Mobile doesn't just connect us with other people, it connects us with the world around us. Through 2D barcodes, SMS, and location-based services, we can interact with objects and places through our mobile phones. For marketers, these "mobile paths" are a way to blend digital and print campaigns—paths can lead to more product information, multimedia content, surveys, sweepstakes, social media sites, personalized coupons, etc. Consumer exposure to these types of interaction have predominately been through print and outdoor media, but increasingly we see that they are making their way to TV.
According to the New York Times
From the comfort of their sofas, mobile-phone users can scan a bar code embedded in commercials on certain evening shows on Bravo and instantly obtain additional information about a product and a discount to buy it.
When the cellphone is pointed at the on-screen bar code, the user is linked to a complete closet-baring episode, which can run as long as five minutes, and offered a $30 discount on a $150 purchase at bluefly.com, which sells designer and other branded clothing and accessories.
Examples of television based 2D barcodes are rare. They include a placement for HBO's True Blood during the Lost finale and a promotion for a Weather Channel app using an on-air QR code. Both were experimental.
Are 2D barcodes really the best way to activate time-based media? Do users want to scramble to open their reader app then quickly position themselves in front of the TV? Were there a majority vote, we're guessing not. There are alternatives.
How about Google? According to Nielsen, three-quarters of adults already watch television while using the web. Perhaps prompting people to simply type in a URL would be a more natural solution.
Another (more interesting) alternative uses the mobile phone’s microphone in lieu of the camera. Implementing audio recognition, mobile phones can react to sounds -- television can be programmed to trigger companion content. Shazam, an app with over 75 million users, has been experimenting with a service called SARA, partnering with brands like Dockers to annotate and extend TV to the third screen. Its iPad app may be built for identifying music, but it is also perfectly positioned as this sort of companion.
ABC recently released an iPad app for My Generation. Like Shazam, it recognizes audio cues and is able to sync up with the show to pull up polls, trivia, and games. Social viewing services like Miso, Starling, and Tunerfish are also creating an annotated TV experience but through a different sort of mobile path. They use the declaration of presence, or check-in, to activate related content and interaction.
This article was originally published on mobilebehavior.com