Foto: uldo (flickr)

Mediaplanung, ein spannendes Thema. Doch welche Veränderungen gibt es in neuester Zeit? Zur Klärung dieser Frage luden wir einen Experten zum Interview ein. Matthias Börner ist schon lange Zeit ein Teil der Szene und hat sich auf das Feld der Ambient Media spezialisiert. Nicht ganz der Fokus unseres Blogs – sollte man meinen – doch gerade die Unterschiede zur Onlinewerbung sind für uns brennend interessant. Inwieweit werden die klassischen Umfragemethoden und Hochrechnungen noch akzeptiert? Vor allem in Zeiten in denen die Digitalisierung beweist, welch spezifische und genaue Ergebnisse man mit einem direkten Rückkanal erreichen kann.

Hallo Herr Börner, wir freuen uns sehr, dass Sie sich die Zeit für uns nehmen! Wir möchten mit Ihnen vor allem über die Methoden und Möglichkeiten der modernen Mediaplanung sprechen. Inwieweit vertrauen Werbetreibende den Hochrechnungen aus Befragungen heutzutage denn überhaupt noch? Wird die Argumentationsbasis Ihres Berufsstands teilweise in Frage gestellt?

Matthias Börner: Das Vertrauen ist nach wie vor hoch, auch weil die Prozesse kontinuierlich optimiert werden. Die Erhebungen dienen unter anderem als Grundlage zur Preisfindung und am Ende werden die Preise gezahlt.

Sind Kunden skeptisch und haben mehr Vertrauen in Werte aus der Onlineforschung (agof) als bei Ambient und klassischen Medien, da diese besser messbar sind? Oder sind auch die “ma” und andere gleichermaßen hoch gewertet.

Die Umschichtungen von Budgets hin zu Online sind keinesfalls Folge der Skeptik gegenüber klassischen Medien. Heute haben wir es mit einer größeren Medienvielfalt zu tun, welche bedient werden möchte. Print und Radio haben nicht ihre Glaubwürdigkeit verloren, nur weil seinerzeit das Fernsehen aufkam. Out-of-Home hat wegen der besseren Vergleichbarkeit der Reichweiten dank der Plakat Mediaanalyse, aber auch wegen der qualitativen Steigerung bei den Werbeträgern, eine Tendenz seine Marktanteile nicht nur zu halten, sondern weiter auszubauen. Zusätzliches Wachstumspotential bietet auch die Umstellung bei der Großfläche von der Dekaden- auf die Wochenschaltung.

Tolle Ansätze, bei denen ja auch die Messbarkeit deutlich besser ist, sind z.B. QR Codes. Diese konnten sich in Deutschland aber bislang nicht wirklich durchsetzen. Sehen Sie hier noch Potenzial für die Zukunft oder haben wir diese Option schlichtweg verspielt?

QR Codes kennt und nutzt in Japan jeder. Das liegt aber nicht daran, dass die nipponischen Außenwerber cleverer sind, sondern es ist der Tatsache geschuldet, dass es dort technologisch keinen Flaschenhals gibt. In 2 – 3 Jahren wird auch in Deutschland jeder mit einem webkompatiblem Handy herumlaufen mit der dazugehörigen Flatrate. Diese liegt in Japan bei Billiganbietern schon um die € 5,00 pro Monat. Da werden natürlich gerne QR-Codes abfotografiert und auf den entsprechenden Seiten den Angeboten hinterhergesurft.

Käme die Nutzung der RFID Technologie – sofern irgendwann in iPhones implementiert – für eine ausgedehnte Nutzung in Frage? Das ginge weiter als der QR Code und böte einen exzellenten Rückkanal.

Natürlich wäre RFID ein Durchbruch. Die Technologie ist günstig und universell einsetzbar. Am Besten dann gemeinsam mit Blickrichtungserkennungsgeräten, so dass ganz eindeutig festgestellt werden kann, wie viele Leute z.B. ein Plakat gesehen haben und wie lange und eben nicht nur, wann jemand an dem Plakat vorbeigegangen ist.
Es wäre auch eine Individualisierung bei digitaler Außenwerbung denkbar. Bedeutet, dass eine bestimmte Werbung dann eingespielt wird, wenn sich Produkt affines Publikum am Standort aufhält.
Aber Spass beiseite. Glücklicherweise kollidieren solche Ideen noch mit den bestehenden Datenschutzbestimmungen und können daher bisher nur experimentell eingesetzt werden.

