Therefore Volkswagen created a phone app for readers of the print ad to download, so they could try it out for themselves, using the print ad to test drive.

Given the limited percentage of the NZ population with smart phones, do you think this would work in NZ?

The QR Codes were assembled into the shapes of animals that live hidden in the city and posted all over the streets of Hong Kong.

Scanning the codes in the animals allowed users to read more information about a band and hear their music. They could also purchase the songs directly as well as share them on social media.

The campaign was considered a success by the volume of sharing on blogs and social networks and the fact that more than half of the 14 bands sold out their albums within the first week.

The video below shows elements of the campaign with an English commentary, starting at the 30sec mark.

Marketers and technology innovators have done some very interesting examples of AR for the home market, using symbols printed locally which are then placed in front of your PC’s web camera.

AR is now also being developed for retail displays and mobile phones.

Here are some quick examples from these three AR forums:

AR @ home

Magazine publishers have already started using AR to enhance their readers’ experience, albeit to mixed reviews. Magazines have included Esquire, Popular Science and USA Today (whose back cover featured a Harry Potter Augmented Reality map).

AR enabled locations

Lego installed AR retail kiosks in all of their LEGO brand stores worldwide. This let their consumers reveal a virtually built-up and fully animated LEGO product by holding the package up to the DIGITAL BOX.

AR in your pocket

AR applications are being written for the iPhone, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms.

Their uses have involved product promotions, educational information, outdoor advertising and location based services.

FAQ’s

Metaio, a company that develops AR projects for the European market shared this information in a webinar last week:

• Some AR promotions require the home PC user to download a specific program, install it and then run it to get their AR experience. This is too much to ask of your @ home market.
• The best way to promote AR for the home market is to make sure your AR application makes use of the existing Adobe Flash and Shockwave platforms prevalent in over 96% of all PC’s.
• Allow a 4 – 6 week time line for the software development of your AR promotion. This is dependant on the complexity of the job though.
• Currently allow a budget with a starting price of around US$50,000.

I would expect this price to drop as technology improves and AR becomes more readily available.

Digital print can connect to the world wide web with PURLS

Print can connect to mobile phones through TXT or SMS numbers and QR Codes

Now print can connect to your computer or mobile phone using a web or phone cam to create Augmented Reality

A “marker” on a printed page can be “read” by a webcam-enabled personal computer a bit like a barcode. A three-dimensional virtual object appears on the screen, suspended like a hologram over the image of the page.

Bring the square to life

1 If you have a computer with a webcam and Adobe Flash 9 or higher installed (and internet connection), click here. Your camera may work straight away. If so, skip to point 4.

2 Right-click (or Ctrl-click for Macs) on the large black square and select Settings.

3 Select the webcam tab and choose your camera from the list (if that does not work, try another from the list).

4 Show the camera the large black square in Friday’s Financial Times (or click here to print out the square). Adjust angle and distance until your screen displays a three-dimensional “augmented” image.

Car manufacturers such as BMW and Toyota have used the technique to show off their latest models. Paramount Pictures, the film distributor, used 3D graphics to publicise Transformers 2 and Star Trek.

On November 9th, Esquire Magazine is dedicating an entire issue to augmented reality http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality-coming-soon

As an aside, not everyone is excited by Esquires decision, as stated by BoSacks at PrintCEO.com http://printceo.com/2009/10/esquire-looks-to-energize-print

Now Jonas Jager from Toxin has taken augmented reality from an oh-cute! status to holy-frack-that’s-cool position. His business card will make the owner appear like a 3D hologram, displaying Twitter information in real time, plus all kinds of cool stuff.

Note the QR Code on his business card alongside the AR Marker.

Click on the picture to view the video.

Augmented Business Card from jonas on Vimeo.

Have a look at how marketing has dramatically changed over the last few years, and how a well planned direct marketing campaign can produce extremely good responses, profit and return on investment!

Below are handy marketing calculators to help determine if your last email or direct marketing campaign made a profit! It helps set some realistic expectations and guidelines on where you should invest your efforts…

Direct Mail ROI Calculator	Email Marketing ROI Calculator

Good ROIs come from a three-fold approach. Good offer, compelling message and qualified, segmented database.

But adopting this new strategy brings many new challenges:

1. Most clients have not collected the right data, or any data, on their customers, and if they have it, they are reluctant to share it.
2. Companies that have successfully produced programs using new bells and whistles are not sharing their results for fear that their competition will learn how to catch up to them.
3. A majority of creative content providers (writers and designers at the agencies) are totally without any understanding of or how to write and design for variable, versioned pitches, let alone Web-print-to-Web programs, or database mining.
4. There is the commoditisation in the products offered by a majority of print providers, and how it affects content providers, like creative firms.

(N.B. Above list derived from an amazing article by Harvey Hirsch)

Although challenging, none of these issues are insurmountable. The blueprint for success, although not widely known, is there and well proven. And like all successful marketing or advertising campaigns, expert planning and execution is the key.

Show me the money!

Certainly in our tight economy, the financial incentives to improve business results is strong. The question here is why continue using a largely ineffective, unprofitable marketing and advertising model, when a better, more cost-effective one can provide many times higher sales results?

This is because most online as well as traditional advertising or mailing campaigns treat everyone the same. It’s been referred to as the ’spray and hope’ system. These [often expensive] campaigns are relevant only to a few…

The secret to high response marketing lies in your customer database – It tells us WHO we should communicate with, HOW we communicate, and with WHAT offer.

Data mining helps you find a subset of your customers that are most likely to react/respond to your marketing campaigns. By targeting ONLY those likely to respond, you achieve about the same response/sales at a fraction of the cost!

But the problem with databases is that they’re inevitably in a mess. Companies are lucky to have one that has accurate names and postal addresses, let alone other specific details like the customers email address, birth date, product or service preferences and most importantly, previous buying patterns.