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Douglas MacMillan is one of the Ninja Hamsters at ADOTAS aka an intern. He previously spent several months working as a dutiful intern under the dictatorship of Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone, only to be set free by our own Kiran. He does not get Jaime skim lattes in the morning.

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The Emerging Landscape of Barcode Branding

Written on
Feb 3, 2006 
Author
Douglas MacMillan  |
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The Emerging Landscape of Barcode Branding

Opinions is an open forum for all readers. Opinions expressed by readers do not necessarily reflect the views of the management and staff of ADOTAS.com

The next time you’re in the supermarket checkout lane, pay closer attention to that mysterious wand the grocer waves over your cereal boxes and milk cartons. Soon the technology of the barcode will break free of its mundane role in the grocery store to become the next powerful tool in interactive advertising.

Colorzip, a company based in Japan, is in the final stages of developing its Colorcodes, which are colorful barcodes placed on posters, television screens, and even t-shirts that deliver songs, videos, or website links instantly through the snap of your cell phone camera. The widely differing patterns and colors are contained in boxes that can be as small as traditional UPC barcodes, and work in much the same way. As soon as you take a picture of a Colorcode, the image is sent to a server and uniquely identified within a master index. The server then sends content back to your phone for you to enjoy.

The implications for such a technology are endless, and it won’t be long before advertisers begin to seek the full potential of barcode branding. Imagine handing someone a business card with a theme song embedded in it, displaying a movie poster with a direct link to its trailer, or creating a direct portal between a television commercial and its interactive website. Mobile phones with cameras and internet access have become a standard accessory, and Colorcodes are getting ready to put them to work like never before.

Colorzip’s website posits that they are “painting an entirely new interactive landscape.” If and when their barcodes catch on in the global market, this statement could be all too true. Their runaway potential may start to impose its own limits. If a TV spot offers its viewers an interactive game through a Colorcode link, the audience might become so saturated in the game that they lose interest in the program they were watching in the first place. A Colorcode patch on the side of a building might give passersby an instant download of the hottest new R&B singles, but a serious traffic accident may result from people wandering around the street with their phones pointed in the air.

My suggestion for advertisers with the hope of a Colorcoded marketing campaign is to start simple. Barcodes are an exciting emerging platform that can take consumers out of their computer-screen and TV-screen stupor and interact with products in the real world. Yet, any content that involves taking a picture and linking to the Internet with a mobile phone is already way too complicated. Eventually, if barcodes prove successful, the hardware technology involved will catch up and make the concept much simpler—maybe even removing the use of phones altogether.





Reader Comments.

If I had a dollar for every barcodes-as-marketing-tool scheme I run across over the years I wouldn’t have to write and sell barcode software any more. Remember the CueCat? http://www.azalea.com/CueCat

You’d think as someone who sells barcode software I’d be excited about attempts to expand the market. The reason I’m not is that I have absolutely no faith that there’s a future in expanding auto ID technology into areas outside its natural market.

Then again, I’m patiently waiting for someone to prove me wrong. Not issue a press release but make something happen in the real world.

Just my 2 cents worth…

Posted by Jerry | 9:03 am on February 4, 2006.

Barcode Marketing via Cell phone is the next wave of Mobile marketing. These guys are ahead in the US http://www.paperclick.com/

Posted by New Wave | 9:18 pm on February 28, 2006.

Hello:

Thought you might like to see the ColorZip product in action, we have video interview online from August last year at the link below. Also note that Japan office CTO Evan Owens presented at Mobile Monday Tokyo in April last year and his .PPT from that evening is also available online.

Jerry: thought you might like to know that ColorZip is actually Korean-based company and their app. comes pre-installed on handsets from all 3 OMD’s and is approaching the so-called tipping point of mass adoption there. The 1st gen. of black & white QR codes here in Japan are well-established and we are seeing new interesting uses of them beyond the oh so standard deployement circa 2002 in many magazine / newspaper and outdoor ad campaigns. Have a look at the last link via: RFID Japan site from just the other day..!!!

Mobile Phones Scan ColorCode on TV

ColorZip PowerPoint Presentation at Mobile Monday

RFID Japan: QR Codes as Location Markers for Calling Taxicabs

Cheers,

Lars.

Posted by Lars | 10:12 pm on February 28, 2006.

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