Vielen Dank Herr Börner für die aufschlussreichen Antworten.

Despite pronounced Luddite tendencies, Poor Richard is intrigued with this bit of innovation. The bit of abstract squiqqle at the left is a QR Code.  QR stands for Quick Response.  Originally used in Japan for parts tracking in automotive manufacturing, the QR code has gone viral there and may be the next “killer app” for your iPhone or Blackberry.

Poor Richard’s Luddite alter-ego questions of what possible use could this oogly scrambled mess be.  Like the British handloom operators of the early 1800s, my first tendency is to trash any new technology that potentially threatens my established and well-ordered universe.  On second thought, though, trashing the power looms in Great Britain earned many of the Luddites  new careers as shepherds down under in Australia, and Poor Richard is not fond of sheep.

The long answer to the question is that the QR can contain text (lots of it) and URLs, which is pretty cool.  Even cooler, the telephonic gadget you carry in your pocket can read the QR code and (if you’re wirelessly attached to the internet) it can connect you directly with the website referenced in the code. It can also be used send SMS messages, geographic locations, and transfer contact info into a database.  All that from a box that looks like a Photoshop aberration . . .

Best yet, this innovation has the potential to actually enhance the value of print (as opposed to replacing it). Think about it . . . how about a poster that automatically directs the reader to the ticket office through their cell phone?  Coupons could carry QR codes to be read at the retail counter for special incentives or a chance to win 10 bazillion dollars.  Personalized URLs could be transformed into personalized QRs, directing a customer to a website with specific information tailored to meet their interests. There are some real possibilities here . . .

You can have fun playing with this one. Poor Richard has found a free app called Quickmark that reads QR codes on the iPhone and will actually let you create codes on the fly to transfer data. There are several websites that will let you create codes one at a time (try the Xzing Project QR Generator).  I’ve also found some software that will allow QR codes to be merged with a database. You can even order a t-shirt with your own personalized QR code message printed on the front.  Poor Richard didn’t spring for one; but if he had, here’s what his t-shirt would have looked like:

Luddites of the world, unite!

Thanks to Andy Selcho of Salt Lake City, UT Gralpharaphics (name altered to protect the delicate sensitivity of the franchise), who introduced Poor Richard and bunch of other folks to QR codes.  Andy has put together a good YouTube video about QR codes . . . Here ’tis:

SET woke up this morning to hear that our campaign work with Louis Vuitton had been selected as one of prestigious UK magazine Contagious’ “most contagious things that happened in 2009”. We feel very privileged to have been recognized for our pioneering work in designer codes and we’re all smiling. Click the picture to go to what is a very interesting read. We are featured on page 37.

How can we use QR Codes in public history and historic site interpretation?

I have to give credit to one of my colleagues, Prof. Brett Oppegaard of Washington State University-Vancouver, for planting the seed for Fort Vancouver’s foray into QR Codes. We’re working together on an optimistic AR (augmented reality) project for mobile storytelling in the Village of Fort Vancouver, and Brett suggested some beta testing via QR codes. Since then, I’ve tested them on waysides, in buildings, and at special events. Although still in its infancy at Fort Vancouver, I’ve noticed some positives and negatives to using this technology.

Thus far, I think the benefits of using QR codes outweigh the challenges. Here are a few:

Cost. As described above, the major costs associated with QR coding seem to lie in content development, not technical development. Staff can focus on crafting quality content rather than coding. Also, QR codes can be printed from a desktop to paper or stickers for pennies on the dollar. At our recent Christmas at Fort Vancouver special event, I
created ten QR Codes, printed them out on the staff printer, cut them out, and then taped them at various places at the fort. The majority of my time was spent pulling interesting factoids together that linked to the event and then creating a specific web page for each. That’s it.

Timeliness. Once a QR code is established (let’s say it links to a specific park web page), you only need update the webpage it links to, not the QR code itself. Here’s an example: The ten QR codes that I put up linked to pages with interpretive elements that were specific to the park’s Christmas event. Rather than take those codes down, I can simply change the content of those pages to feature something else, like an object found there archaeologically or a link to a specific quote or video of a ranger talk. This also makes QR codes great for information, too. A code on a visitor center door could link to different information daily to reflect park specific conditions, featured programs, etc., by updating the URL to which it links.

