What Are SnowShoe Stamps?
Can They Transform the Church Experience?

While researching start-up companies for a recent article, I stumbled across a new tech that stopped me in my tracks.

It’s a little plastic card called a SnowShoe Stamp (#SnowShoeStamp) from a new start-up company that has been making waves.

Here’s what SnowShoe’s website says:

SnowShoe makes clever pieces of plastic that can be uniquely identified when touched to a webpage on a mobile device. No longer are physical and digital separate. By linking your content to each stamp you can bring digital life to your customer’s physical experiences.

No RFID. No NFC. No beacons. Definitely no QR codes. Just clever plastic.

If you haven’t heard of the next tech revolution that’s about to change our culture — perhaps in a similar way that the Internet did — this revolution is called “the Internet of things.” And the SnowShoe stamp is the perfect example.

So how does it work? Well, you get a SnowShoe Stamp kit shipped to you. It comes with instructions on how to set it up and turn the little piece of plastic into a unique catalyst for something to happen when your customers or congregants press a SnowShoe Stamp against the screens of their phones. What will happen? Just about anything you want that is related to your business or organization’s digital content.

The video at the top of this article shows someone using a stamp to cause video game assets (a new sword and a new battle mace) to instantly download into the video game character’s possession when a user presses a stamp against the screen of their phone.

They give a few non-video game examples that have more general utility — and I’ll focus on three:

1. Give instant downloads of your content to event goers.

Let’s say you’ve got some special content that goes along with your sermon — a video, an outline, a graphic, etc. — and it’s something you’d like the church to take home with them and not just see up on a screen. Well, you can customize your SnowShoe Stamp so that when they press the plastic card on their phone’s screen, all of the content instantly downloads into their phone.

Imagine having stamps distributed to every person who comes into church, and they can press the stamp to their phone and view the supplemental content as you’re preaching (assuming you don’t mind people looking down at their phones). And the best part? They can take all the material home with them because it’s already on their phones.

Or if you’re a worship band and you’re giving out a free EP or something of your worship songs, you can customize a stamp so that when someone presses it on their phone’s screen, your album instantly downloads to their phone.

2. Use it to tell the digital story of your organization/product/company/church, etc.

Or maybe you’d like new visitors to learn your church or organization’s story when they walk into the foyer. You can place a single stamp (after you’ve customized it and set everything up) on a podium with a sign that instructs them to press the stamp against their phone. When they do, a presentation of your story will immediately download and play on their phones.

3. Transform the experience of shopping or fundraising/charity into something interactive.

Or let’s say your church or organization has a store on its campus or you’re doing some sort of fundraising event that involves commerce. You can place a stamp at the event, and when people press it to their phones, they can instantly receive a discount on a certain item. It adds a kinesthetic, interactive experience to the event.

Frankly, these are probably just the most basic of examples. Worship directors could customize a stamp to download a rehearsal’s or worship service’s full set-list into the musicians’ phones. As the musicians arrive to practice, they simply press their phone’s screen against the card at the entrance and receive that day’s practice itinerary and any other notes you want to give them.

I bet many of you could think of many more fascinating uses of this new technology.

SnowShoe is still working with early adopters and beta testing its product, but it’s open to the public. You can go to their website and order a kit for $20. You’ll get a couple of stamps and instructions on how to set everything up.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an affiliate. Also, I have NO IDEA how complicated or technically proficient someone has to be to customize a stamp for their needs. I’ve ordered a kit and will report back once I try it out.