Tag Archives: Integrated Marketing

QR Codes and TV – What's the Deal?

Advertising, Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Social Media | by

    Today I came across an article which discussed how 2-D QR Codes are beginning to “creep” their way onto television screens. Want to know what we here at Pongr think about QR codes, not only on television, but in general? In the words of the immortal Pauly D of Jersey Shore, “It’s too cold to creep!” Still don’t know what a QR code is?? Read this. I know, these things are tough – it’s not your fault.

    Pretty sure this building used to look a lot nicer without a big barcode on it... a sexy model or product logo would be much prettier.

    After reading about this a little more, I decided to take it upon myself to make a list of the problems I see associated with the use of QR codes in television programming. I mean, it’s not like you were going to do it….

    1.  The technology is limited only to people who own smartphones. You can only read the QR code if you download an application. According to a survey I read, only 16% of people living in the US own a smartphone as of May 2010.  Not enough.

    2.  You have to have DVR to take a snapshot of a QR code in the appropriate amount of time. Listen – we can’t all be (insert name of famous photographer cause I don’t know any besides Walter Iooss, and I still can’t even pronounce his last name after 30 years), can we?? If you don’t have DVR, and you want to be on the cusp of innovation like The Weather Channel, you could use a clock showing a countdown until the QR code is displayed. Seriously, a countdown!! I’m pretty sure shot clocks were created for basketball games, not television advertising.

    3.  If they want to use the QR code, it has to be in the corner of the program for a certain period of time, if not the entire time. Why would anyone want to look at that? I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly annoying when I’m trying to watch a TV show and there’s an ad filling up a portion of the lower screen. At one point last year, I remember trying to watch a bunch of terrorists scheming in their own language about how to kill Jack Bauer (laughable - dude is invincible), and I missed the subtitles because Fox chose to promote a new episode of House (we get it, House – you’re a rule breaker!!). That’s simply unacceptable.

    On the other hand, Pongr has been working on technology to enable entire TV commercials to be image searchable from any cell phone. You don’t need that Droid X (am I wrong, or is this thing larger than a “Hungry Man” TV dinner box?) to get a deal. Just take a picture of the commercial at any time, picture-text it to Pongr, and get instant deals! We are all about linking offline media with digital, and now the ability to index and search TV commercials means advertisers can build creative campaigns around getting users to engage with their TV spots.

    Not only does Pongr technology work with commercials, but we are also in the process of experimenting with being able to index products within actual television shows!! This is perfect for you 30 Rock fans, who want to get a deal on whatever type of cheese doodle Liz Lemon is currently indulging in. Unfortunately, I’m not sure we’ll ever get to a point where every commercial can be indexed, as local commercials could potentially pose a problem (such as this), but I’d advise all of you to try to not stomp all over my hopes and dreams…that’s just mean.

    For more info on how Pongr can help your cable TV network, interactive television commercial planning, or movie (yes, we can index your  movies too) integrate existing video assets into marketing programs with a mobile opt-in component, drop us a line.

    Interactive Print Media Meets The Digital World & Integrated Social Advertising With Pongr

    Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Social Media | by
      Image recognition and mobile picture engagement solutions from Pongr are tailored for traditional advertisers.
      Using image recognition on traditional ads is a great way to connect print to social and digital campaigns.

      The words “interactive print media” may sound like an oxymoron, but for some of the most progressive minds on Madison Avenue, making print interactive is a logical and much needed step forward for the entire publishing industry.

      Print advertisements have always had a place in the the CMO’s repertoire of marketing tactics, and, in the future, the “right” print ads will continue to be as relevant as ever – if not more so.

      By “right” we mean that some print advertisements will become critical touch-points linked into a far more integrated campaign strategy involving the Web, social networks, mobile applications, games, media and other forms emerging technologies that are grabbing mind-share from regular people all over the world. Transversely, the “wrong” print ads, or the ones that fail to connect us to other things in the sphere of buying, sharing or creating, will be those stand-alone static pieces that leave us with no actionable thoughts.

      Mobile Marketing & Image Search: The Beginnings of the Pongr Photo Marketing Blog

      Artificial Intelligence, Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Social Media | by

        Image Recogniton and Mobile Marketing Outlook by PongrComputer vision is sometimes called “Robot Vision” or a subset of Machine Learning. We’ll be applying a lot of different types of AI to our mobile photo marketing solutions in the coming months and years.

        Mobile marketing is one of those big, hairy, fuzzy beasts that no one seems to really have their arms around, yet. Everyone knows that it’s coming, it’s going to be a major part of how brands market and sell products and services, but few retailers, publishers or advertising agencies have a crystal clear sense of exactly what “mobile marketing” means for their business. In particular, the print media and the social media landscape is teeming with change – some good, some bad – and risks and rewards abound.

        SMS oriented marketing has been producing amazing results for brands that have executed it well and tied SMS calls-to-action into an integrated marketing campaign.  Although, for many, SMS has been an expensive and complicated pursuit into mobile marketing and the payoff has yet to materialize. For brands that have executed SMS well, the click-through rates have been astounding. We expect those leading-edge adopters to be among the first to try image search enabling their print media.

        Like most new media marketing techniques, the results have varied based on creativity, execution and overall integration into a holistic brand management strategy.  Social media marketing has picked up a lot of momentum in 2008 and it looks like it’s going to be a strong piece of integrated interactive media campaigns moving forward. The number of brands on Facebook are growing rapidly, while Twitter is becoming an increasingly popular way for raving brand fans to communicate with one another, and in some cases, the brand itself. Twitter has made social interaction with brands faster and easier than ever.

        OK, so you’re probably asking what this has to do with mobile marketing and image search, right? Well, the answer is that mobile marketing is the “big picture” next step in the evolution of integrated marketing campaigns and image search is how we’re going to get there. You see, consumers, brands, advertisers and social media mavens have made it clear that simple, fast, elegant ways of expressing their interests are what ultimately stick in the marketplace. Perhaps the most important part of that is the SIMPLE part.  If it’s easy people will try it.  If it’s hard, forget it. What better way to make linking the physical world of print media to the digital world of the Internet and social media than to leverage pictures…

        The science behind image search is definitely not trivial, but Pongr can execute and integrate image search into the existing world of print and online media so that the link via image search is elegant and seamless. So, think of it like this, 90% or more of the consumers buying new mobile devices in the United States will have cameras on their mobile phones by mid 2009. Those users are fully embracing the notion of using their phone to take pictures of their friends, places and stuff.  Picture sharing through mobile has become one of the fastest growing major attractions for Facebook and other social networks.  The message is clear: people like taking pictures from their cell phones.  For marketers looking to tap into the promise of mobile marketing, what better way to actually execute an integrated media campaign than tying together print advertisements with a mobile call to action and links to the digital world!

        This may sound a bit pie-in-the-sky right now, but the pace of “what’s possible” on mobile is moving so fast that there is 100% certainly that mobile marketing will start to take shape in aggressive, ubiquitous, practical ways through 2009 and 2010. A few years from now, we will be beyond the questions of “How do I leverage location awareness in mobile marketing campaigns?” and “How can I extend the reach of print media to social networks?” and we will begin to wonder what’s next…

        As the entire team at Pongr embarks on a journey to help bring practical mobile marketing solutions to brands, agencies and publishers looking for smart partners that can help provide better service and deeper insight into consumer trends on mobile and social networks, we will be sharing our thoughts and experiences in mobile marketing and image search through this blog.