QR Code Easter Eggs Lead to Exclusive Content in THQ’s “Homefront”

If you’re one of the millions of gamers who’ve played Homefront on Xbox 360, you may have come across a few easter eggs scattered throughout – in the form of QR codes.

The codes, when scanned, took users to exclusive in-game content, from wallpapers to backstory videos collectively titled “The Korean Kodex,” an overview of the invasion of the United States circa 2027.

Within the first two days of Homefront’s release, the codes were scanned more than 30,000 times – and judging by chatter on the Internet, the response has been relatively positive.

“The success of embedding QR codes in Homefront shows how a rabid, tech-savvy fanbase will readily engage with brands who can offer a unique, satisfactory content experience,” said Taylor Burton, Director of Sales at Augme Technologies. “It also shows that QR codes can be successfully implemented on a TV or other video screen, making the possibilities for marketers endless.”

We’d love to hear what you thought of Homefront’s QR easter eggs in the comment box below!

(Screengrab courtesy YouTube user FireFlowWalkthroughs)

Convention-al wisdom: Fishbowls out, QR Codes in!

It’s all part of the trade show ritual: you go to an exhibitor’s booth, politely pretend to peruse their wares, toss your business card into a fishbowl in the hopes of winning some swag, then take off. Or, if you go to a convention, organizers might “take attendance” by scanning a barcode on the ID badge pinned to your chest. One method old, one method new: both meant to be business tools.

With the fishbowl, exhibitors collect information on potential B-to-B customers, including phone numbers and emails – all “opt-in,” if you will. With the barcodes, exhibitors would also get hard data to work with, in terms of attendance figures. Ultimately, the information and data collected are useful for vendors looking to broaden their customer base.

But beyond the promise of some swag, there is little incentive for attendees at conventions and trade shows to visit your exhibit. What if they’ve forgotten their business cards, or have run out? And nowadays, doesn’t barcoding people seem a bit intrusive?

Last month, Augme debuted their first-ever mobile vendor prize drawing, held at the iPharmaConnect Conference in Philadelphia. Using their smartphones, participants were asked to scan a QR code at the registration booth, then find additional QR codes at seven other vendor booths scattered throughout the venue. As incentives, we offered big-ticket prizes: an iPad, an iPod Touch, a digital camera.

Just over a third of the conference attendees scanned those QR codes. That likely meant increased traffic at participating vendor booths – exactly the intended result, and all for nominal cost and setup. And, most importantly, the m-contest kept participants engaged. (That’s what the chance of winning an iPad will do.)

Augme’s m-contest model is simple in its design and execution, and can be easily replicated at similar venues and functions, from ComicCon to CES and everything in between. No longer is there a need to collect and catalog business cards, or to turn into Big Brother, armed with a scanner gun.

M-contests make it easy to leap out of that fishbowl and into the 21st century. One QR code at a time.

(Contact us for more information on M-contests!)

Mobile Health — A Good Diagnosis

Last week, Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance in San Francisco to talk up the next iteration of the iPad.  And while he was busy showcasing the features of Apple’s thinner, lighter, and faster device, the part of Jobs’s presentation that really caught my eye were the segments touching on the iPad’s growing use in the field of mobile healthcare, or m-health.

For instance, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, chief information officer John Halamka (@jhalamka on Twitter) said Apple’s device “will change the way doctors practice medicine” (though he was careful to point out, on his personal blog, that this wasn’t necessarily as an endorsement of the product):

“What we have tried to do on the iPad is give doctors at the point of care the tools they need at the exact moment the doctor can make a difference.

“We are finding with the iPad, is that doctors are spending more time with patients, in fact doctors are engaging patients by showing them images, showing them data on the screen,” he added. “So it is empowering doctors to be more productive. But it has also brought doctors and patients together.”

As I wrote recently, Apple’s tablet isn’t the only game in town when it comes to m-health.  But Steve Jobs including m-health applications – namely, electronic medical record-keeping and patient interactions – so high up in his keynote presentation is an acknowledgment of how far mobile devices have come in this arena.

By its nature, the medical industry constantly and consistently evolves, using the latest in technology to further best practices.  For example, hospitals and private practices are turning in ever-increasing numbers to electronic medical records to streamline patient information and make it more accessible.  That’s where mobile comes in.

Using a mobile platform to access relevant medical information on demand is great value proposition for the ever growing industry.  It greatly improves the doctor’s ability to do her or his job, putting case records, product or device information right at their fingertips.  And while just a few years back, doctors and other medical staff would’ve had to access such information at a desktop computer or even a laptop: now they can do the same with a smartphone or a tablet.  Doctors can better describe diagnoses to their patients using visual aids, or show them exactly how a medical device will work: this results in a vastly-improved patient experience, because the patient is no longer in the dark about the quality care they are receiving.

