The number of mobile action codes, e.g., QR codes, Microsoft Tags and digital watermarks, rose significantly in the second quarter of 2012 in the top 100 U.S. magazines, according to Nellymoser, a mobile marketing and technology services company that released its latest Mobile Activation Code Study this week.

A total of 2200 codes were printed during the quarter, up from 1365 in the first quarter. This represents 61 percent growth, and is more than double the 1062 codes printed one year earlier in the first quarter 2011.

Four industries: beauty, home, health and automotive, account for 49 percent of all action codes in the most recent quarter. The study included national titles available on newsstands. Better Homes and Gardens, InStyle and Popular Mechanics topped the list with the most action codes per issue.

QR codes and Microsoft Tags continue to dominate the market, but the former has jumped ahead to more than an 80 percent market share, with the latter in second place with a 12 to 17 percent share. Digimarc watermarks, popular with designers for their ability to create custom branded icons, now lead the “other” category, having risen from five codes in all of 2011 to 96 codes in the first half of 2012. Continue reading...

The U.S. Postal Service is fighting for its life, and under government pressure to find new ways to decrease costs and create new business models that made delivery more efficient. Cue mobile. 

As part of the USPS 2012 mobile commerce and personalization promotion, it's offering a 2% discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards that include a 2D mobile barcode — not much, but it's a start. Now SpyderLynk is sweetening the deal by offering those same customers a 10% discount for using SnapTags as their 2D mobile barcode.Continue reading...

In yet another sign that Japanese auto brands aren’t just sitting on their hoods waiting for vehicle supplies to return to normal, Nissan has pioneered the use of Quick Response (QR) codes among auto retailers in the U.S. market.

The codes perform functions for Nissan, its dealers and products similar to the information and communication assistance they lend shoppers at the supermarkets, department-store chains  and other brands that quickly have flocked to using QR. Recently, Toyota disclosed its own innovative mobile-information apps using SpyderLynk's SnapTags.

Launched in June with the 2012 Nissan Altima and Sentra models, Nissan’s QR codes are found on individual window stickers of the vehicles along with standard equipment, options, mileage, price and other information that is there by law. Smartphone users can snap a photo of the code and access specific vehicle information such as key features, available accessories, incentive offers and even dealer inventories.

The program “puts important decision-making information at shoppers’ fingertips while on dealership lots, helping sales personnel make a more effective presentation, as well as providing customers with a ‘silent salesperson’ if they are shopping the lot after hours,” stated Jon Brancheau, vice president of marketing for Nissan North America. “It’s a true mass-market effort across all products and all Nissan dealerships nationwide.”Continue reading...

Toyota is often the follower that finally gets it right in its industry, so it’s interesting to see the Japanese auto brand staking out a pioneering position in a digital marketing method that is new to automakers.

With its new ToyoTag, a logo inside a ring powered by SpyderLynk's SnapTag technology, Toyota says that consumers can snap the image with their mobile phones (whether or not they’re smart phones) and access a whole array of brand and vehicle communications, from product brochures to safety tips.

Toyota joins a handful of other trailblazing brands in these SnapTag applications, including Coors Light, Coke, Bud Light and the Marines.Continue reading...

Coors Light is offering Super Bowl fans a way to get to the game through their mobile phones — and an interactive version of its logo.

The beer brand's "Snap. Send. Score" promotion, running through Feb. 6, encourages fans to take photos of SnapTag logos with a smartphone and send them in to have a chance at winning prizes, including a deluxe trip to the game.

They can be found on Coors Light and Coors Banquet packaging as well as billboards, online and in stores. The grand prize awards one winner and three friends roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations in north Texas, tickets to the game, a stadium tour, a picture holding the Lombardi Trophy and tickets to the Coors Light Super Bowl Party at Billy Bob’s Texas.

Two first prize winners will win a trip to north Texas, tickets to Super Bowl XLV, access to the Coors Light Super Bowl Party and more. Other prizes include a football signed by the Super Bowl XLV champions; autographed, game-used items such as end zone pylons, kicking tees and footballs; actual patches of game-used turf; official NFL and Super Bowl gear; flat-screen TVs; and NFLShop.com gift cards.Continue reading...