One of the other speeches I enjoyed at the Visiongain Mobile Advertising Conference was Martin Copus’s of NeoMedia. NeoMedia are a kind of mini-conglomerate focusing on mobile and have made acquisitions in mobile agencies (including 12Snap) and technology.
Martin focused really on the technology end of things with some really interesting stuff from Japan, where the future seems to have already happened.
In particular, he looked at Smart Codes, which are essentially ways for a mobile to read and therefore interact with a 2D barcode. Examples are QR codes and Shot Codes, that I’ve written about before, but there seem to be quite a few brands playing in this sector today.
In Japan, 75% of people have interacted via a Smart Code and 90% of the under 20’s – bear in mind that these codes weren’t launched just 3 years ago!
Some great examples of codes were used, including one giant poster from Northwest Airlines (pictured, courtesy of Scott Fisher’s blog), which only featured a code to click on, and some people using temporary tattoos consisting of clickable codes.
I find this type of technology fascinating and have predicted that it’s going to become very, very important in the future. Using codes like this allows us to turn our mobiles into a kind of virtual mouse – click on a code and your mobile can take you to a mobile web page to complete a transaction, engage with a brand, find out more information about something (a real world Wikipedia) or leave a message or feedback.
One of the key issues holding things back in the West are a lack of standards and the fact that most vendors use proprietary technology, so what the industry really seems to need is some kind of open source solution.
Smart Codes literally open up a whole new world for technology, communication and marketing and while they’ll be slower to catch on in the West, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be clicking as frequently as a Japanese teenager.
Dear Russell,
I had to respond here;)
Everybody is looking for the open source solution and I think we don’t have to as it is already there: it’s the QR Code. Runner up next: Datamatrix.
Both are ISO-Standards and are really open to use. QR Code probably a bit more than Datamatrix (no a Siemens product).
Naturally you can use the QR Code in a proprietory way, but in the end only the “open way” will prevail - that’s for sure. Currently we use both ways, but the former mainly if size is an issue - and naturally everybody is free to use the URL as well.
See http://feed2mobile.kaywa.com for an open approach.
Right now Nokia, Motorola and even Windows apparently (see the Windows Live Barcode project) are starting to come out with preinstalled QR Code Readers on phones. So I guess the search for a standard is already over.
Best
Roger
I have to disagree with Roger. QR is not the solution for camera phone code scanning outside of Japan. QR is an industrial code that is not really very well suited to mobile applicaitons. However, in Japan they made QR work by putting a huge burden on the handset manufacturers to put in special optics and sensors into their phones. All Japanese phones have macro lenses to read QR. Almost none of the phones outside of Japan have a similar set up.
Of the phones that Roger mentions only a few Nokia handsets with super good lenses the N93 for example are the ones that scan QR code. None are available from Motorola.
QR code has inherent problems in the code strucutre that just cause it to be too big without special optics. Also Data Matrix has endemic problems with the way the code is structure that make it hard to read and use.
For a truly mobile code format check out mCode from Nextcode. You can get a free reader and generate free codes at http://www.ConnexTo.com.
I have heard Martin Copus discuss mobile technology and his vision of where it’s headed in Europe and eventually North America. I thought the following news item about NeoMedia’s qode is a seminal event. Here you have one of the biggest if not the biggest media company in the world pretty much endorsing qode. It snuck under the radar of most mobile bloggers. Thought I would give you an assist in keeping in front.
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=details&nNewsID=609330
News Group unveils new mobile initiatives
News Group Newspapers is to pioneer a series of mobile initiatives in the New Year, including user-generated video downloads, mobile news services and a printed inter-active bar code system.
Sun Me TV enables consumers to shoot short videos on their handset and upload them to a dedicated section of The Sun website.
It is similar to 3 Mobile’s See Me TV, where there is a charge for each clip uploaded and the user receives 1p each time the clip is downloaded, but it is unclear whether The Sun will adopt the same payment model.
Meanwhile, the News of the World is currently trialling Qode technology, which links activated special bar codes in print to the mobile internet. The mobile user downloads Qode software and then takes a picture with his/her camera phone. In doing this, users bypass web addresses or search engines and go straight to the mobile internet destination.
The News of the World will mainly use Qode for football clips, since News Group has won the rights to broadcast English Premier League Football to mobiles in a joint bid with BSkyB. The technology could also be used by advertisers to offer readers discount vouchers or further product information.
Mike Anderson, managing director of NGN, said: “Qode is brilliant, but the software is not pre-embedded in mobiles, it needs to be downloaded. In the future, it should be pre-embedded.
“Effectively, it is the same thing as the interactive red button on the television, but in a newspaper.”
Finally, News Group is looking at ways of delivering bespoke mobile editions of both newspaper brands direct to mobile phones.
Anderson said: “We are looking at how you might publish direct to mobile. You will be able to get editions of a paper for different times, on different platforms. This is all part of News Group changing from a newspaper company to a media company.”
News Group is keen to develop mobile as a digital distribution method since The Sun and News of the World readers do not have high take-up of broadband, but are heavy users of mobile phones.
News Group has recently beefed up its digital operations, hiring Mark Chippendale, former vice-president of European sales for Yahoo!, as media director, Andrew Bagguley as head of mobile strategy and Jim Mullen as digital strategy director.
- An interview with NGN’s Mike Anderson is available to Media Week readers to view today at mediaweek.tv from 2pm
Hi,
If you are interested to know more about Qode, please see Mr. Jeff Mould’s blog.
He’s the President and CEO of Announce Mobile.
http://blog.announcemobile.com/
My favorite blog posts:
Why Qode?
http://blog.announcemobile.com/2007/04/17/why-qode/
2D codes…again
http://blog.announcemobile.com/2007/04/19/2d-codesagain/
Qode - an indepth look at the technology
http://blog.announcemobile.com/2007/04/21/qode-an-indepth-look-at-the-technology/