CQ News Blog » PURL’s

Connecting print to new media (AKA introducing Augmented Reality)

Dean — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:33 +0000

For a form of media that has been with us since the early origins of mankind, print is showing no signs of becoming out of fashion. In fact there are many fascinating trends that highlight print’s capability to adapt to new media.

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.

Use direct marketing to grow your business

Dean — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:01:38 +0000

Broadcasting and search are great ways to market, but what about direct marketing? Is it really dead or, as some people describe it, "Advertisings Ugly Step Sister"?

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!

CQ – Use Direct Marketing To Grow Your Business

View more documents from CQ.

Personalised Coffee Cups

Dean — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:23:27 +0000

Personalised print from a client database is a great way to get creative. Here’s an idea we came up with – personalised coffee cup sleeves!

Let your clients know you love them, ask them how they have they’re coffee and spring one of these on them!

For a bit more fun add in a PURL (personalised web address) to visit your website.

Design templates available from Dean dean@cq.co.nz

Dissatisfied with your email Marketing Results?

Kevin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:01:00 +0000

When it comes to marketing, small businesses can easily spend a lot of money, for little return. Be it magazine ads, mailers, radio, website or email marketing, response rates of 0-1% are common. Even when there’s no sales, we’re told to continue spending all this money for ‘branding’…

Step back and consider some alternatives. For example, underwear merchant Bare Necessities in the US recently tested coordinating a postcard campaign with email to a segment of its customer file and saw a significant increase in revenue from those who received both marketing messages.

According to David Wauters, director of marketing for Bare Necessities, the company saw a 15% lift in revenue (note that’s SALES, not just a response rate boost) from customers who received the direct mail postcard and the email, compared to the control group who received only the email.

Wauters has apparently stumbled on something that a lot of marketers talk about, but seldom do. A relative few marketers truly coordinate their email and print efforts, according to Jane Kaiser, president of online marketing consultancy Eclipse Direct Marketing. She said her clients consistently see lifts of between 15% and 25% when they send coordinated print and email campaigns.

But wait there’s more!

If you’re satisfied with a 15-25% improvement then a simple combined email and direct mail postcard is a no-brainer. After all, who wouldn’t be delighted with amazing results like this?

However sales improvements of 50% or more are now possible using PURLs. Here we take the above a step further. We simply add a unique webpage link to both the email and postcard. A great Video by small business marketing expert, David Frey, outlines this very exciting, simple concept.

Here at CQ, we’ve the expertise to build your own personalised landing page and direct mail piece to complement your own email campaign, or provide a complete purl webpage, email and variable print turnkey package. Note our PURL package has special features beyond that outlined in the video.

Best of all? It’s all remarkably easy, affordable and just perfect for any corporate, small business or community group – You heard it here first!