want to try first. The roof open and close. The rotation. The color and rim changes. And it makes the moment shareable by design, so the showroom can travel through social networks.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Volkswagen virtual Golf Cabriolet app?
An augmented reality car showroom app for iPad2, iPhone and Android that lets people explore and customize the Golf Cabriolet.

What can you do inside the app?
Open the soft-top roof, rotate the car, check details, change body colour, change rim styles, and take a photo with the virtual car to share socially.

Who created it with Volkswagen?
Paris based agency ‘Agency.V.’.

Where could people download it?
From the French iTunes Store for iPhone and iPad 2, and from the Android market for Android devices.

DoubleClick: Fly over France HTML5 banner

You open a banner and, instead of a product shot, you get a hot-air balloon. You pick up speed, drift across a map, and “tour” famous French locations from above, including the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, and the Château de Versailles.

This demo came out of the DoubleClick HTML5 Banner Challenge, with Biborg Interactive and Alpha Layer showing what happens when a banner is treated like a mini experience instead of a static placement.

The rich media build leans on several HTML5 capabilities at once. Geolocation can drop you near your own location at the start. WebGL handles the 3D-like rendering layer in capable browsers. Audio and video tags add atmosphere. Google Maps-style navigation does the heavy lifting for exploration.

In digital advertising, HTML5-rich media lets a banner behave like a lightweight web app, while still living inside a standard media buy.

An HTML5 rich media banner is a display unit that runs real-time code in the browser. It can detect location (with permission), render interactive graphics, and respond to user input without plugins.

What makes this feel different from “banner interactivity”

Most interactive banners ask for clicks. This one offers navigation. The moment you give people directional control, the experience shifts from “ad” to “toy”, and time-in-unit rises naturally because curiosity takes over.

Why the tech stack choice matters

Geolocation is not a gimmick here. It personalizes the first frame by making “your world” the default starting point, if the user opts in. WebGL is not decoration. It signals modernity and smoothness, making the experience feel closer to a game than a widget.

The business intent behind the challenge demo

This is less about selling France and more about selling a capability. It is a proof point for what DoubleClick Studio and HTML5 workflows can support, and it is a portfolio-grade demonstration for the teams who built it.

What to steal for your next HTML5 creative

Give viewers one clear control. Navigation beats click-to-reveal when you want time spent.
Use “permissioned” personalization. Geolocation works best when it improves the first 3 seconds, not when it tries to be clever later.
Design a graceful fallback. If 3D is not available, the core experience should still be enjoyable.
Make the value visible without instructions. If someone can understand the interaction from across the room, they will try it.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the DoubleClick HTML5 Banner Challenge demo here?

It is a rich media banner concept that lets users “fly” a hot-air balloon over a map of France and discover landmarks, built to showcase what HTML5 banners can do beyond animation.

Which HTML5 features does the banner use?

It is described as using geolocation (with permission), WebGL for interactive graphics, and native audio and video support, alongside map-based navigation to create a lightweight exploration experience.

Why is geolocation useful in a banner?

Because it can personalize the first moment. Starting near a user’s own location makes the experience feel immediately relevant, as long as it is optional and clearly explained.

What does WebGL add to rich media ads?

WebGL enables GPU-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics in the browser. In advertising units, that can translate into smoother motion, depth effects, and more game-like interaction.

What is the biggest risk with “mini-app” banners?

Weight and compatibility. If the unit is too heavy or too fragile across browsers, you lose reach. The best builds keep a simple core loop and treat advanced effects as optional upgrades.