Last week Rolling Stone magazine used Digimarc Discover digital watermarking at their Rock Room event in Austin, Texas. The SXSW party, sponsored by Maker's Mark, included three watermarked banners featuring recent Rolling Stone covers from Jimmy Fallon, Breaking Bad and Metallica. After scanning each cover, attendees could see video footage from the photo-shoot. 

Since it was a Rolling Stone event, attendees were also treated to some amazing music from Fitz and The Tantrums, Free Energy, Charles Bradley and others. 

Thanks Rolling Stone, Maker’s Mark and all the incredible Rock Room performances!

This is our first in-app browser version of Digimarc Discover! Now you can enjoy all that digital content in magazines like Seventeen, House Beautiful and Redbook right from the comfort of our app!

In-app Browser

• Scan digital watermarks, QR codes and product barcodes and view links without having to leave the Digimarc Discover app
• Return to “Look” mode with one tap of a button 
• Rotate your device to view all links in Portrait or Landscape orientation

Sharing Enhancements

• Share any link via Facebook, Twitter or email directly from the in-app browser.

Note that this version requires iOS 5.0 or higher to install on your iOS device.

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.

 
CNET has Discovered our technology! Check out the CNET write-up on Digimarc. The article gives a great summary on what Digimarc is currently working on and the future of digital watermarking.

I’m sure the article at least piqued your interest. So, I think it’s time for you to Discover the "awesomeness" of digital watermarking. First, download the free Digimarc Discover mobile app on the iTunes or Android Market (search for Digimarc Discover). After installing the app and watching the tutorial, check-out the cool demo materials below, or create your own material.

• Sample Enhanced Printed Material
• Sample Enhanced Images On-screen
• Sample Enhanced Video

Are you excited about this as I am? I thought so, or at least hope so.

 
 
Last week Old Navy launched an exciting interactive ad campaign with Shazam. Old Navy is running 30 and 60 second spots with brand new music showcasing their newest clothing line. 

Users can launch Shazam whenever they hear the music to recognize the song. Once Shazam recognizes the song, users will receive coupons, discounts and product information. Occasionally, Old Navy will even reward customers with huge discounts for using Shazam while in their stores. 

These are entirely original songs, but the bands are not real. (The band in the latest spot is Audio Threadz) Old Navy will use different “bands” and original music throughout the year to showcase their latest clothing lines. Get ready for more of Old Navy’s catchy jingles to get stuck in your head!   

Speaking of synchronized television, Digimarc has a joint venture with Nielsen that enables viewers of Grey's Anatomy to have an enhanced experience while watching.

I first want to apologize for the recent lack of activity here on the blog. There's good reason though as we here at Digimarc have been very busy and are extremely excited about things to come.

You may have noticed that we've made a few minor changes to the blog site and have welcomed a few more authors (see to the right). Yes, Don and I are going to continue to share with you lots of valuable information about Digimarc for Images, but also wanted to expand the the focus of the blog to better showcase Digimarc's vision for a world where intuitive computing is part of our everyday lives. I touched on this briefly already in my previous post "Digimarc Discover: The Future" but now we'll have more experts who will be able to help keep us better informed.

Watch this amazing video here.