Introduction

Today we interact with Internet media nearly as routinely we checked our wristwatches to read time-of-day fifteen years ago. While the conversion might seem radical to consumers from 1996, the advent of portable connected devices such as smartphones and tablet computers implies an even more fundamental change in the future. In short, all media shall become interactive – not just Internet media.

To download ten minute audio narration now click here.

The underlying force is a previously latent demand from sponsors for more effective advertising. As John Wanamaker put it about a century ago “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Yet during the past decade, Google AdWords introduced a new paradigm. The service generates more than $25 billion annually by only charging sponsors for ads that are actually used by the consumer. At Google, advertising is targetable, accountable, and can be convincingly tracked. It is only a matter of time before sponsors will demand the same of all their advertising campaigns in whatever medium, whenever possible. 

Significantly, app-enabled mobile devices are empowering traditional media to adapt to such a transformation because the portable units are evolving into cognitive prosthetics. Much as experienced amputees routinely use mechanical prosthetics as artificial limb extensions, habitual smartphone and tablet owners are starting to use the devices as convenient intelligence aids. They help users gain more information that would otherwise be unavailable, or difficult to obtain. For example smartphones can find price comparisons merely by scanning barcodes and other implanted signals off shelf merchandise labels. Specifically, a price-comparison app reads the barcode or embedded signal to (1) identify the merchandise and (2) display a website where up-to-date prices for the item from all merchants are complied.   

Importantly the cognitive prosthetics contain sensors such as cameras and microphones enabling them to interact with all forms of media. There’s no need to limit interaction to Internet media. Presently available apps enable a unit’s integrated camera to “read” signals embedded in print media. Similar apps permit incorporated microphones to “hear” signals implanted in audio streams, or to statistically match audio content to digital fingerprints. It’s remarkable to consider how quickly the advent of smartphones and tablet computers is enabling consumers to interact with traditional media forms such as radio, television, and print.

Radio 

Perhaps the first commercially important interactive augmentation of traditional media happened in radio broadcasting. Although available earlier, music identification applications such as Shazam did not become widespread until introduced on the iPhone. Now tens-of-millions of users rely on Shazam and similar apps such as SoundHound and Digimarc Discover to identify songs as the tunes are played on the radio, or other sound system. Using its microphone, the smartphone “listens” to the audio and identifies the stream.

Such apps are commercially important for two reasons. First, they are popular with users, some of whom are willing to pay a fee for unlimited use. Second, they stimulate sales of the identified (and similar) recordings because users are customarily provided an option to purchase the song as an online download directly to their smartphone. After blaming the Web for a decade of declining sales, such apps are the first Internet innovations record label executives acknowledge as an undeniable revenue booster.

Television 

A number of companies offer apps and associated products enabling smartphones and tablet computers to function as remote control appliances for conventional television sets. While it is too early to predict which of them might achieve mainstream popularity, the touch-screen and icon-based interface is a big advantage over conventional units with numerous confusing buttons. Its intuitive superiority is increasingly evident given the large number of CATV channels combined with the growing popularity of watching Internet video on TV sets. Thus, it is thought likely that mobile devices – or something very much like them – shall become the TV remote control units of the future.

Once that happens, the concept will work hand-in-glove to stimulate interaction with TV content that is just beginning to appear in app-enabled smartphones and tablet computers. In the United States the audio component of nearly all commercial network programs contains a unique identifying digital watermark. Thus, smartphones and tablet computers loaded with a pertinent app can identify content by reading the mark. In point of fact, last year ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy introduced an interactive app for the iPad empowering viewers to see extra information, participate in polls, and communicate with others watching the show on social networks like Facebook. In March the Media Synch platform that enabled the Grey’s Anatomy app was extended to a new show on The Weather Channel entitled From the Edge with Peter Lik.

Ultimately, however, “money makes the World go around.” Thus, the chief goal of TV program interaction is to increase sponsor revenues. One way is to make the commercials themselves interactive by embedding watermarks in the ads as well the entertainment programs. This will permit viewers to segue from the ad directly into an online purchase of merchandise, or similar call-to-action. Not only can the practice generate sales of the advertised product, but it also provides statistically reliable documentation regarding which ads work best.

But revenue-generating interactivity need not be limited to commercials. Product placement can be taken to a new level as well. Consider, for example, how interactive smartphones and tablet computers could permit viewers to purchase merchandise that actors are wearing or using during the show.

Print

Newspapers, magazines, and other forms of print media shall not be bypassed by the emerging trends of interactivity induced by smartphones and tablet computers. As noted, such devices can use on-board cameras to read bar codes nearly as reliably as do supermarket check-out scanners. More importantly, the app paradigm enables them to read a variety of other embedded signals as well, including QR codes and digital watermarks.

In point of fact, the interactivity empowered by cognitive prosthetics could re-invigorate print advertising. In the future, consumers may routinely scan print ads to spontaneously purchase the advertised merchandise, or gain more information. The practice could become even more habitual than clipping coupons or tearing-out a newspaper or magazine page containing a desired ad or article.

Consider a recent print campaign by luxury watch maker Raymond Weil. Readers who scanned the ad with smartphones were “transported” to a website offering several powerful “option tabs”. One used the phone’s location-awareness to find authorized nearby retailers. Another displayed a short video describing the featured model. A third tab enabled users to request a catalog of all Raymond Weil products. Advertisers for other products might have offered different tab options such as (1) a time-sensitive discount coupon, (2) a proprietary app specific to the company advertising the subject product, (3) instructional information pertinent to the advertised product, and (4) registration for an online contest in which the winners get free merchandise.

Print advertisers have several signaling options. The advantage of bar and QR codes is that consumers increasingly recognize their function and are thereby prompted to scan them when the ad is sufficiently motivating. But they have two disadvantages. One is they are unsightly and occupy valuable space on the printed page. Second, they can be hijacked thereby resulting in uncontrolled counterfeiting.

In contrast, digital watermarks for advertising are visually imperceptible image modifications that can only be detected electronically by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers equipped with integrated cameras. As such they enable publishers to maintain the visual esthetics of imaged advertisements, yet simultaneously allow smartphones owners to interact with the ads much as they can with bar and QR coded ads.

Additionally, digital watermarks are applicable to all three media types. For example, they can be sensed by both cameras and microphones. In contrast, bar and QR codes can only be sensed by cameras. The distinction can be pertinent in large branding campaigns. Consider an example where a sponsor advertises a branding promotion in a combination of (1) print, (2) radio, (3) Internet, and (4) conventional television. The promotion invites consumers to participate in an online game. A single watermark will allow all smartphone users to download the relevant app automatically, wherever they might see or hear the ad – in whatever media form. Contrary to the common practice in print and TV ads presently, there will be no need for such ads to instruct the audience to visit another website in order to download the subject app.    

Conclusion

According to www.chetansharma.com, smartphone sales in the United States crossed the 50% market share threshold for the first time in the first calendar quarter of 2011. That’s nearly double the 27% share of only two years ago. Google’s Eric Schmidt proclaims “the smartphone is the new PC”. Similarly, Yankee Group predicts that over 60 million tablet computers will be in use by 2015. Sharma concludes “…mobile will become the platform of everything. Anything that can be connected will be connected.” Among other functions, such devices will evolve into ubiquitous cognitive prosthetics, nearly always available to help us interact with media in all its forms.