Touchatag was one of the more blue chip start-ups presenting at the tenth betagroup session. Not surprising as they are an Alcatel Lucent venture.

In essence, they develop Radio Frequency ID (ID) tags which anyone can program to their own needs. In human terms, this means that whenever a device like a cell-phone or a laptop gets in contact of less than 4 cm with any other object equipped with a tag, some kind of smart barcode, some command or order will happen between the two objects, transferred over a radio frequency.  Programmers can determine themselves what the command will trigger.

For example, you can imagine a music company using this Touchatag Last.fm application
where the music company attaches smart tags to for instance teddy bears and whenever this teddy bear is held close to a cellphone, automatically the music of a selected boys band will play on Last.fm. Simples.

So yes, these smart tags can be used for brand alliances of all kind - connecting objects of one brand in a smart way with another (online) brand.

One company which has just jumped the b(r)andwagon is Belgacom which has made a joint venture between its micropayment service PingPing (formerly Tunz) and Touchatag. Smart tags and micropayment, feels like a sound joint product development.

Cooperations like these might help Touchatag overcome it's biggest hurdle to succes, namely the ability to explain what it's technology might do to make your life better in simple and human terms. Showcasing practical examples done by others is one way to do it. 
But it's still no mean feat. I think it took the audience at Betagroup at least 10 minutes before they grasped the concept and these guys live and breathe ICT. Or maybe it was just me having a slow day. Anyway, there's still a long way to go before this stuff goes main stream.