NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

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--->>Mobile Barcode Campaign Only Weeks Away<<----
November 03, 2006

Neomedia has confirmed to Mobile Marketing Magazine that a major brand will run a mobile campaign in the UK using its 'Qode' technology, which fastracks users to the mobile Internet via mobile and conventional barcodes or keywords, before the end of the year Neomedia Business Development Director Kimm Connett told Mobile Marketing:

"You will start seeing this in the general domain before the end of the year. We are talking about best-in-class breeds of media companies and brands who are looking at a targeted launch that will give them 'first-user bragging rights' about being associated with this technology."

Qode works on the majority of Symbian Series 60 web-enabled handsets. Users can download the application by typing 'get.qode.com' into their handset. Once the application is on the handset, there are three ways to quickly access mobile Internet sites. The first is by scanning a barcode printed on a pack or poster, in a newspaper or magazine, or even displayed on an LCD TV screen. The second is by entering a keyword into the application. Neomedia plans to charge brands to register their brand name as a keyword which, when entered into the Qode keyword window, would take the user directly to the brand's mobile Internet site. The third way is by scanning the regular barcode on a pack. In this scenario, the barcode would have some intelligence associated with it, in order to take the user to the associated mobile Internet site.

"The planning directors in agencies of all types have really 'got' this technology now" says Connett. "The major challenge now is to educate the consumer. We need key brands in key sectors to do this."

These sectors, says Connett, include media, automotive, travel, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), gaming and financial services. Connett says he is confident the initial campaign will help to kickstart the process of getting the technology out in the marketplace, which he describes as "similar to delivering a baby elephant."

Connett points to the experience in Japan, where from a standing start two and a half years ago, there are now around 30 million consumers interacting with QR (Quick Response) mobile barcodes via their handsets, and where consumers spray barcodes on to their bodies as personal tattoos so that other consumers can interact with their mobile Internet sites.

"The possibilities are almost endless" says Connett. "If you take something like gaming, you could have a dedicated barcode, keyword and mobile Internet site for individual racehorses, that fans of the horse could clickthrough to in order to see its current form and look at footage of its last race."

Stay tuned for more news of the campaign as we have it.

November 03, 2006 in Front Page, News | Permalink
http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2006/11/mobile_barcode_.html