Phone tags give advertisers extra edge

When software company WhereScape Red needed to make a splash at a large technology tradeshow it turned to mobile tagging technology backed by another local software player, Contrast Media.

Mobile tagging uses the barcode reader function on most new mobile phones to scan printed "tags" that take the phone user to a website, video or add a contact to the address book.

Contrast Media chief executive Chris South said it is about joining the real world to the virtual world.

South said around two million devices in New Zealand are capable of snapping mobile tags.

With enabled devices the tag shown (right) should link to Herald technology stories.

South said the extra effort needed to snap a tag creates a big psychological difference in the level of engagement of consumers.

"Mobile tagging is not a widespread demographic. It is not intended to be used to try and get the people who are not currently consuming content on mobile phones. However it has a very sweet spot with the demographic who already consumes [data]. If you check your email, you browse the web, you update Twitter, you update Facebook then you're a sitter for using mobile tagging technology," said South.

It was exactly this demographic WhereScape Red's Stephen Usmar was interested in connecting with at Microsoft's TechEd conference.

An MS tag - Microsoft's version of the mobile tags - on a sticker had attendees snapping to win prizes and to register for a demo of WhereScape's data warehousing software.

The stickers were slapped on the back of attendee badges and the bags of anyone who walked past the company's stand.

"About halfway through the first day you got to the tipping point which was people coming to us and saying 'how come I haven't got a sticker'," said Usmar.

The goal for WhereScape was to attract people who had never seen the company before.

Usmar said the use of mobile tagging worked much better than he had expected with 12 per cent of the 1600 attendees snapping the tags and many of those registrations converting into solid interest in the firm's software.

Although the technology has been around for years - one type of mobile tag, QR codes, were created 15 years ago in Japan - Contrast Media has taken the technology and added its own smarts to run in the background, much of which South said are world-leading.

South said its Hardlink platform not only delivers content customised to the users phone specifications ensuring users get the best experience possible, it can also provide valuable marketing statistics back to the advertiser on who has scanned or "snapped" the tag.

"You know they are interested in your product - that's an advertising opportunity to offer a discount right now to close this deal," said South.

South said bus shelter ads sporting the tags - for example, a tag on a poster promoting a movie taking the mobile user to the movie trailer - could provide valuable statistics back to the advertiser on which locations are being snapped more than others.

Hardlink also allows the tags to be locked down by passwords or to particular devices opening up opportunities for targeted advertising or a specific business use, such as security guards scanning the tags of buildings visited using a phone rather than the current barcode method requiring special hardware.

The Hardlink platform could be adapted for other mobile commerce applications, said South, but with mobile tagging a recognised technology it had been the first cab off the rank.