The Nokia C7 will be the first Nokia smartphone to benefit from a collaboration between Nokia and Proxama.

Proxama will be working with Nokia on developing NFC ( Near Field Communications ) applications for the new generation of smartphones and firstly with the Nokia C7.

Proxama has designed a complete NFC-driven service package, featuring its unique TagCenter application that will enable Nokia NFC phone users to get instant, media-rich brand experiences from NFC data tags that will be on posters, product packaging and point-of-sale displays.

The global roll out of Nokia NFC-enabled phones presents brands, advertisers, media owners and retailers with exciting new opportunities to reach customers through NFC marketing campaigns.

There are three core elements in Proxama's NFC-driven service package:

TagCenter - a unique application which instantly reads and loads media-rich content from tapping the handset on data-encoded advertising tags (see below) and also provides links to other apps and web content.

NFC advertising tags - data tags containing programmable microchips that hold media-rich content which is sent to an NFC-enabled mobile when tapped, to provide an instant brand experience such as a voucher, coupon or video. The tags can be laminated onto posters, embedded into product packaging or stuck onto trading cards, key fobs and a host of other marketing collateral.

PosterTouch campaign manager - a campaign management server which enables advertisers to create new NFC advertising tags and importantly monitors and collates detailed customer analytical data, allowing advertisers to have valuable real-time campaign analysis at their fingertips.

Sixten Sandstrom, Director of Global Ecosystems at Nokia, commented "We are very excited to be at the forefront of the next evolution of the mobile phone. NFC is going to give mobile phones a completely new lease of life that will bring consumers greater empowerment and enhanced brand and retail experiences. It will also help brands to get closer to their customers and enable them to extract greater value from their relationships. Proxama's TagCenter is one way to bring these benefits to as wide an audience as possible. At Nokia, we recognise the big impact that NFC is going to have on how people use mobile phones and we plan to fully embrace it."