It was reported last week that recent “mobile barcode” advertising campaigns by Intel and Warner Bros were failures.  Barcode and QR-code based advertising have been used in Japan for years — and the U.S. has just recently jumped on the bandwagon. QR codes (image at left) are the 2D version of 1D barcodes.

In financial terms the first question with any new campaign is:  ”What’s the Return on Investment (ROI)?“   For an advertisement to be successful with the consumer, the end result had better be worth the effort! Unfortunately, both the Intel and Warner Bros campaigns missed the mark.  Intel’s ad ran in Wired Magazine, delivering up a YouTube video from the recent CES Las Vegas that showed how Intel technology could be used in the future … yawn.  Warner Bros did a bit better by delivering up some movie trailers via barcodes on pizza boxes during Super Bowl season.

Today’s mobile consumer is savvy and sophisticated. If they’re going to engage with a new technology, they deserve a response that is tailored to them and pertinent to their needs.

Japanese mobile campaigns regularly deliver up worthy promotional items to consumers — including valuable coupons & discounts, instant buying opportunities and often the opportunity to win even more prizes. In the U.S., after asking the consumer to engage, both the Intel and Warner Bros campaigns returned ho-hum responses of limited or no value — a negative ROI. Result: The campaigns failed.

From the advertiser’s perspective, in addition to creating an unsuccessful campaign, the use of barcodes or QR codes on ads require changing and modifying what they’ve paid graphic designers thousands of dollars to create.

LinkMe Mobile takes a different approach.  First, no unattractive barcodes, QR codes or other changes to the advertisement are needed.  The consumer just snaps a picture of the ad and sends it in via SMS, MMS or email. Our patented image recognition technology takes care of the rest.  Our solution allows the ad to shine as it was intended to look — not only do we hold the patents, but our image recognition technology returns an accuracy rate higher than 96%.

Our earliest image recognition campaigns began more than 4 years ago in Japan – and were highly successful in their high tech market.  That success has expanded across the globe in the UK, China and the U.S. in highly engaging campaigns with partners like Barnes & Noble, Lions Gate, China Telecom, Clear Channel, Coty Cosmetics, Nestle, Fiat, Woman’s Day and many others.

LinkMe Mobile creates campaigns that can be easily delivered by our clients, are readily used by the consumer, and contain pertinent, useful, exciting content… a simple, but invaluable concept!

Ken Richards, CFO

** Please click here to contact us if you’re interested in an image or voice recognition campaign for your company.  We’d love to hear from you!

Image Credit:  Ralph Lauren