SnapTell Blog

Back By Popular Demand: SnapTell+Rolling Stone

SnapTell-activated ads are returning to the pages of Rolling Stone, after our successful debut in the magazine last May.

Selected ads in Rolling Stone issue #1062, now on newsstands, have been made interactive with  SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform. Readers can look for the SnapTell logo in ads throughout the issue, and then use their camera phones to Snap a picture of the ads that interest them, Send the picture to SnapTell, and Get special promotional offers and/or content such as:

A chance to win a Pulsar watch
Exclusive wallpaper or video clip from Sci Fi
A killer pick-up line from Pentel
Free Deep Cleaning Shampoo sample from Gillette
A chance to win a $50 voucher from Greyhound
Exclusive ringtone from Energizer ® Advanced Lithium

But wait; there’s more! Everyone who snaps and sends a picture of any of the SnapTell-enabled ads in the magazine is also automatically entered to win a trip to an upcoming Rolling Stone Live concert.

Readers of Rolling Stone aren't the only ones to benefit of course. SnapTell's "Snap.Send.Get" mobile marking solution transforms static print ads -- or any existing marketing collateral -- into a measurable, two-way communication tool for brand owners. For more information on our Snap.Send. Get mobile marketing platform, please visit our website or email us.

SnapTell Goes Storm Chasing

Attention adrenaline addicts: the Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers show will be returning to a TV near you in mid-October! The coming season features new high-tech tricked-out vehicles, new teams and new strategies for delving into the heart of Mother Nature’s most intense experiences without getting your face and/or assorted appendages ripped off in the process.

And to soothe your Storm Chaser needs until the new season premiers on October 19th (Sundays at 10 p.m), pick up a copy of Wired Magazine’s October issue (on sale now). There’s a great ad from Discovery Channel with information on one of the coolest Storm Chaser trucks, a dictionary of weird weather terms (do you know what a “Wedge” is? Animal Precipitation? Anvil Zits? If not, you will after you read the insert).

And there’s also a terrific bonus offer that will totally blow you away: Snap a picture of the ad using your phone’s camera, Send it in an MMS to [email protected], and you’ll almost instantly Get an exclusive Storm Chasers clip on your mobile phone.

The Discovery channel used SnapTell’s Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform to power their Storm Chaser clip offering. Snap.Send.Get can turn any image associated with a brand into a dynamic mobile marketing campaign. 100% permission-based, Snaptell’s Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing solution enables brand owners and retailers to communicate directly with consumers, within seconds of the consumer's request for information. For more information, please email SnapTell.

SnapTell And Martha Stewart -- It's A Good Thing!

SnapTell is proud to announce that the Winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings will be the first women's magazine to feature interactive advertisements throughout the publication, using SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform.

The issue will be available on newsstands December 29, 2008. Readers will be able to Snap a picture using their camera phones of any mobilized advertisement, Send the picture to SnapTell via MMS, and instantly Get content from the selected advertiser. Content offerings can include coupons, video or photos, website links or product information.

Martha Stewart Weddings is the top selling bridal magazine on newsstands, providing brides with help and inspiration in selecting the perfect dress, planning the perfect wedding and honeymoon and celebrating their new lives, all with impeccable style and creativity.

SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get works with virtually all camera phones, does not require the consumer to download any special software and is 100% opt-in. Advertisers can take advantage of the comprehensive reporting features to track the success of their campaigns and tailor their ads to meet consumer interests.

"We are committed to delivering multiple ways for our advertisers to build a relationship with our affluent brides," said Amy Wilkins, SVP, Publisher, Martha Stewart Weddings. "SnapTell's ease of use and simplicity will allow all of our brides to take advantage of this opportunity."

"Our new technology will allow Martha Stewart Weddings to provide their advertisers a stronger ability to interact with their highly sought after reader. To have a publication such as Martha Stewart Weddings using our technology is a real privilege," said Gautam Bhargava, CEO and founder of SnapTell."The mobile industry is poised for growth and SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get solution is allowing publications of all sizes and industries to really engage their readers and drive brand recognition for the advertisers."

For more information on SnapTell's end-to-end image recognition-based mobile marketing solution please visit our website or email us.

Request-Based Mobile Marketing

The Los Angeles Times ran an article yesterday on a new mobile marketing study researching whether people were comfortable receiving ads on their mobile phones.

The study, conducted by Local Mobile Search (an advisory service of Opus Research) states that about 43% of people interviewed were amenable to receiving "offers or deals" on their phones, but only if they could select which merchants send them offers.

This shows a great deal of possibility around mobile advertising," said Greg Sterling, a senior analyst with Local Mobile Search. "A lot of surveys have been done that show that people are just not really interested in mobile advertising. But if you give people assurances that they have some measure of control, then they become much more interested.

"We're at a tipping point. The best days for mobile ads are in front of us." Advertising has to be relevant, meaningful and creative, Sterling  said. If it gives people something of value to them, he said, they're not opposed to it.

It’s not hard to grasp why permission-based mobile marketing is the way to go for a number of reasons, most important among them that you run no risk of infuriating a potential customer by stuffing their mobile phone full of unsolicited ads.

SnapTell’s Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform takes the idea of permission-based marketing one step further and makes it request-based, people see only the marketing content that they implicitly ask to receive.

GQ+Snap.Send.Get

SnapTell is in stylish company this month, GQ magazine is using our Snap. Send. Get mobile marketing platform to offer readers a free sample of Gillette® Clinical Strength Antiperspirant.

Readers can snap a picture of the Gillette® Clinical Strength Antiperspirant ad on page 303 of GQ's September 2008 issue with their camera phones, then send the picture to 707070* from their mobile phones to receive a sample of this clinically proven antiperspirant. If you don't happen to have a copy of the magazine handy, check out GQ's Connect site.

SnapTell’s Snap.Send.Get mobilizes existing marketing collateral, turning any image associated with a brand into a dynamic mobile marketing campaign. 100% permission-based, Snaptell’s Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing solution enables brand owners and retailers to communicate directly with consumers, within seconds of the consumer's request for information. For more information, please email [email protected].

Worth More Than A Thousand Words

IPG's Interpublic Media Lab focuses on analyzing (and, as they say, "rigorously testing") emerging technology and discovering the ways it can best be leveraged by brands. In a post on the Lab's blog about Men’s Health magazine's recent use of SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform, Michael Ball wrote:

In Japan, using your cameraphone to engage with advertising is old hat. They have been placing quick response codes (QR) in their out-of-home and print pieces for a few years now–which are basically barcode-looking things that can hold a ton of information.

But the U.S. is now in a position to potentially leapfrog this technology altogether, and go straight to snapping a shot of the very thing you want to know more about.

Michael Ball went on to raise some interesting points:

Almost two-thirds of all U.S. mobile subscribers have cameraphones–and the mélange of dog and child wallpapers show we certainly love using them–so the reach and the behavior are there. What this means for your print, out-of-home, radio, and even broadcast campaigns, then, is that it’s time to start thinking about how you can layer in mobile as an engagement tool.

Nobody’s saying you abandon your URL call-to-action. But if a potential customer is sitting in a doctor’s office with a magazine, odds are they’re going to forget your ad the second they get called in for that tetanus shot. But if there’s a mechanism to immediately opt-in via mobile, especially in a fun and engaging way, then you’ve captured a qualified lead–while they’re out in the world.

That’s worth more than a thousand words.