Mobile is all around us in our everyday lives, giving us access to apps, games, music, email and the Internet in one portable package.  And with the healthcare industry expected to spend $4.5 billion on wireless data by 2014, companies like Augme are here to help physicians, hospitals and others in the field fully realize the full potential of m-health, with mobile assets leading the way.

Smartphones and tablets, as it turns out, are just what the doctor ordered.

Jose Cornejo is VP of Sales & Client Services at Augme

Mobile Campaign Shows Emerging Reach of QR Codes

Late last year, we worked with Constellation Wines – perhaps best known for their Robert Mondavi and Svedka Vodka brands – on a holiday push that featured traditional and mobile marketing elements. The “Bundle Up And Save” campaign’s centerpiece – a free-standing insert distributed in newspapers nationwide – included both standard clippable coupons and invitations to scan a QR code or send an SMS text. Doing the latter took customers to a mobile site that offered tips on food / wine pairings and a social media component that allowed users to exchange notes and reviews.

The campaign began in November 2010 and ran through January 2011, with good results: thousands of consumers made their way to Constellation’s mobile site as a result. And in our analysis of this short-term project, we found something at once unexpected – and unsurprising: the majority of participants opted for scanning QR codes over SMS by a ratio of 7-to-1.
Why was that unexpected? Well, SMS texts have been around for almost as long as cell phones, with the first SMS marketing effort dating back to 2002 . SMS is instantaneous in its reach – capable of going out to millions of users at once. One study showed that 90% of all text messages sent are read within three minutes of delivery, and that 99% of all text messages are eventually read. With an estimated 80% of mobile users carrying around feature phones (i.e. not smartphones), SMS still has a far wider reach than QR codes do.

That being said, the past few years have seen the market flooded with smartphones. And although only about 50 million out of the more than 250 million wireless devices in the U.S. are smartphones, Apple has sold tens of millions of iPhones since 2008. Furthermore, phones running Android have reportedly outpaced Apple’s hugely popular device.

Can you judge the potential of QR by just one campaign’s results? Of course not. But with 2011 already declared a watershed year for m-marketing, it’s hard to ignore the impact of 2-D codes and its role in any great mobile marketing campaign.

Augme has written plenty about the need to employ comprehensive mobile campaigns as part of an overall marketing strategy. And the Constellation Wines campaign is a prime example of how that’s done: a balance of traditional calls-to-action (newspaper inserts, bottleneck hangers and case cards) blended with mobile marketing tools (QR codes, SMS, an interactive website).

But the overwhelming response to the QR code aspect of the Constellation campaign makes something crystal clear: aided by the rapid, widespread adaptation of smartphones, QR codes have taken root as a viable mobile marketing tool in the span of less than three years – something SMS took nearly a decade to accomplish.

Are QR codes the future of mobile marketing? At 7-to-1, that’s a good bet.

Marketing’s “Moment Of Truth” is no longer just a single moment

Back in 2002, the CEO of Procter & Gamble coined a phrase that summed up the decision a consumer had to make upon entering a store: “The First Moment of Truth.”

Some could argue that this notion was a bit hyperbolic – by virtue of all those capitalized letters – but back then, the “First Moment Of Truth” was a fact of marketing life.  At that very moment, the consumer would decide what to buy, and which brand.  But thanks to technology, that is no longer the case.

As we wrote in our landmark white paper, Upward Mobility: Developing an Effective Mobile Shopper Marketing Strategy,  the consumer has become an ever-moving target that is never more than one click, ring, text or Tweet away from entering “shopper mode.”  While it’s true that the First Moment Of Truth still exists, thanks to mobile, they’ve really become multiple moments – and we believe there are still better ways to harness mobile and make it a part of overall marketing strategies.

It is hard to capture the undivided attention of a shopper.  And even when the consumer makes up his or her mind, it only takes one more marketing message to change their mind.   Make no mistake: the traditional touchpoints still apply when it comes to in-store marketing – banners, displays, endcaps, point-of-purchase displays, et cetera, all focused on the shopper’s attention span.  But there is a relatively new marketing element that most companies have yet to take advantage of on a wider scale: the mobile phones owned by an estimated 230 million Americans.

People who are not in marketing often point to the 2002 film Minority Report as an example of how over-commercialized society has become: in the movie, Tom Cruise’s character has his retinas scanned and is subsequently bombarded with ads custom-tailored for him, projected as he walks through a building.   In some respects, the film foresaw how modern Internet advertising works – small display ads pop up depending on what pages you visit, the contents of a Gmail message you just opened, or your Facebook status updates.

