You may have seen recent news about the Digimarc Discover solution and how it will enable print to become interactive. That was just the beginning; The Oregonian newspaper (in Oregon) launched its new mobile reader application that will deliver rich content to its users by utilizing the Digimarc Discover watermarking technology. News & Tech had a great article about it, so I wanted to say "thanks!" to the editors.

 
Please stay tuned in the coming months when I will post more information about different magazines that will also be inporporating Digimarc Discover.

If you're one of the lucky ones who've discovered the value of using Action Scripts (to digitally watermark lots of photos, of course) and your software of choice is Adobe Elements, you should read Erin's blog at Texas Chicks.

It seems that purchasers of Adobe Elements 9 on the Mac App Store are NOT allowed to install action scripts through the Effects Palette.

Be sure to read Erin's blog (she's an Action Scripting Goddess for those using Elements). Just incase you're lazy... the solution is (a spoiler alert?); buy direct from Adobe or Amazon to avoid this issue.

Thanks again to the Texas Chicks!

The key is to start at the end and work backward.

Consider the example of a print advertising campaign enhanced with QR Codes, Digital Watermarks, or other embedded signaling. Whatever the signaling methodology, the technology itself is not the strategy. Instead it is merely a tactical weapon to trigger a desired consumer response.

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.

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.

 

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...

If you're a photographer and/or like cool tech, I hope you've heard the chatter about Lytro's Light Field camera launch. If the samples (be sure to check out the window shot with the frames) are indicative of what's delivered, I think we're getting a peek at a revolutionary and possibly game-changing technology.

CNET's video of Lytro's CEO Ren Ng shows a lot of possibilities. Shoot first and focus later is the big one, but single lens 3D, holography and maybe even security cameras (that really can resolve the fuzzy person in the background - just like on TV!) are in our future.

Pretty boldmove by making your own cameras, but glad to hear that licensing is under consideration. That's an iPhone upgrade I'll consider. Can't wait to try one!

I sure wish I could have written a "Complete Photography Guide," but Lifehacker did such a great job it seems silly for me to duplicate (wishful thinking as well I should add).

So if you want to learn:

• How your Digital Camera works
• What the automatic settings are supposed to do
• Manual settings – explained in English
• Some good tips for composition – if you don’t know the rule of thirds, now’s the time
• Post production – lots of good info, just hope you have Photoshop

Be sure to check out their links under additional resources at the bottom of the main page. If you’re looking for hardware, a NAPP membership will deliver good deals in addition to their Photoshop tutorials.

For hardware reviews, I like DPReview.com and friends like Steves-Digicams.com. A game changing possibility that was just anounced is Lytro's really cool lens technology. Hopefully this recommendation won’t look too silly in a couple of years.

And of course, don't forget to watermark images you post to the web and those you print!

In the interest of full disclosure: Digimarc and I work with the NAPP folks, but all the other websites mentioned are ones that I just happen to like.

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.