Supplemental interpretation & provocation. These codes do not – and are not intended to – replace person-to-person interpretation. However, they are a wonderful resource for providing supplemental interpretation or a primary option to the folks who 1) might like to tour a site and learn at their own pace, or 2) can’t make a scheduled program. They are also a wonderful tool for provoking visitors into learning more about a site; we call this incremental hooking for interpretation. If a goal in interpretation is to provoke and help visitors connect to their own understanding of a site, then QR codes are a small but mighty tool on our workbench.  At Fort Vancouver, we can tell folks that a certain building is reconstructed from the archaeological and historical record, but why not show them, too? A QR code can link to historic photos, historic documents, flash videos, text; even a 3D image of an artifact found right there onsite.

Demonstrating that we get it. By using QR codes and other developments in technology, we’re tapping into a growing audience that has long looked at government employees and programs as behind the curve. This is particularly evident here in Portland; our park is unique in that it sits in the middle of the Silicon Forest, one of the nation’s most tech-savvy metro areas, especially when it comes to smart phone applications. We feel that we really don’t have a choice but get it. One of David Larsen’s mantras is also ours: be relevant or be a relic. We feel that technology is one pathway toward relevancy.

Of course, there are also many challenges. Here are a few I’ve identified thus far:

Accessibility – in the broadest sense of the word. It is impossible for most park visitors to access QR codes without a smartphone. While they are continuing to drop in price, they are not cheap. In addition to smart phone purchase, you’ll also need a data plan and some type of application to read the codes. This can add up quickly. Please note, though, that mere possession of a smart phone does not ensure access to QR Codes. We’re lucky enough at Fort Vancouver to be a national park in an urban center; the majority of parks are not, and basic cell coverage – let
alone 3G or 4G coverage – is neither possible nor probable. Also, in light of the NPS’ amazing work in making the parks more relevant to a broader, more ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse audience, this technology has the potential to exclude and/or alienate our prime constituents.

Potential for overreliance. Historic site managers may be blown away by QR code technology and may see opportunities for cost savings during these times of tight budgets, but I urge restraint. Our studies show what we’ve
thought all along: that it isn’t an adequate replacement for other interpretive services. Visitors queried by Prof. Oppegaard, for example, still favor personal contact with park staff.

What other benefits and challenges do you see?

A QR code in a building at Fort Vancouver

How do QR codes work? How can I make one?

Here’s how they work.  First of all, it is staggeringly simple to make a QR Code. Although I’d love to say that it takes hours of coding and work on “the interwebs” to make a QR code, I’m hereby pulling back the curtain on the wizard.  It ain’t rocket science. All you have to do is this:

1. Identify your data (i.e., the URL for the content you want to folks to access).
2. Open your web browser and select one of the many QR Code generators. Here’s one I use: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
3. Enter the URL. Click enter or generate or whatever action button you use.
4. Download the resulting image using whatever process you prefer (I like the right click save options).
5. Print it out, put it up! Tweet your tweeple! Amaze your friends! Show it off to your boss!

As an educator, I still think the most important step is #1…but I’ll get to that in the next post.

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you may know that I’m bit of a fan of the emerging QR Code.  Well I saw an article the other day describing how Google is now making use of QR codes in one of their latest promotions, ‘Favorite Places‘.  Many of you will be familier with Google Maps and Local, where you can search for business in relation to a specific location. Well Google have now identified the most popular 100,000 based on user interaction in the US, and in another example of merging the offline and online world, they have sent these business a window sticker which includes a small QR code.  The logic being that a passer by with no knowledge of the business can scan the code with their phone which then opens up details and reviews in their mobile’s web browser, and therefore make a relatively informed decision about whether to use the services of that business or not.

Obviously you need a mobile phone that has the capability to scan QR codes, and you will also need to be close enough to the property to see that there is a ‘Favorite Places‘ sticker in the window and also know that you can scan the code.  Regardess, I think this is a good initiative, and one I hope comes to Europe and the UK.  QR codes are very popular in Japan so I wouldn’t be suprised to see this kick off over there.  Considering Google’s market share is relatively low in Japan (c.30%), then this could be a great way to generate traffic and loyalty.

However, there are other mobile applications, such as Qype Radar which based on your network or GPS location can show you nearby businesses and reviews, which could be simpler considering you don’t need to scan anything, and has the added benefits of being live in the UK and not limited to 100,000 businesses.

Despite that, Favorite Places is an interesting move, and shows that accessing web based data on the move is starting to become pretty mainstream, so expect lots more innovation in this area.