Mobile shopping and mobile marketing takes this concept from the desktop and puts it in the hands of those 230 million subscribers in the U.S. – and tens of millions more around the globe.  It marries the best of in-store and web-based display ads, mobile couponing and offers, and gets them to those just ready to enter “shopper mode.”

From feature phones, which comprise 172 million users, to web-enabled smartphones with near-field communications technology embedded, those multiple Moments Of Truth suddenly become more predictable, as consumers walk into a store armed with mobile coupons or offers that bring them to a specific product or products.  Or perhaps they’ve texted a shortcode and received a discount offer via SMS.  Or they’re ready to scan a QR code at a display to redeem a buy-one, get-one offer.

Mobile marketing 1) takes all the guesswork out of what the consumer will buy by leading them to specific products; 2) is the most effective use of technology to reinforce brand loyalty; 3) is non-intrusive, by virtue of being opt-in; 4) its results are easily trackable; 5) its campaigns are scalable; and – most importantly – 6) such campaigns are cost-effective, with a potential reach of up to hundreds of millions of consumers.

If there’s ever been a “moment of truth,” it’s this: these days, not implementing a comprehensive mobile strategy into your company’s overall marketing efforts just doesn’t make sense.

Be sure to read “Upward Mobility: Developing an Effective Mobile Shopper Marketing Strategy”, a special supplement in the latest edition of Shopper Marketing Magazine, or click here to read it online.

Of NFC, Apple and the Next Big M-Commerce Thing

Recently, Starbucks announced that it would begin accepting mobile payments – via an iPhone app – at its 6,800 stores and in-store Target locations nationwide, the first significant rollout of a mobile payment system by a retailer in the U.S.

Then, Tuesday brought news – based on unconfirmed rumors – that Apple was going to include near-field communications technology, or NFC, in the next generation of its hugely popular iPhone (16.2 million units sold in Q4 ’10) and the iPad (7.4 million units in Q4 ’10).  Simply described, NFC is like a contactless payment card integrated into phones – that is, technology that allows customers to forgo their credit cards and cash and “tap” to pay with their smartphones instead.

When you take into consideration the recent announcement that Verizon will now offer the iPhone, with an expected addition of millions more iPhone users, you have the perfect storm for the latest frontier in m-commerce: the proliferation of mobile payments – expected to balloon to $1 trillion by 2015, according to one executive – with NFC-enabled devices as the foundation.

NFC technology has been around for a few years: Google has announced that NFC would be included in phones with the Android 2.3 OS.  And credit card-linked bank cards such as those branded with Visa (Blink) and MasterCard (pay/pass) already use a version of NFC that allows customers to “tap” payments at deli cash registers and inside cabs.  And Augme itself knows NFC well, having worked on NFC development since 2007.

So what does all of this mean for mobile marketing?  If NFC has been around for years, why do companies like Augme think it will take off in 2011?

It’s simple: by including NFC in its most popular devices, Apple, the company that revolutionized m-commerce with the iTunes store (more than ten billion songs downloaded, and millions more e-books, movies and TV shows sold) is demonstrating confidence in the technology, betting that near-field communications could soon be used to pay for everything from groceries to luxury goods.  In the words of one analyst, Apple’s move is a “game-changer.”

An NFC-embedded iPhone or iPad would allow customers to walk into a store or restaurant and make payments straight from their device, like a virtual wallet.  There’s no cash or (physical) credit card involved, and as an added benefit, NFC-enabled devices allow for mobile couponing: users can get discounts off individual items, percentages off of total purchases price, and even loyalty rewards and credits for purchases, without having to clip coupons or flash club cards.

“This is an exciting time for m-commerce, with one of the most popular device-makers in the world – Apple – including NFC technology in their products for the very first time,” says Anthony Iacovone, Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Augme Technologies.  “We’re potentially looking at tens of millions of people – via their new iPads and iPhones, and yes Android phones – having access to a widely-available, easy-to-use mobile payment platform for the first time.  Customers with NFC-enabled devices are ones that businesses will want to target, and having worked with NFC since 2007 gives Augme and its clients a significant advantage, especially when designing mobile marketing campaigns that incorporate NFC technology.

“2011 will soon be known as the year when mobile payments really took off,” added Iacovone.  “The question your company has to ask itself is, ‘Are we working with someone who understands NFC and how it can benefit us?’ If you’re working with Augme, the answer is ‘yes.’”

Apple’s announcement – if and when they officially make it – will be a watershed moment in m-commerce, and we look forward to adoption of NFC on a broad scale.  Until then, we at Augme wait with bated breath, confident that we’re ready to embrace and work with The Next Big (M-Commerce) Thing.

