Call me an old cynic but isn’t Valentine’s Day merely an elaborate ploy by greetings card manufacturers and flower companies to rake in a few extra pounds? It was with this romantic notion in mind that I decided to break from the convention of spending upwards of £10 on a card, flowers and chocolates and instead relied on this year’s marketing buzz phrase to deliver heart-felt greetings to my nearest and dearest – for free!
“Augmented reality” has been around for a couple of years but in 2010 it’s tipped to top the agenda for marketers as increasing numbers of them get to grips with the benefits that the technology offers. I put AR to good use with my no-budget Valentine’s offering, which was made possible thanks to those good folk at QReateAndTrack.
As part of a clever marketing push the company was offering ‘romantics’ the opportunity to create a free QR code – a kind of two-dimensional barcode. On a dedicated webpage you could choose from a range of different messages, from “I love you” through to “will you be my Valentine?” Then you could select a background – a simple border made from hearts or a cute bear carrying a heart. Once you’d completed the process the QR code was emailed out to you so that you could either print it off and hand it to your Valentine or email a Jpeg version.
All you needed to read the message of love was the right bit of software – the free ‘QR App’ for the iPhone does the trick nicely. Simply hover the phone over the QR code and up pops an envelope saying “I love you” or whatever the chosen message might be. Blindingly simple but incredibly effective.
With people becoming more and more attached to their smart phones and with sales of this type of phone expected to sky-rocket over the coming years, putting a QR code on business cards, flyers, billboards or signs might well help to increase the success of these pieces. Imagine being able to read the QR code on a movie poster that shows you a trailer of the film being advertised or maybe that sports drink you love so much is brought to life by the brand ambassador showcasing his or her sporting prowess on a short video clip.
This is just another example of how different processes and technologies are being blended to maximise impact. Whether it’s print driving traffic to a website or initiatives like Fespa’s print specifying showcase Sensations, www.fespasensations.com which launched to great acclaim. This bulky tome showed printers and print buyers how to stimulate the senses with the sensational effects that can be achieved through mixing screen printing with embellishments such as special inks or varnishes.
Blending can take the best of two or more different technologies or processes and magnify the effect. I leave you with this incredibly creative example of marketing a car used by Honda. Print, linked to SMS messaging, linked to some clever wizardry behind the scenes brought the company’s product to life in a memorable manner, just as AR can, but the latter can do it much more cheaply – especially when it comes to Valentine’s Day.
