Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

 

We’ve written about aroma marketing before and we’re big fans of innovations in mobile marketing - so what better way than to combine the two and cover NTT DoCoMo’s new fragrance cartridge equipped devices that interact with cellphones via IR and emit signature scents.

The company hopes to partner with mobile content providers so that horoscopes the weather report,  web video, and more come paired with signature scents.  The platform is still in pilot stage, and we’re not sure what user reaction will fair or how accurate the scents are - still its exciting to see new innovations that aim to tie the senses.

From an outdoor media company’s perspective - the fragrance systems could be installed in transit shelters to create a fuller sensory experience.  Imagine waiting for the bus and smelling freshly baked cookies triggered by a coupon on your cellphone…

Read the NTT Communications Press Release “NTT Com to Pilot Test Mobile Fragrance Communication Service” for more information.

 

From tunnel advertising to mobile marketing - Singaporean media agency Zenith Shares their thoughts on some new innovations in advertising (several of which include Aap!Global’s).

Read the article

Aap!Global Presented @ Pecha-Kucha, San Francisco August 29th!

Aap!Global’s Robert Patterson presented on the intersection between grafitti and advertising - focusing on the fun interplay between the new and the competition they hold for impression and impact.

Update
We wanted to give credit to Street Art Photographer Spencer Eaken for the following photos used in our presentation:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/true2death/246285146/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/true2death/248176548/

Many thanks Spencer.

A few days ago we wrote about the rather tasteless, but effective rural marketing exploit in the UK of a painted field with a corporate logo and URL.

A German artist has mowed a large 160 meter square Semacode (data matrix code) cut in a field in Germany.

From the project website: “A Semacode measuring 160 x 160 meters was mown into a wheat field near the town of Ilmenau in the Land Thuringia. The code consists of 18 x 18 bright and dark squares producing decoded the phrase “Hello, world!â€?.The project was realized in May 2006 and photographs were taken of it during a picture flight in the following month.”

Cute- the message when read by a semacode or data matrix reader blurts “Hello! World!”

The young German quotes : ” With “Hello, world!â€? the code serves as a kind of branding of a digital culture whose omnipresence is obvious, yet whose modes of action are unknown in wide parts of society.”

See more @

Project Website

Flickr Series

Via [Ars Technica]

RFID-enabled posters have been installed at the JR Shinjuku Station of Tokyo adding yet another medium of interaction between static outdoor media and cell phone equipped users. These “Suipo” short for “Suica + Poster,” billboards interact with passengers when passengers “swipe” their RFID tickets (SUICA cards) at the posters. The posters then parse relevant information, prizes, coupons and ads to user cell phones in the same fashion as QR, Bluetooth or other mobile marketing communication formats. ”

RFID readers located between the posters. First time users need to associate their RFID ticket IDs with their mobile phone email addresses, using a nearby kiosk terminal.

What’s hot is how well the outdoor prints are directing users to interact with the Suipo points.
What’s not is that users must first initialize their cell phone with Suipa readers.

Very frustrating, but from early reports - there is a high rate of adoption.  Compared to QR Codes and Bluetooth - swiping your phone is very, very easy and comfortable.
All in all - more great stuff for bored commuters waiting.

Must Read Article on Suipo/Suica Posters
” ãƒ?スター＋Suica＋æ?ºå¸¯ã?§é§…ナカ広告ã?¯ã?©ã?†å¤‰ã‚?る？——SuiPo担当者ã?«è?žã??”

Learn more @ the Suipo/Suica website

Learn more about Jeki - the company building the RFID units

Oh yes - you do want to buy Peach John…

Hakuhodo DY Group i-Business Center and IT DeSign have developed the “movie QR code,� a new proto-type of the popular QR code that incorporates moving video into its design.

QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode that has grown popular in Japan in recent years, because it provides a simple, automated way for users to enter data into their mobile phones. By using mobile phones to scan QR code that appears in an outdoor advertisement, for example, users may be directed to a website containing more detailed product information. [read about our work using QR Codes and other mobile technologies in out of home media]

The problem with printed QR Codes is their chaotic barcode like arrangement.  IT DeSign recently developed the “Design QR,� which incorporates static images of logos, characters or photos into the code. Movie QR takes pushes the idea forward with incorporation of moving images into the design.  Movie QR Codes are optimized for use on video screens and will allow potential scanners to interact more effeciently with the codes.

There is great potential for this type of technology for media clips. A Coke Commercial could end with a QR code snap inviting users to scan the code and be taken to special download coupon areas etc.

As the blog Pink Tentacle adds this type of thing is already happending > “A commercial video containing a mock QR movie code has been circulating the web for a while. The video, called “Kung Fu High School Girlsâ€? (Kanfuu Joshi-kousei), begins with two high school girls talking about Black Jack (the famous manga character). Things get nasty when the girls disagree about whether Black Jack is a foreigner or Japanese, and a full-on kung fu battle ensues. After a while, a boy wearing a giant QR code headpiece arrives on his bicycle and urges the girls to stop. By scanning his face, he explains, they can find the answer to their question and settle their dispute. (This is a cue for the viewer to scan the computer screen with a cellphone QR code reader.)”

For those with QR Code readers - try it out on the following clip.

Pepsi has started its largest ever Bluetooth based marketing campaign, allowing people to download video clips to their mobile phone from poster adverts, bus kiosks and other outdoor media locations.

The campaign to deliver viral video clips, which went live on April 2nd, runs for two months in outdoor advertising locations consisting of bus shelters in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Denver and Orange County, and pay phone kiosks in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Each of the media networks has integrated Qwikker’s Bluetooth content distribution technology into their street furniture. Any consumer with a Bluetooth enabled phone can download free video clips from a Pepsi Smash advertisement. The viral video clips being distributed are five “Pass The Mic” clips of freestyle hip hop, provided by Yahoo! Music.

In the first week of the Pepsi campaign, opt-in rates to download content were reported to be 27% across the network.

Impressive.

Other Examples of Bluetooth Marketing Done Right:

1.Casino Royale does mobile content via bluetooth

2. Landrover tires Bluetooth Marketing

Why We Think Bluetooth Marketing Works!

• There are potential great uses of this technology for free content downloads
• Targets early adopters and the tech-inclined.

Where we think there are problems and challenges!

• BlueTooth Assaults and Messages almost always feel like spam
• Bluetooth messaging platforms don’t have memory - example - They will blast you a message even if you have recieved it already. Annoying.
• Users Don’t always have their bluetooth messages turned on but this can be solved with visual cues to ask users to opt-in.
• Slow Data Transmission Rates and distance issues. Most proximity servers only work at short distance
• Eventually WiMax or Wifi will replace Bluetooth for proximity marketing
• Complicated and cumbersome demands on users:

Step 1. Turn on bluetooth or infra-red
Step 2. Change your phone’s name to XXX
Step 3. Point your phone at the box and wait for up to a minute to receive a message
Step 4. Get content.
Step 5. Repeat and start again

Where to go for the next step!

While there are a variety of full services solutions (Hypertag, Proxmity etc). We recommend going open source with

Consola - the Open Source BlueTooth Proximity Distribution Server

Very easy to use and free! > http://www.consola.org/consola.html

We’ve used Consola as base of our Aap!Mobile BlueTooth Marketing Platform with great results.

We used server our proximity server in conjunction with an Aap!Stripes Campaign. Aap!Mobile’s Bluetooth proximity server sent free 10% discount coupons to cell phone users with Bluetooth enabled cell phones at coffee locations.

Read more about our efforts combining mobile marketing with alternative out of home media.