Weekend Wrapup: Big Steps for M-Commerce

It’s been a busy week in the world of mobile: News America Marketing – one of the largest coupon publishers in the U.S. and Canada – just announced a partnership with Augme to allow customers to access the same browsing and coupon offers available on their website via cellphones. And Starbucks had a massive rollout of a mobile payment system at almost all of their 6,800 stores – demonstrating the feasibility of adopting such systems on a large scale.

With more consumers than ever scanning barcodes and QR codes, the stage is set for things like mobile couponing to take off. And don’t think for a minute that m-commerce is only for those with iPhones and Android phones – the wise ones among us know that feature phones comprise the majority of users in the U.S., and they’ll play a huge part in mobile commerce’s future.

Some good weekend reading: top CEO’s, including Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and eBay’s John Donahoe, weigh in on the importance of mobile; and ClickZ’s comprehensive look at mobile behavior trends.

As always, feel free to DM us on Twitter or leave us links in the comments below with any mobile news or questions you might have. Until then, have a great weekend!

The Team at Augme

M-Commerce: The Next Step

M-COMMERCE: THE NEXT STEP

E-commerce proved itself stronger than ever this past holiday season: online holiday sales for 2010 were up 13% over the same period the year before; there was a surge in sales of e-books; and even online auctions were up, according to eBay.

So after traditional commerce and e-commerce, what’s the next frontier?  The answer is mobile commerce, which according to one report will hit $4.9 billion in revenues this year, up from just over $360 million two years ago.  And just as brick-and-mortar stores took advantage of the Web to reach consumers, it’s time for them to focus on bringing them back into their stores using the very devices that 91% of all Americans use: their cell phones and smartphones.  That’s where mobile marketing comes in.

Relative to e-commerce, the world of m-commerce is still in its infancy.  But just as people moved from clipping coupons to using loyalty / “rewards” cards, mobile is the next logical step in connecting consumers with the marketplace.  And a recent study from Accenture showed that a whopping 79% of shoppers would prefer to get coupons on their mobile devices.

Getting coupons to a smartphone is easy enough: customers can either text to a shortcode or scan a QR code to receive them.  But the main obstacle to m-commerce is redemption: just how do customers claim their discounts, whether receiving a percentage off their total order, or 25 cents off a bottle of shampoo?  There is currently no widely-available and practical way for consumers to redeem mobile offers or mobile coupons.

One solution available in the market is adopting a “direct-to-loyalty-card” option in which a manufacturer’s coupon or store offer is loaded onto the shopper’s loyalty card, with redemption taking place through scanning the card at checkout. Augme has transitioned this model into the AD LIFE™ mobile platform on a national level over the past few quarters.

Recent years have seen the evolution of another solution: “near field communication,” or NFC technology, which will serve as the backbone of many mobile offer / couponing platforms. Mashable recently broke down NFC for its readers:

NFC “allows a device, usually a mobile phone, to collect data from another device or NFC tag at close range. In many ways, it’s like a contactless payment card that is integrated into a phone. In other ways, it’s similar to Bluetooth, except that instead of programming two devices to work together, they can simply touch to establish a connection.”

Augme is no stranger to the mobile couponing conversation: we’ve worked with clients to develop end-to-end mobile couponing strategies built around direct-to-print and direct-to-loyalty-card programs at this point, and have been involved since 2007 in NFC developments.  “The technology is already far enough along that we could see widespread proliferation of NFC point-of-sale devices in stores in a matter of months, not years,” says Anthony Iacovone, Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Augme Technologies.  “And with nine out of ten Americans using cell phones, it’s not hard to imagine shoppers passing up clipping coupons in favor of ‘tapping’ their phones to get discounts.”

Many traditional businesses missed the boat in the early days of e-commerce, and watched as companies like Amazon.com took off.  As the new frontier of m-commerce opens up, the first question you should ask is simple: is my business ready for it?

Because we are.

2010 Year-end Review

It’s been a good start to the New Year for Augme and mobile marketing in general.  In industry news, there’s been a lot of positive trends and predictions, including reports of significant spending increases in mobile by 2015; a forecast for seven trillion SMS texts in 2011; and mobile sales for a popular auction site rising to 134%over last year’s holiday season.  And, as the old adage goes, a rising tide lifts all boats: Augme itself has been benefitted from good word of mouth and positive press.

Keep an eye on this space as our CMO David Apple and other members of the Augme staff weigh in with their thoughts on fast-growing field of mobile marketing.  We also invite you to follow us on Twitter and, of course, share your thoughts with us in the comments field below.

Until then, have a great weekend!

The Augme Technologies staff

The iPad: Is It Really the Ideal Platform?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal trumpeted the use of iPads by those in the medical sales field, quoting medical device manufacturers as saying Apple’s device allow “employees to do a much better job of engaging physicians” and healthcare professionals (HCP’s) “in a really different way than before.”

But is it really the ideal platform for this line of work? Read the rest of this entry »