Anyone whose memories of the Internet economy extend back to sock-puppet spokesmen and sites devoted to toys should remember the CueCat, a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader that plugged into the computer. It allowed users to scan special barcodes in print magazines or on product packages and get linked to a URL offering more information about the story or product.
CueCat is now an answer in the dot-com version of Trivial Pursuit. But interactive print is back and building momentum, thanks to the CueCat already in everyone’s hand, so to speak: the mobile phone. Several tech platforms are taking different roads to incorporate mobile phone capabilities — text messaging and cameras — into offline marketing, and in the process building a new backchannel for print, broadcast or out-of-home promotions.
For example, pick up the current July/August issue of Men’s Health magazine and you’ll find that you can get coupons, samples, content or just product information simply by taking pictures of any of the ads and sending the photos as multimedia messages to MH@snaptell.com.
Clicking a photo of an ad for a Dolce & Gabbana men’s cologne, for example, returns a text message containing a URL for retailer Macy’s and a discount offer on shipping for the $70 product. Snapping an ad for Westin Hotels & Resorts produces a vacation-themed ringtone download. And an ad for the Chevy Malibu produces a link to a mobile site offering very full product specs and consumer reviews of the latest model.
Other brands taking part in the Men’s Health initiative include Honda Motors, Anheuser-Busch, Quaker Oats, The Coca-Cola Co. and Procter & Gamble.
Tech provider SnapTell maintains a server housing the image-recognition software that detects which ad the user photographed and also manages the database of marketer messages. “Both those elements are important,” says Adam Schneider, sales vice president for SnapTell. “We have a 99% image-matching rate, but if you don’t send the relevant content back, then that [rate] doesn’t mean anything.”
SnapTell licensed the technology to Men’s Health publisher Rodale, which then used the enhanced interactivity in sales pitches to its usual advertisers.
One advantage to SnapTell’s approach, Schneider says, is that print advertisers don’t need to do anything different to their carefully crafted ads. But that same low creative profile could be an obstacle to getting readers to use the feature. And awareness isn’t the only challenge: Getting readers to exchange their lean-back ways for something more interactive might prove challenging.
To explain the technology and sweeten the offer, SnapTell is running a full-page ad right after the Men’s Health table of contents that explains how readers can take part. It also offers instant entry into a sweepstakes for a Puerto Rican vacation for two to anyone sending in a picture by Aug. 11. Three runners up will win the new 3G iPhone.
“This treats mobile not as a standalone channel, but as an integrated enhancement to other forms of advertising,” Schneider says. He says SnapTell will power portions of a Rolling Stone print issue this fall — its second partnership with that magazine after an integration last September.
Meanwhile, platform ShopText is painting interaction into non-mobile campaigns using an even broader brush than the cell cameras: straight short-code SMS, which needs no explanation for users. Advertisers create ads featuring the short codes and calls to action; ShopText receives the messages and makes sure the right responses are sent.
ShopText has made its own print news and is in fact working with Hearst Magazines to test the platform in its titles. Last year the company worked with Hearst’s CosmoGirl to enable promotions of all kinds, including a sweepstakes that got 100,000 entries via ShopText messages. Hearst has also used the platform to deliver samples for brands such as Pantene shampoo and Clean & Clear facial cleanser.
Some of those offers achieved conversion rates as high as 94%, says ShopText CEO Steve Roberts. That is, of respondents texting to the short code, 94% then opted to receive the sample offer. The company has also dealt directly with Procter & Gamble and General Mills brands for print sampling campaigns. This spring they worked with Burger King to offer a $5 add-on to a $20 BK Crown gift card via print ads.
The real strength of the ShopText technology, Roberts says, is that it can be deployed across multiple platforms at once. That’s the approach camping equipment maker the Coleman Co. has taken with the latest version of its “Great Gear Giveaway,” one of two annual promotions the company has been running for some time.
This year, Coleman decided to test-drive ShopText to see if the competition, which offers a grand prize of $10,000 and “all the gear you need for the camping trip of a lifetime,” could extend its reach by integrating a mobile response channel into all its traditional media placements.
So the ShopText short code was included in materials promoting the Coleman sweepstakes in five regional markets, including free-standing inserts, radio ads and on the packaging around Coleman propane cylinders available through Kmart and other regional Midwestern outlets. The company also offered a ShopText mobile-code shortcut on the online application for the giveaway.
Coleman deployed different keywords in each channel to track which get the greatest response. Users send the keyword to the short code 467467 and get in return a message asking for their home phone number or ZIP code for mobile-only users. Another message confirms the street address for that number, and a last one confirms that the entrant is 21 or older. And that’s it; registration is complete.
“Coleman’s advertising was pre-existing media that they’ve run every year since this ‘Great Giveaway’ promotion started,” Roberts says. “In the past, it was meant to drive people to the Web. They can still do that, but now people can actually sign up for the sweepstakes directly from that media that was originally intended simply to drive awareness.”
While the contest was still open for entries at press time, Coleman assistant brand manager Nicole Freund says integrating mobile entries through ShopText seems to have provided a lift to consumer participation. “Surprisingly enough, the highest incidence we’ve had has been to the keyword in the official rules [online],” she says. “I can’t quite explain that one. It might be that the keyword is just more memorable than the others. It’s just ‘Enter.’ ”
For more articles on interactive marketing go to www.promomagazine.com/interactive
