With the launch of this new partnership, Guthy-Renker Japan is introducing unprecedented special promotions to both new and long-time Proactiv customers. Guthy-Renker Japan President Michael Allen explains this groundbreaking campaign and partnership, “Using ShaLink to interact with Proactiv products is fun and easy. The special product promotions we’re offering can only be accessed through use of the ShaLink app – and consumers are connected directly with Proactiv campaign site. Snapping a picture with their cell phone through ShaLink takes them online instantly, so there is no need to speak with an operator to place an order. It couldn’t be easier.”

Tom Garofalo, Executive Vice President of Asia Pacific for LinkMe Mobile explains, “We are very pleased to be working with a consumer products innovator such as Guthy-Renker Japan. Together we offer a fun, interactive mobile phone experience and facilitate the ease of buying Proactiv products. This is the first partnership of its kind anywhere in the world. By combining print, TV and real world consumer touchpoints we allow customers to connect to and purchase products directly through their mobile phones using our image recognition technology – without requiring any kind of symbol or code. This takes mobile commerce to a whole new level.”

Setting the standard for technology innovation, LinkMe Mobile fundamentally changes the way people connect with their world. Through proprietary image and voice technology for mobile phones, consumers can find the information they need at the moment they want it. Equally, Guthy-Renker Japan has always been a leader in innovative marketing concepts for their many brands, often bringing in high profile talent as spokespeople for the Proactiv line. In 2010 these include pop star Avril Lavigne, Japanese singer Yuna Ito, reality tv icon Jessica Simpson, singer Katy Perry and Dancing With the Stars alum Julianne Hough.

Combining cutting edge mobile phone technology from LinkMe Mobile and its ShaLink app, with Guthy-Renker Japan’s successful Proactiv product line, this partnership will deliver an entirely new mobile shopping experience to an unprecedented number of consumers.

I recently gave a talk at BarCamp San Diego entitled “Superpowers and Science Fiction: How Mobile Devices Can Change the World”. There was a ton of material packed into my presentation, which I’ll be unpacking in a series of blog posts about mobile technology.

BarCamp is an “unconference“ – an event that crowdsources the sharing of interesting ideas and information. Just like wikis and blogs provide a decentralized way for voices to be heard on the internet, an unconference provides an unfiltered forum for sharing ideas in person. A small core group of people (for Barcamp, this is mainly techies & developers) arranges a venue, gets donations from sponsors, and promotes the event — however, there isn’t a submission process and specific speakers aren’t scheduled in advance.

Attendees are encouraged to come prepared to talk and give demonstrations. This is an interactive conference at its best and we love hearing all the pioneering ideas our peers bring to the table. On the first day there’s an empty board on the wall where people can sign up for a time slot in one of the available rooms. There’s no filtering, but the feedback of the crowd provides its own kind of direction. It’s not unusual for presentations and informal discussions to influence the content of sessions later in the weekend and at subsequent BarCamp events.

The unconference phenomenon started in the technology community, but it has spread into real estate, government, and crisis response. Unconferences share the core values of decentralization and democratization that have been critical to the social success of the internet. I believe these same values will be at heart of future mobile & technology innovations – harnessing the power of communities and groups of individuals.

You might have noticed that I use the term “mobile device” rather than mobile phone, cell phone, smartphone, or superphone. That’s because I find the ability to make and receive phone calls one of the least interesting features. Instead, your phone can help you save lives, topple governments, and get free beer — the possibilities are truly endless.

There’s a huge selection of apps and accessories available for mobile devices. That’s in addition to the growing list of features embedded into them: email clients, web browsers, GPS receivers, compasses, and even the humble clock. Take a second to think about the implications of everybody carrying around a timepiece that is continuously kept accurate. Future generations will hear the phrase “synchronize your watches” in an old movie and wonder what that means.

The camera and microphone are two especially interesting components of mobile devices. They are the eyes and ears of mobile apps. The camera allows applications to recognize book & cd covers, logos, landmarks, and other images – even without barcodes. Check out our Barnes & Noble bookstore app for Apple’s iPhone and ipod Touch to see one of the best examples of a mobile phone’s camera in action.  Of the 1.8 million people who have already downloaded the app, the thing we hear the most is: “Wow, the coolest part is that I can just snap a photo and get back great content. It’s so easy.” The B&N app uses our patented image recognition technology to recognize user images and send back info on where to find their fav cds or dvds — even instant purchasing right from your phone!  Our patented technologies are what I help to craft & hone each day as we constantly strive to make our tech work smarter & faster.

A mobile phone’s microphone allows people to interact naturally with applications through spoken words.  We also have patents on our voice recognition technologies with our technology partner, MeMeMe. Upcoming apps we’re building will allow you to not only take a photo of something, but also to speak the name of a product, or use words to describe it, to find even more great promotions and information.

We’ve only begun to tap into the potential for using mobile devices to augment our senses and abilities in everyday life.  Keep your eye on LinkMe Mobile for all the newest cutting-edge technologies in mobile.