Google is making some big moves in local advertising lately.

A couple weeks back the search giant added a mobile couponing option to its Google Local Business Center listing. This means that when a mobile web search lands you on a business’s “Place Page,” you can get a coupon that is redeemable straight from your phone (no need for printing).

Now, Google has launched a new effort to send window decals to over 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. that have been the most sought out and researched on Google.com and Google Maps.

They’re calling these businesses the “Favorite Places on Google” and you’ll now start to find them in over 9,000 towns and cities, in all 50 states. You can also explore a sample of the Favorite Places in 20 of the largest U.S. cities at google.com/favoriteplaces. Each window decal has a unique bar code, known as a QR code that you can scan with any of hundreds of mobile devices — including iPhone, Android-powered phones, BlackBerry and more — to take you directly to that business’s Place Page on your mobile phone. With your mobile phone and these new decals, you can go up to a storefront and immediately find reviews, get a coupon if the business is offering one or star a business as a place you want to remember for the future. Soon, you’ll be able to leave a review on the mobile page as well, just like on your desktop.

As Ad Age reported, Google also dabbled with QR codes in newspapers last year: “Google has already seen results from a recent test campaign conducted in three markets with jewelry retailer Blue Nile. Each ad contained a QR code and a response tag, and was tested against the same ads without the tags. The code-enhanced ads ended up driving 6.5 times more revenue than the ads without.”

Google has nothing to lose by trying this, and they know that both local and mobile are their future. Typing into a little search box is annoying on a mobile phone, and new “mobile paths” like shortcodes, QR codes and image recognition may soon replace text-entry search altogether. By helping businesses add these new calls-to-action that lead to Google’s Place Pages — as well as beef up their mobile presences with mobile coupons — they are attempting to own this emerging space.

Overall, this is good news for the mobile industry — Google can help push adoption of these technologies — but there is still the barrier of cost. QR decoding requires data, which requires money. Will people be willing to pay money (albeit tiny amounts) to read what is ostensibly an ad? Or will Place Pages provide enough value (through information, maps, reviews and now coupons) that people won’t even think twice about it?

Post: Courtesy Adage

There are two recent developments related to Augmented Reality and Google – Google Goggles and Google integrating QR codes into Google Maps. While I was talking on twitter with @noazark the question arise about Google Google not doing real-time localization of the user, thus not being a “real” AR.
Here come QR codes. QR code are extremely easy to recognize in the camera image, and their square shape allow for fast calculation of camera position relatively to QR. In fact each QR code include three fiduciary markers:

And well known marker-tracking technique easily applied to them. Marker tracking could be augmented (pan intended:) by planar tracking of the corners of the pattern itself. That allow for attaching virtual 3d objects/animations to QR codes, but there is more in it. As QR code contain more than 4k of data, exact GPS coordinate, pattern orientation and its’ size could be encoded in the pattern. That way mobile phone seeing the code can easily calculate it’s exact 3d coordinate and orientation, not only relatively to QR, but absolute.
More of it – QR code can have coordinates of nearby QR codes, creating kind of localization grid, which can point user to any location covered by that grid with arrow on the screen of the phone.
Now to markerless tracking – QR code can be used to jump-start markerless tracker and assist it with error-correction(drift compensation), especially mentioned grid of the codes. That is especially relevant to markereless trackers which use planar structures and straight edges.
Now there is one problem here – white QR code is easy to segment out of dark background. But on white background it not so easy to recognize, and embedded fiduciary markers will not be seen form afar. Here is suggestion – make thick black frame around the QR, and make it part of the extended standard. This square shape would be easy to recognize, even if it’s only couple of dozen of pixel in diameter. With incremental tracking phone will be able to track it(after initial close up) even if moved quite far from the QR. If this square frame is part of the standard, always having the same relative size, it could be used for distance estimation.
Now combine it with Google Goggles real time and you have functional AR with 3d registration.

So, no point of guessing whether Google is to make a major AR move in 2010. It is going to do it in 2009:

• Google Goggles has just launched, and can be downloaded from the Andorid Marketplace.
• Google sponsors a mobile QR reader and want store owners to put QR codes on their windows.

Indeed, the Google has awoken.

What if every store had a bar-code sticker on its window so that you could pull out your iPhone, wave it in front of the bar code and get all sorts of information about that business—the telephone number, photos, customer reviews? Starting on Monday, you’ll be able to do that at up to 190,000 local businesses throughout the U.S.

