Category: Mobile Marketing

Ads with scannable watermarks have been added to the pages which link to smartphone friendly content.

Costco has decided to add mobile marketing to its printed monthly magazine by adding a watermark on the pages that can be scanned with a smartphone in order to access content that they feel consumers will find relevant, interesting, and helpful.

Though the content in the magazine, itself, hasn’t changed, it will allow the company to provide more information.

The mobile marketing watermarks can be scanned by readers who are interested in the subject to which the marks are connected, in order to access smartphone and tablet friendly content on that topic or product. This marks an important technological advancement for the Costco Connection magazine.

This mobile marketing technique is one that is rapidly growing throughout the print industry.

This particular mobile marketing program is implemented through the Digimarc Discover Intuitive Computer Platform from Digimarc Corp. It allows transparent digital watermarks to be embedded into print advertising and editorial content. The April issue is the first to include this feature.

The watermark being used for this mobile marketing can be used in a way that is very similar to the highly popular QR code. The consumer downloads a free scanner app onto his or her smartphone or tablet. The camera of the device is then aimed at the watermark, and the application automatically detects the image and directs the user to the appropriate page on the device’s browser. This instantly connects the consumer with the web-based content that is relevant to the topic on the scanned page.

According to Costco’s own figures, there are 8.6 million readers of its magazine. The Digimarc Discover app will allow those readers to use their smartphones to access over 50 unique watermarks per issue, including in the April edition. They link readers to videos, product information, store data, and even have mobile commerce features that allow readers to make a purchase over their smartphone or tablet.

The assistant vice president of publishing and the magazine’s editor, David Fuller, made a statement about the mobile marketing strategy, saying that “Many of our members are already browsing The Costco Connection with their mobile phones and tablets sitting nearby.”

The UTV Stars application will apply AR for enhancing the user experience in a high tech way.

Disney UTV Digital has just announced the release of its UTV Stars application for both Apple iOS and Google Android based devices, and that it will feature an augmented reality search option.

This new app has a strong entertainment focus and provides a broad range of different content, says Disney UTV.

The company has revealed that the new application includes content such as live TV streaming, movies, gossip, and Bollywood news. However, the tech and mobile commerce news headlines are being made as a result of the augmented reality feature which allows smartphone and tablet users to snap a movie poster picture from any medium – from print to screen, etc – and gain access to a considerable amount of information about that film.

The augmented reality search feature provides access to everything from text to video and social media.

When the device user applies the augmented reality search feature to a poster, he or she can learn more about the movie through behind the scenes videos, movie trailers, images, Tweets, and other forms of relevant content.

The augmented reality feature itself is called Snap Search. It is powered by Ocutag Technology by Ricoh Innovations. The app is designed to provide a great deal of information, including the very latest in a section that it has labeled “Just In”. This is made up of celebrity tweets from a number of different participants. There is also a “spotted” feed which provides both gossip and news from UTV Stars, including videos from that channel as well as pictures from paparazzi.

The augmented reality feature isn’t the only mobile commerce element to the app, as it also focuses on marketing via social media. It allows its users to share the updates that it sees by way of their own social network accounts at Twitter and Facebook, as well as through email. Moreover, they can save images as favorites so that they can be easily seen later in their personal lists. Should this app become popular, the social element could potentially help it to spread much more quickly and gain more users.