A while back I posted about an 8th grader who won first place at a regional science fair. Patrick's project incorporated digital watemarking as a means to help deliver dosage information for OTC drugs. If you missed it, you can read it here. Well, that young man was invited to the state science fair and I'm very happy to say that he got 1st place again. Even better, he received an award for the "Best in Category" for Behavior Science which included over 200 projects.

Congratulations young man! Digimarc is very proud of your acomplishments. He's now entered his science fair project in the 3M/Discover Channel contest. Best of luck! A future entrepreneur or scientist is certainly among us.

He told us that the judges asked him why it's not happening today... We agree! Someone get a move on it!

One of the really creative things you can do with watermarking is to place multiple digital watermarks within a single image. This creates multiple "hot spots" that your readers can explore within a single interactive item.

Creating multiple hot-spots requires only a good layout application, a Digimarc Discover account to create the web services and watermarks; Photoshop can be used as well. You can find YouTube videos for creating hot-spots with InDesign here or using Photoshop here. Or to see a video of how this unique functionality can be well appled, watch here.

While the image embedded to the left only features a single watermark that you can scan with your smartphone, if you download the PDF with multiple watermarks you can see this same image with 6 watermarks. Each of these watermarks has a pop-up text overlay to tell you where it links to, the vest, the jewelry, etc. and tapping on the screen will take you to that product. In a way the printed page responds to a smartphone with a reader app like a website and mouse-ing over links.

Can you imagine this same image with 6 QR Codes on top of each product to create the same affect? Not something an advertiser would want to see. The really nice thing about multiple watermarks within an image is that you don’t need a quiet zone like a QR code; they can be placed next to each other. If anything you will want to make sure not to put too many watermarks within a small area which may confuse the reader. While watermarks can go down to a 1” x 1” area we recommend keeping the watermarked areas at least 2” x 2” for ease of use.

A few months ago a sharp 8th grade student named Patrick reached out to me, inquiring about the use of digital watermarks on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to deliver dose information. He believes this would help reduce the number of dosage error found in pharmacies nationwide. Always willing to help out a budding technologist, Digimarc gladly supported this project. I'm happy to say he received first place in his regionals and is off to the State Science Fair at the University of Illinois very shortly. Nice job, Patrick!

I'm very excited to announce that the Digimarc Discover™ Online Services Portal now offers two new tools for customers to create print-to-mobile campaigns that can deliver even richer media experiences and help drive ongoing engagement.  The new Pop-Up Label Overlay and Menu Button Overlay templates empower consumers to choose the product and/or experience that they want to have prior to being connected to an online landing page.

If you exhibit at tradeshows, you know you're paying a small fortune to spend a few moments communicating your message to potential customers. To reinforce that momentary connection you give them a memento, AKA tradeshow swag. Can that notepad, mug or T-shirt communicate with them?

Let's make that notepad, mug or T-shirt tell your story long after the event!

By adding a digital watermark to that coffee mug, the customer's smartphone could be playing your video, getting your latest product updates, adding you to their contacts or entering your contest. This could be done with a QRcode, but which mug would you prefer to give away?

Learn how to accomplish this with Digimarc Discover...

Success is not solely dependent upon the technology, folks. It's far more about what "payoff" the consumer receives once he/she downloads your mobile app and takes the time to read the QR code or digital watermark included in the printed content. This is what I've observed... "Oh boy, they've sent me to their website with the exact same article in front of me, only with type so small I couldn't read it even if I had Superman's X-ray vision."

What on earth gives us the idea this is a satisfying experience for the consumer? And, yet, too often that has been the "payoff" for their efforts.

With the launch of Digimarc Discover, Digimarc now has two watermarking products for commercial use. While both are based on the same core technology, they address different customer requirements.

A high level way to describe the difference: Digimarc for Images is for digitally watermarking images that will always be digital (usually on the Internet) and Digimarc Discover is for images that will be printed. Now why do you need either of those services for your images?

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.

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.

Thanks to everyone that participated in our "Open Beta", providing the feedback we needed to build a product that works well for our customers. If you haven't checked out the service yet, it's not too late to try as we now offer a 30-day free trial to anyone. It's simple to turn your printed content into an interactive, rich media experience. Go here to sign up or learn more on our website by clicking here.