Google has mailed out window stickers with two-dimensional bar codes (aka, QR codes) to the most-searched for or clicked-on businesses in its local business directory. Anyone with a QR code reader in their phone can scan it to call up a Google Mobile local directory page for one of these “Favorite Places,” which generally includes a map, phone number, directions, address, reviews, and a link to the store’s website. (It’s a mobile version of Google Places).

Local businesses can also set up coupon offers through their Google directory page, which would turn the QR code into a mobile coupon, and help entice someone standing outside a store to come in: “If you found us on Google, you get 20% off.”

Japan is already QR-crazy. Google wants the U.S. to be next. In conjunction with the QR code sticker roll-out, Google is also giving away 40,000 Quickmark QR Code Reader apps for the iPhone, which normally cost $1.99 apiece. But you can use any QR code reader. There are a bunch of free ones, some on Android phones as well.

There are now over a million local businesses which have claimed their Google local listing, up from a few hundred thousand last summer. If these QR code stickers become popular in the U.S., it could encourage more small businesses to claim their listings and give Google cleaner data.

In the near future, Google Maps on mobile phones will also start including businesses as points of interest. Google calls these “smart maps” internally. As the businesses are added, they are clickable, and their Places page pops up.

Google will be adding these businesses incrementally. “They are selected based on their PlaceRank,” says John Hanke, VP of Google Earth, Maps, and Local. PlaceRank is like PageRank for places It tries to figure out how prominent a place is based on factors such as “references on the Web, reviews, photos,” says Hanke, “how many people know about it, how long its been around.”

Maybe they should put the PlaceRank on the sticker. A high PlaceRank could become a badge of honor, like a high Zagat’s score.

So let’s assume someone might be reading this thing (even though I’ve done nothing to promote it beyond asking Josh, “How do I get started?” and What’s this button mean?” and “How come you’re a much better writer than me? Or is it I?”). Anyway, if I were to ask a question every so often, you think you might want to help a guy out?

I know about QR codes. I know that every day, little Japanese girls use their cellies to save money on even littler plastic handbags. And I’m starting to see them here and there in the states. My question is this: Do you think QR codes are going to take off in the land of, “What the fuck is that blotchy thing on the bottom of that poster?” or am I wasting my time with this idea I’ve got but can’t tell you about because you’ll steal it and go get all rich and famous without me?

(By the way, don’t ask me how to respond to this. I imagine you’re going to have to click something somewhere.)

(Alert: cheesy line ahead) For all you fans of ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, relish, etc., let me say look out folks — there’s a new condiment in town! It’s a QR Code!

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system —

QR Codes present a number of exciting opportunities for marketers. As the adoption of cell phones with cameras and web access continues to increase, phones must be looked at as a response mechanism for marketing campaigns.

If you do not know what they are, let me tell you what they do.

They help connect printed materials to the web. People can jump from printed collateral to additional information on a website simply with their phone.

The company I work for, interlinkONE, has developed QReate & Track. It is an application that allows you to create QR Codes and then measure their success.

To help promote it, we have been making videos that demonstrate ways QR Codes can be used.

I had the privilege of making this one yesterday…. Yes, it involves food!

If you cannot see the video above, click here.

SET’s creative team, give Wired the SET QR experience !

SET Japan is the company behind the much-loved Louis Vuitton/Murakami code, and their work has transformed QR codes from boring black-and-white blocks to things of beauty. “Our design team saw the black-and-white codes as an insult to the brands that were experimenting with them,” McMaster says. “So they set about redesigning them.”

They were also unimpressed by Wired’s attempt to generate a QR code, and so decided to design us a better one, sending over three options: one with a rat in a maze, one that took our Pacman idea and improved on it, and one with red balls dropping out of the code. “The designers looked at Wired’s aesthetic and came up with these,” says McMaster. “We wanted to give you a couple of things that matched the cutting-edge nature of Wired, something that people hadn’t seen before.”

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-10/01/select-wired’s-personalised-qr-code.aspx?p=2

Here is  a program for your mobile phone (with camera) to decrypt the secret message …

I figured while we’ve got our most recent assignment in mind, in which my class ran around wildly pointing their phones at barcodes, this article would prove interesting:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/23/blinking-leds-to-give-qr-codes-a-run-for-their-ad-money/

This is the fourth in a series of postings on the emerging business models of the Mobile Web.

