Is print RISING FROM THE DEAD?

Posted by JR Buchbinder on January 31 at 2:47 PM Marketing Vox dropped a little gold nugget in front of me today with their announcement regarding Google's new idea for their (poorly performing) print ad service.

Are they folding? Are they running back, tail between their legs, to the haikus of pay-per-click advertising and the dramatic mountains of Urchin-cum-Google Analytics? Of course they aren't. That's not Google.

So what they gonna do?
No - Google is now going to make print ads better. In a way that I think just might revolutionize the point of print ads. Basically, those who use Google Print Ads can now embed a little 2D bar code within their ad. Target audiences will be able to take a photo of this bar code using their cell phones or PDAs. The mobile device du juor will then bring them to a special mobile site that is based on the ad.

Brilliant?
You know it is.

America is catching up
This sort of cell phone camera recognition is huge in Japan. People make their own bar codes, post them at the karaoke bar or arcade, and anyone can snap a photo and receive information, be it a comment, a video, a sound, or points in a competition.

Here in the US, we haven't quite reached critical mass with this technology in advertisements. So many of our cell phones can't quite do it yet. But telling signs of interactive-formerly-non-interactive media are everywhere. National Geographic posters tell you to text a number to get information, a BBC News billboard in Times Square last year asked me to text my feelings on Darfur. I followed the instructions and watched as the billboard's count for "we should help" went up from 1078 to 1079.

The outcome
Only good can come of this. Suddenly, print ads will become more accountable. Impressions won't mean as much, when you can track the amount of users that snapped a shot of the bar code to get a buck off of their Jamba Juice Rooty Tooty Fruit Cold Blaster Smoothie (don't google that name, I made it up).

This is also bridging that terrible gap between the printed word and the world wide web. Printing a URL does not guarantee visitors. They may have to go home and recall the URL. Yes, they can browse to it on their phone, but seriously, who's going to put in all that effort (and all those key strokes?)

But, now, when all it takes is a flip, button, SNAP! Yeah, you'll see something happen here.

How could you say "rise from the dead" in the title, and make no zombie or vampire references?
Because I have consistency issues.

Really? Will this program be that good?
Yes. And if this fails, I will eat my hat. And have Gina (read her first Insight post here! Hi Gina!) tape it and put it up on YouTube. Topics: advertising, interactive        SHARE: