12.12.05
Adrants » Technology Enables Billboards to Direct Camera Phone Users to Website
A new ad medium we stumbled across at Adrants.. looks like a medium for reaches the under 25 market which loves thier camer phones.. We could see this popping up on web sites, in magazines and more..
Adrants » Technology Enables Billboards to Direct Camera Phone Users to Website
In Japan, Northewest Airlines is running a billboard campaign which contains QR codes, small image tags on the billboards which contain an embedded URL. When a camera phone user takes a picture of the board, they are directed to a website that features a game where airline coupons can be won. A company called Semacode makes the technology behind the QR codes. Many phone manufacturers are adopting the technology which may make billboards finally serve a purpose other that simple brand awareness or physical directionals.
andrew berglund said,
December 14, 2005 at 4:21 pm
Only downside is that in the US and Europe consumers have to install the software themselves - and is not a standard on all handsets - where as in Japan QR technology is pre-installed on all handsets. So until Nokia and SonyEricsson pre-install the software this use of the technology as seen in Japan will remain out of the reach of the US and European consumer. Also the fact that in Japan/S.Korea the sophistication of their camera technology within mobile phones (keitai/handfone) is also far more sophisticated and advanced - so using the QR technology is easy and very accurate.
Administrator said,
December 29, 2005 at 3:52 am
Thanks for pointing this out Andrew, this kind of thing is becoming increasingly more difficult for businesses trying to provide materials, information and entertainment to consumers when technology companies refuse to set standards. When you have format wars, and lack of universal access, it’s a major loss to consumers and the businesses that are eager to provide content to them. We expereinced this in a big way when we began offering photo and video content for PDAs; there’s no telling how many different encoders we went through, and consumers just want to click and play, not download new software for every bit of info they want to enjoy.
We see this as becoming an even bigger issue with cell phones and the lack of standards being followed for mobile internet content, making all that much more difficult to get a message to the end user.