I mentioned in an earlier post the killer iPhone app for me was always going to be a hybrid of Facebook and location intelligence that would allow you to discover who was nearby to catch up for a coffee or a beer.

Today this unique blend of contacts, location and context is fast becoming the campaign blueprint for the next generation of creative Advertisers and Marketers.

Mobile Marketing Magazine reports that new research conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), reveals that 73% of marketers believe mobile will be the medium to see most growth over the next five years.

Advertisers and Marketers around the world are clearly hyped up about the unlimited potential of the Six Degrees of Separation and the marketing and promotion of mobile relationships through the merging of the social or business networks of Facebook and Linked In with the mobile phone network.

Couple this referral network with the power of mobile search and location intelligence and you have the ultimate advertising and promotions platform… the mobile phone.

That why the advertising industry is buzzing with ideas to repurpose old technologies like QR Codes and Bar Codes into mobile tagging and branding campaigns. 

These QR tags are very popular in Japan and Google is now launching a Mobile Local Directory in the USA based on these codes . They allow advertisers to post links to their promotions in every geographical location. Newspapers, magazines, street corners, buses, taxis and even people and T-Shirts become branded homing devices that allow anyone with a mobile phone camera to Point, Click and Discover the message, offer or promotion behind the printed code.

A quick search of TechCrunch for location based advertising will show you just how hot the idea of mixing Facebook and location intelligence with mobile phones is at the moment. ReadWriteWeb has made available a good primer with their article The Future of Advertising is Shakable and Location-Based.

For the more moderate observer mobile might be the most overhyped advertising channel of our time. Chris Lake, the editor in chief at Econsultancy published 10 reasons why mobile advertising is doomed back in 2007. While Andrew Gill’s post last year on what is holding mobile advertising back was an informed discussion on the barriers to entry for the emerging mobile advertising market.

As any mobile phone applications developer will tell you the biggest problem is the proliferation of non-standard devices. Even the over-hyped iPhone fails to address this issue. It’s small market share merely adds to the complexity mix.

There is also the ongoing public debate and calls for stricter regulation and monitoring of the more highly targeted and personalized forms of advertising.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that Mobile has long represented little more than a rounding error in most advertising and marketing budgets, despite the burgeoning number of mobile users and their increasingly sophisticated devices and usage patterns. However a Change Is in the Air for Mobile Advertising and Mobile marketing is here to stay.

That change of course is Google. Google’s $750 Million of AdMob has repositioned Mobile Marketing as a mainstream advertising option.

Why?  Isn’t the Google deal is similar to the mobile advertising acquisitions that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have made in the past two years? Indeed aren’t there are more than a dozen mobile ad networks? So what makes this deal so special?

Google paid more for AdMob than what the entire mobile ad market is worth. It was a statement of intent from the internet’s market leader.

Google has paid a very big price to get a strong position in mobile. So it is not going to go unnoticed by the global advertising and marketing community.

As Julia Boorstin of CNBC estimates in her article Why Google is Paying $750 Million for Ad Mob, mobile ads were responsible for just $416 million in 2009 revenue, a tiny piece of the $24 billion online advertising pie. But mobile ads are expected to be one of the fastest growing categories as smart phones become pervasive.  Bloomberg suggests the U.S. mobile-ad market should reach $2 billion to $3 billion by 2013. So will it be a smart buy?

Obviously Google thinks so. It compliments their existing online search engine and aggregated advertising networks and with this acquisition, Google becomes the largest player in the mobile-advertising industry with an estimated 30 percent to 40 percent market share.

Is there a risk with this strategy? Google and the other aggregators clearly see their investment in mobile advertising as an extension their successful online strategies. If the mobile web is just the web represented on a mobile web browser then the risk would appear to be minimal. The problems will arise if the mobile web proves to be something very different from the desktop web. (See Why advertising to people on the move won’t be the next killer Mobile App)

At the moment though it looks like the future of marketing and communications will be “Google on the move“.

Today, Telco’s are thinking they are in the business of managing Mobile Relationships. Aggregating synergies between their customers and advertisers. The reality is a little different.

Once again, while the advertising and content aggregators manage the low risk revenue flows, the Telcos are left funding the high risk infrastructure and the costs of maintaining the network. Meanwhile the media outlets are reengaged across the network to produce very expensive, but inevitably low to zero value, content .

The new industry model has Google placed in the pivotal position to regulate the flow of advertising and content revenues across the value chain.  