- Dave
Super Engineer

Image Credits:  (1) Jennifer Reiswig (2) Erik Eldridge (3) www.CapedWonder.com & (4) Barnes & Noble (in order)

These posters were displayed in Clear Channel malls across the U.S. in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Miami.  After a consumer emailed their photo of the ad to the specified address, our technology would recognize the image (with a 96% accuracy rate!) and return a coupon directly to their phone. The message instructed the person to show their new coupon at the fragrance counter of the Macy’s department store in the mall they were in — and they would instantly receive a free deluxe Harajuku Lovers fragrance sample set!  Pretty cool.  The point of the campaign was twofold.  First, to see if consumers would interact with in-mall advertising if it was link-enabled with our technology — and second, could we actually drive retail traffic sales if we offered something really fabulous?? (i.e. free samples!!)  Even we were surprised with the success of the results.

At the end of the campaign, we surveyed the participants.  We discovered that a staggering 25% of mall shoppers who took a photo of the ad and received the mobile coupon made purchases at Macy’s after they got their sample — 7% of people made purchases over $20.00 and 18% made purchases over $40.00. To date, the only other similar campaign of its kind used Bluetooth to deliver mobile coupons to mall shoppers.  The average number of consumers that purchased product after receiving the Bluetooth coupon totaled 7% — ours totaled 25% — big difference!  An additional 7% of the participants in our campaign said they would purchase more Harajuku Lovers perfume — and more products from Macy’s — in the future, but that they wouldn’t have done so if they hadn’t been introduced through “this cool campaign.”  It became obvious from the results of the campaign that people really liked interacting with brands by taking photos with their phone — especially if they would receive great stuff (e.g. coupons, specials or samples) in return.

The ages of people who interacted with the ads were also fascinating – as young as 15 years old and up to 54. In rating their overall experience, consumers told us it was “A Fun Way To Use The Phone!” and “So Simple!” as two of the coolest things about the experience.  64% told us they wanted to be part of more interactive campaigns using their mobile phones – and a whopping 86% said they would recommend LinkMe Mobile campaigns to friends and family.  We could have never dreamed for such fabulous results.

LinkMe Mobile is always on the cutting-edge of new ways to use our patented image and voice recognition technologies.  Keep in touch with us and we’ll let you know where you can find LinkMe Mobile in your world!

If you’re interested, please click here to read the full Case Study about the LinkMe Mobile, Coty, ClearChannel project.

And click here to contact us by email if you’re interested in a similar campaign for your company.  We’d love to hear from you.

Image Credit: Coty & Clear Channel

This info is particularly useful for mobile shopping, and can include everything you’ve ever wanted to know about a product: from photos to price comparisons, mobile coupons, special deals, store locations, amazing campaigns and more — you can even make a purchase right from your phone!  Right now, the best example of LMM’s mobile search technology in action in the United States is Barnes & Noble’s bookstore app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Get it here.  More than one million people have downloaded the app since its release just a few months ago!  Due to the patents on our technology and our unprecedented 96% image matching rate, it is the most successful bookstore app ever created — check out the rave reviews on Apple’s iTunes website.  We have other amazing apps and campaigns across the globe in Japan, China, Canada and the UK — each of these uses our patented technology.  No other company in mobile search has been around longer — or has the patent portfolio we do — and we’re very proud of it.

To learn more about our patents and exactly how they work, please click here.

If you have any questions about our patents or our technology, please connect with us. We love to hear from partners, users and fans!

Image Credit: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

We see an increasing number of competitors in this sector — mostly companies attempting to use bar code scanners or some form of QR codes or other odd, unattractive symbols. The problem with every one of these is that no matter how clever the symbol, ultimately they are very ugly and they alter and ruin all the efforts put into brand creativity and advertising. They’re also completely unnecessary. Besides the fact that nearly all of these infringe upon our patents, our technology consistently achieves over 96% accuracy recognizing any naked image – without the need for adulterating symbols or embedded watermarks. Again and again, ours is proven the best choice for both retailers and consumers.   In Japan — where QR codes originated and are ubiquitous — we’re now constantly being approached by people telling us they no longer want to use them and much prefer the flexibility and results we can provide.

All of this has taken us to the point where we felt it time to start reaching out directly to consumers, as more and more of them are downloading our applications and using our technology every day. We’ve therefore added this blog into our site — and integrated Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed and Share This options — to better serve our customers and consumers. We’ll be using these social media outlets to keep the dialogue open and flowing in both directions — most importantly, to ensure we provide the best service we can. We believe every mobile phone should be a Discovery Device ™ and with your help and ideas we’ll continue creating, learning and growing our technology and our apps to answer your needs. I invite everyone to connect with us and let us know what we can do with our technologies to make your life better.

All the best,

dwm

President & CEO

Image Credit: Paul Rumohr, www.prpic.com