By: Sentry Marketing Group

April 5, 2015

Connecting customers with digital content, whether they’re in the store or online at home, is becoming an increasingly vital part of every marketing strategy. Here are some creative ways cutting-edge marketers are getting customers to engage using smartphones and the technologies that surround them.

Over the past several years, as smartphone use has increased and the capabilities of devices have multiplied, business owners and marketers have gotten very creative in their use of the new technology.  According to the Pew Research Center, 64% of American adults owned smartphones as of October 2014.  It is becoming clear that failure to take advantage of the opportunities this affords even the smallest local business is like failing to put your listing in the phone book 20 years ago.  As digital marketing becomes more and more influential, brick and mortar businesses from hotels to boutiques are working to find ways to connect customers in their physical locations to their online presence, building engagement on all fronts to generate loyalty and drive business.   This is what they’re using and how:

Image Recognition

What it is

Image recognition technology works very similarly to barcodes and tags, but with image recognition does not require any particularly formatted code, so printed materials can look exactly as they would if there was no online content attached.  Instead, a specific application is designed to recognize a printed image or a specific product.

How it’s done

Users simply open the app, get the image or product in the sights of their smartphone camera, and the app opens a website, sends a text, stars a game, or, more and more often, initiates an augmented reality experience.  However, because the images to be recognized are not based on any particular format, image recognition requires users to download an app specifically designed for the campaign.  Of course, if getting customers to download your business’s app is one of your goals, this is a great way to go about it.  However, it should be borne in mind that the number of people willing to download an app just to find out what the bonus content is may be limited.

Some good examples

Victoria’s Secret created a scavenger hunt using image recognition in its app

Target used IR to make it possible to shop directly from its print ads

Clark’s used image recognition to make its print ads would trigger TV ads—twice the bang for the buck

Heinz used image recognition to make their ketchup bottles into recipe books:

Augmented Reality

What it is

Augmented reality is a technology that is able to instantly overlay digital images on real-world images captured by a camera, including smartphone cameras.

How it’s done

Applications that take advantage of augmented reality are generally either marker-based, using image recognition to trigger the augmented experience, or location-based, becoming accessible when a smartphone user enters a particular geographic area.  Users can then use their cell phone camera to experience a usually interactive augmented reality related to a product.

Like image recognition, augmented reality ads usually require potential customers to download a campaign- or company-specific app, but the return on the download is instantaneous and pretty cool.

As a marketing tool, AR can be a little costly, since it involves not only app development, but usually video or CGI work as well.  So make sure you know how you’re going to convert the awesome user experience into actual sales before you invest.

Some good examples

Maybelline allowed customers to try nail polish colors by scanning one of their ads (marker-based)

Tic Tac let users interact with magazine and coaster ads (marker-based)

A chocolate company in Greece created an AR app that sends love notes, but the recipient has to scan one of their chocolate bars to read it (marker-based)

Many companies are using augmented reality storefronts to create virtual stores without the overhead (location-based)

Digital Watermarking

What it is

A digital watermark is really just what it sounds like.  It’s a digital identifying “mark” that can be embedded into digital images, audio, video or even objects. That data, though invisible to the human eye and ear, is detectable by computers and other digital devices.  When you Shazam a song, for example, your phone is reading a digital watermark that tells it where to go for the information you’re after.

How it’s done

Using specially designed software, companies embed digital watermarks into their print, television, and radio advertising and let customers know how to “scan” it (usually using a specialized app, like Shazam).  When they, do they are taken to exclusive content, contests, etc. with which they can engage.  There are also companies offering services that track watermarked media so you can see how it’s used and get some added indicators about its effectiveness.

Digimarc does a great job of explaining how this works with their technology.  It would work basically the same way with tech from another company:

 

Some good examples

Citroen used digital watermarking to introduce a new model and direct customers to dealerships.

Office Depot used Shazam to deliver targeted content to customers in its stores.

MyRecipes.com, a Time, Inc. company, used digital watermarking to make its print cookbooks interactive and mobile.

NFC

What it is

NFC (Near Field Communication) uses a built-in, signal-specific transmitter/ receiver to enable direct communication between devices or between a device and an object using interacting electromagnetic radio fields instead of wireless or even cell phone networks.  It’s most popular use right now is for mobile-enabled payments with apps like Apple Pay and Google Wallet, but chips that transmit information using NFC are also used in direct marketing.

How it’s done

As a marketing tool, NFC tags can be used in much the same way digital watermarks might be.  When NFC tags are embedded into products or signage (there are companies that produce stickers with NFC chips built in so you can put them on anything), users with NFC-enabled smartphones just touch their device to the tag to initiate actions from opening your website to sending a text message to following your business on Twitter.  However, NFC can also be useful to marketers as a payment tool, since an NFC transmission contains more information about the customer than, for example, a credit card transaction record.

Some good examples:

Certain X-Men First Class movie posters in the UK included NFC tags that took users to exclusive video content and a link to the movie’s Facebook fan page.

Some other great examples can be found at RFID Insider.

Traditional and 2-dimensional barcodes (QR codes, Microsoft Tags, Action Codes)

What it is

We are all, by now, pretty familiar with barcodes and QR codes.   As digital engagement goes, these are old school players.  In fact, they’re so old school that much of their novelty, and therefore some of their usefulness, has worn off.  Still, with creativity and forethought, they can be used to bridge the offline-online gap.

The Microsoft Tag website provides this handy explanation of the several kinds of barcodes.

How it’s done

Unique codes and tags can be created using any number of free or paid online code generators.  Some of the more advanced versions, including Microsoft tags, can even include your company logo or be designed to be otherwise more visually appealing than the typical black and white digital-looking square.  The tag or code can then be printed on brochures, posters, stickers, anyplace where they can be easily scanned by a smartphone’s camera and where customers are likely to see them.

A customer or potential customer will scan the tag or code using a universal app designed for this purpose (iOS and Android have native apps capable of doing this).  Once scanned, the tag may lead to a mobile-optimized website where a call to action will let the customer know what to do next, it could generate a text message that they can then send to enter a contest or join a loyalty program, it might take them to directions to your location with opening hours and specials—the possibilities are practically endless.

“QR codes by themselves are not likely to impact store purchase conversions or revenues. However, when used in combination with other mobile marketing methods such as SMS marketing, geo or location-based marketing and branded retailer mobile marketing apps, they can contribute to higher performing marketing programs.” – Chuck Schaeffer, CRM Search

Some good examples

Traditional Barcode: Walmart’s Savings Catcher app lets customers scan a barcode on their receipt to receive credit on items that are available from other retailers at a lower price.

Econsultancy also has an impressive collection of cool QR code campaigns.

Microsoft Tag: O’Brien’s, a maker of water-sports products like wakeboards and skis, included tags on its products and in its dealer catalogs that opened “experience” videos of the product in motion and offered tips on how to use and care for the products.

QR Code: U.K. Ad Agency “Made by Stupid” created greeting cards with unique QR codes that would open a personalized Spotify playlist, made by the user.

What we’d love to see:

An augmented reality store app that lets you see where you can find the items on your shopping list.  Bonus: It would also let you instantly order any items on your list that aren’t in the store.

An image recognition app that could tell you the nutritional value of your meal just by looking at your plate (we know this is a little far-fetched…for now.

An augmented reality app that would let you “try on” clothes without having to go to the dressing room (or expose yourself to strangers).  BUT, it would also be able to tell you what size you need.