There’s a lot of buzz in marketing and advertising these days about smartphone users interacting with advertiser’s "content," especially from a printed ad and connecting to the web in some fashion. Content can be almost anything; making a purchase, watching a video, providing commentary (twitter, Like), playing games, entering contests, and almost anything else to get your attention. They want "stickiness"... i.e. you stuck in their content for a long time. And if you click "recommend to a friend" it's the cherry on top!

A load of this buzz is reminiscent of Web 1.0 (aka Internet bubble) when companies had some awesome mission statements and paradigms flowered on the streets south of Market in San Francisco.

I try a lot of these smartphone apps that read "connected" print like QRcodes, barcodes, TAGS and of course Digimarc Discover for reading digitally watermarked images. These apps can easily read the technology they are designed for, some can read other technologies as well and all direct you to the "payoff."

It's these payoffs, this sticky content, that's bugging me because most is so poorly done. I could go on and on about bad payoffs, but I'd like to complete this post today. Let's chat about two pet peeves that affect stickiness and are easily fixed.

I came across this article today by Jason Heller, "Cracking the QR Code." Jason wisely points out what most of us regularly observe of mobile campaigns: "Unfortunately, most executions, well... suck." (Quoting Jason)

Technology can be a scary thing in the hands of the marketing novice who knows just enough to be dangerous. But how is it that so many marketing and advertising pros are getting sucked into using the “new, shiny tool in their marketing tool chest,” without giving careful consideration to whether or not the experience will deliver practical use, entertainment, information or assistance to the consumer. Please, please do not take me to the home page of your web site! Not interested; and probably not going to try it again.

The Grey’s Anatomy Sync App for iPad, which launched in February for ABC’s top-rated series, “Grey’s Anatomy,” has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media.

Why is Digimarc so interested? Because Media-Sync is a product of a joint venture between Nielsen and Digimarc Corporation. It's a complete application development and operating platform that allows TV content producers and broadcasters to deploy real-time sync-to-broadcast mobile apps in a rapid and scalable manner.

Powered by Nielsen's Media-Sync Platform, the app provides fans of the show with the ability to interact with exclusive content in real-time using their iPad. You can root for it at the 63^rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards airs on Sunday, Sept. 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET. 

For more information on Media-Sync here's a recent interview on Interactive TV Today.

We’re always saying how Digimarc Discover is the elegant solution, especially when compared to barcodes. If you have a beautiful two-page spread (also called a centerfold in certain publications) and want to keep it clean, yet want to have an extra layer of interaction, such as linking to a behind-the-scenes video, a QR code might be a little incongruous.

Speaking of beautiful, House Beautiful magazine really did it right. Their two-page spread of a well-appointed bedroom was digitally watermarked, and they indicated this gracefully within the caption, in their own font and their own words – great branding! Using the Digimarc Discover app, readers are taken to a video shoot of how the scene was set. So far it’s been a success and we wish House Beautiful magazine the best of luck with our technology.

What can we say? Our friends at V8X magazine are getting a lot of good press. Our CEO, Bruce Davis, sat down with Publishing Executive magazine (to all non-publishers out there, yep, there’s a magazine for that!) and rapped about the “secret code” at Digimarc, with a video showing V8X magazine in action. (Full disclosure, those are my hands. If anybody wants to hire me as a hand model, please post in the comments how much you’re willing to pay.)

This led to a leading publishing website in Australia getting wind of the same. I’d call this a g’day for digital watermarking, for sure.

 

Originally users provided instructions to Microsoft computers with an esoteric string of alphanumeric characters preceded by the command line prompt -- C:\. By the early 1990s the Windows icon-based interface had displaced the command line. Three years ago Apple launched the next evolutionary stage with the App Store. One of the chief implications for Apps is their ability to transform conventional media into a computerized user interface as well.

We've all heard how all things digital live forever on the internet. It's the same for posted photos of drunk friends and product reviews.

I was surprised to learn that a 2004 review of Digimarc for Images is a top ten result on Google and Bing searches for Digimarc.

The product that Ken Rockwell reviewed in 2004 is a number of updates behind and two major upgrades out of date with Digimarc's product currently offered for the needs of pro and amateur photographers alike. So what's a blogger to do? It would be unfair and rather silly for me to rebut Mr. Rockwell's 2004 conclusions...

I was scanning through a number of articles and blogs for the latest and greatest on the world of mobile marketing and came across this post.

And, what I say is AMEN TO THAT! I won't name names, but we've had similar experiences with publications trying the Digimarc Discover Platform. All too often, I've observed small tests with a single article or promotion... and then nothing. That is just not a good test of potential value over time. So let me give you my 2 cents on the subject...