Next post in this series >>

<< Previous post in this series

More recent posts on Mobile Advertising…

• Why advertising to people on the move won’t be the next killer Mobile App
• It’s the New Plastic and yes, it feels Fantastic
• Point, Click and Discover the Future of Retailing.

Mobile tagging is a category term for the creation and rendering of a two-dimensional bar code that is link to an online experience, accessed through a mobile device. There are two basic types of mobile tagging solutions. I will go into greater depth in a forthcoming column for the MMA, but here is a quick overview of the types of mobile tagging solutions.

Software-based Solutions

• QR Codes: For “Quick Response,” these are the most commonly recognized 2-D code format, and commonly used throughout Asia and Europe. The code format is not proprietary and many providers offer applications for creating, rendering and scanning tags.
• Microsoft Tag: Microsoft has a proprietary code format, and well-developed tools for rendering, managing and scanning tags. Microsoft Tags are quickly recognized by their CMYK color scheme.
• ScanLife: ScanLife was early to the North American market, and now a well-established provider with a proprietary code format and scanning software pre-loaded on some devices in North America.

Software-free Solutions

• JAGTAG: JAGTAG is a pioneer of software-free solutions that leverages MMS, email, and Twitter to drive interactions. They market the service as an attractive alternative to software-based solutions.
• SnapTag: A similar concept as JAGTAG, with an interesting twist: the brand’s logo is the central component of the tag design, delivering a clearly branded tagging experience.

Both solutions have pros and cons. I prefer and recommend software-based solutions because the superior user experience is my primary consideration in most cases, and therefore the prevailing factor. I find the Microsoft Tag solution provides the best tools for rendering, managing and scanning tags. The software is widely available across device types and the download process is user-friendly.

Editor’s Note: Bryce was recently a guest on Brian Prow’s highly regarded mobile marketing podcast, MobileBeyond. Make sure and listen and forward the link to your coworkers and colleagues!

You can also still read his Making Sense of Mobile Marketing white paper!

There is a new barcode in town called “QR codes.”  It’s much more than just a barcode. It is changing the way people are doing things all over the world. Scanning these codes is similar to scanning items at Target or Wal-Mart with your mobile phone, but QR codes have far more data than barcodes. The “QR” in QR code is an acronym for Quick Response. It is an application on a mobile phone that leads people to additional information, videos, text, websites and more. It uses Smartphone technology to speed read high capacity, high density data by scanning it.  The applications can be downloaded onto an iPhone or Blackberry.

QR codes are:

• Two-dimensional barcodes
• Easy to generate. Create your own codes at QR Stuff
• Placed in multimedia, on signs, products and business cards
• Scanned by mobile phones
• Leads people to more information (website, v-cards, coupons, additional text, product information)

The QR code can display on:

• Business cards to scan and download a v-card right to your address book
• Signs or brochures for travel based tours and reviews
• Bus stop signs to find schedules and routes
• Department store check out areas that will have a coupon or discount
• Art gallery items telling more about each peice

How they work:

• Download the application to your Smartphone
• Take a picture of the QR code with your cell phone
• QR reader decodes it
• It directs you to more information. (Educational websites or additional text and more)

It’s easy! Please, share your thoughts about this below.

By Kakie Fitzsimmons

interlinkONE QR Code

It’s hard not to smile when I see news like this… In one article, I see 3 of my passions – music, marketing and print -all come together.

Passion Pit has been one of my favorite bands of 2009.   To promote their album in the UK, they will be using QR Codes on their marketing materials.

Check out the article here: http://mobilenews.shareurworld.com/2009/11/09/qr-codes-used-to-promote-passion-pit-album/

QR Codes are creating a lot of new opportunities for printers and marketers.

At the company I work for, interlinkONE, we recently published a presentation on how you can use QR Codes in your marketing efforts.

If possible, check it out if you have the chance: http://interlinkone.com/marketing/2009/11/02/presentation-using-qr-codes-create-and-measure/

(Oh, and if you’d like to create and measure QR Codes, interlinkONE can do that too)

for everyone who already has a blackberry, then you’ve probably noticed that there’s a new barcode function on your phone to make your lives easier when adding contacts on bbm. but did you know that you can make barcodes for other things like websites and texts?

you can make your own barcodes with the qr-code generator and you’ll need a code reader too. good thing my phone is already a code reader – another reason why blackberrys rule the world.

decode this!