Would
you like to Flash, bang, wallop. What a picture...
Imagine a future of interactive technology. Where you could place
an advertisement in a publication and include a small square printed
image in your ad. - a 1cm x 1cm printed code, looking not dissimilar
to a highly condensed crossword puzzle.
That
small code could provide immediate access to the latest or additional
information about your product, current
events, or any
recent changes. It could even give access to a webcam tour, all
via that code and a mobile phone. In fact anything you wanted to
be relayed to the ‘reader’ could be directed to them,
within 30 seconds of reading your advertisement with the code,
even if your advertisement was in an annual publication that was
6/8/9 months into the year!
When I first heard about this, my immediate question, in standing
up for the technologically challenged, was just how complicated
this was going to be?
Firstly,
this technology is not the future. It’s the present
(we’re pretty damn close with Blackberry’s and their
capability) and secondly, it is unbelievably simple. If you have
a camera phone, you can hold it over the code box and it does the
rest for you! No pressing any buttons whatsoever. Yes you read
it right. It does it all for you – hold your phone camera
lens over the code and ‘within a flicker’ your phone
is sending a message across the web, then 30 seconds later – all
the information on the current exhibition, entry price, nearest
station, special offer etc - whatever you wanted the client to
see it’s there, in an instant – endless possibilities!
UPC Print of Finland have patented and literally just launched
this application in Finland. At this precise moment it works on
the most popular camera phone in that country (and the Finns are
world leaders in mobile phone technology), but not all phones are
capable of doing this yet. However from the end of this year, most
camera phones that you buy will have this technology built in.
At
the rate we buy phones this is soon going to be ‘a common
feature’ for the majority of phone users – so, for
those of you who thought web marketing was taking over from print – the
fact is that technology brings change and the great marketing debate
between ‘print and web’ may be set to run and run!
As
a footnote, another invention in print is the recent production
of a printed ‘antenna’ that forms part of a publication’s ‘cover’ and
a wafer thin screen provides visual updates or whatever information
a publisher/advertiser wishes to be transmitted. Yes, the world
of interactive media is moving fast – so let’s not
write off print and advertising vs web marketing quite yet – after
all I’m sure you didn’t assume that many of the world’s
most powerful print/media companies are going to give up that easily!?
Mark
Hendriksen. For further information please email mark@tourismnetwork.org
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