SnapTell Blog

SnapTell+Popular Science -- Best Of What's New

Hustle off to the newsstand and grab a copy of the December issue of Popular Science magazine, which features the 21st annual "Best of What's New" review. The magazine describes it as "a celebration of our wildest technological dreams" and spotlights dozens of "long awaited or completely unexpected, (and) equally amazing" recent scientific and engineering breakthroughs.

Even better: Popular Science used SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get solution to make the entire Best Of What's New section interactive -- just use your camera phone to snap a picture of any of the pages (see the magazine for specifics), send the image to [email protected] (AT&T, Verizon and Alltell users can send via shortcode 070707) -- and you'll get a spiffy digital image of a vintage Popular Science cover, an instant response from some of the Best Of What's New award-winning companies, and a chance to win a Garmin nüvi 500 GPS device.

SnapTell Explorer For iPhone - Tested

Educating Silicon has published an interesting review of Snaptell Explorer for the iPhone

Snipped from the post:

SnapTell just released an iPhone client for their visual search engine. A little sleuthing reveals that the index contains 2.5 million items - apparently most books, DVDs, CDs and game covers.  If the recognition rate is as high as it should be, that’s a pretty impressive achievement. In principle the service was already available via email/mms. In practice, an iPhone client changes the experience completely. Image search becomes the fastest way to get information about anything around you.

In a follow-up review of the app, Educating Silicon noted:

Almost all of books and CDs I had lying around were correctly recognised, despite being pretty obscure titles. With 2.5 million objects in their index, SnapTell can recognise just about any book, CD, DVD or game. Once the title is recognised, you get back a result page like this with a brief review and the option to buy it on Amazon, or search Google, Yahoo or Wikipedia. For music, there is a link to iTunes.

I spent a while “teasing”  the search engine with badly taken photos, and the recognition is very robust. It has no problems with blur, rotation, oblique views, background clutter or partial occlusion of the object.

SnapTell And Us Weekly

SnapTell is in glitzy company this week. Us Weekly, a celebrity and entertainment news magazine, has used SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform to mobilize select ads in its current issue.

Readers use their camera phones to Snap any of the interactive ads in the issue, Send the image to [email protected], will Get a chance to win a trip to attend an Us Weekly celebrity luncheon. Each Snap.Send.Get-enabled ad also offers readers free goodies -- including exclusive ringtones, and chances to win holiday gift baskets and gift certificates from leading retailers.

To find out more about SnapTell’s mobile marketing platform, and how it enables brand owners, marketers and publishers to easily mobilize existing advertising collateral, please email us and/or visit our website.

The Tao Of The GET -- Mobile Marketing Insight From SnapTell

Here at SnapTell we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what we call the GET -- the content that a brand offers to consumers as part of an interactive image-recognition based marketing campaign. Here’s what we’ve learned about the type of content that tends to spark a consumer’s interest, inspiring them to reach out to an advertiser and initiate a conversation.

The GET Has To Be Good
This seems painfully obvious, but it’s sometimes overlooked: if the GET isn’t appealing consumers won’t bother to connect. Conversely if the GET is interesting, amusing or unique, consumers will not only engage they’ll also likely share the GET with others and become evangelists for the brand.

Design The GET For The Lowest Common Denominator
There’s nothing more frustrating to an interested consumer than a GET that they can’t get. Tailor GETs to the broadest possible audience by making SMS, available on over 98% of the world’s phones, a standard initial response. While mobile delivery of video content is clearly the future it is not yet accessible to all users on all networks on all phones, so resist the temptation to offer video as the only GET option.

Offer Multiple Engagement Options In The GET
Targeting the GET to the lowest common denominator does not mean offering boring text-only content. For example The Weinstein Company’s recent full length feature film release of Morgan Spurlock’s “Where in the World is Osama Bin Linden?” asked consumers to snap a picture of the movie poster at the theater, in local newspaper print ads or from one of the thousands of flyers distributed in five major cities. Consumers then received multiple GET options including a simple short text synopsis of the movie with links to view the theater preview of the release, links to Yahoo movie reviews, and geo-specific content for local movie theater times with the option to purchase tickets via Fandango. In addition, every consumer who participated in the campaign was instantly entered into a sweepstakes in the local market. Over 40% of consumers who snapped a picture of the movie poster drilled multiple layers down to seek out more information about the content and the movie -- far better than the average .02% click through rates achieved by online banner ads.

SnapTell and My Life

SnapTell’s first European campaign has just gone live in “My Life” a German health-centered publication from the Burda publishing group. The magazine covers Sports and Fitness, Food and Entertainment, Beauty and Spa, and the environment.

Selected ads in the current issue of My Life 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. They will also have a chance to win one of 50 subscriptions to My Life magazine.

To find out more about SnapTell’s mobile marketing platform, and how it enables brand owners, marketers and publishers to easily mobilize existing advertising collateral, please email us and/or visit our website.

SnapTell Hits The Road With Harley Davidson

Harley-Davidson is launching its 2009 V-Rod Muscle bike with an innovative marketing campaign featuring American super model Marisa Miller and SnapTell’s Snap.Send.Get mobile marketing platform.

 

The campaign went live on October 13^th in magazines such as GQ, Esquire, Playboy, Complex, Road & Track and Trader, with ads featuring Miller reclining on a sleek, black V-Rod Muscle. Snap a picture of the ad with your camera phone, send the picture in an MMS to the number cited in the ad, and you get access to exclusive content from Harley Davidson.

 

The campaign was pre-launched on Oct. 6 on Harley-Davidson’s official YouTube channel, with a “making of” video that takes viewers behind the scenes at the Marisa Miller V-Rod Muscle photo shoot . Motorcycle bloggers and Harley-Davidson fans and friends on Facebook and MySpace were exclusively tipped off to the campaign. 

 

SnapTell is pleased to be part of this iconic brand's marketing campaign. For more information on the new V-Rod Muscle visit Harley Davidson's website.   To find out more about SnapTell’s Snap. Send. Get mobile marketing solution, please email us and/or visit our website.

 

SnapTell Explorer for the iPhone

The SnapTell Explorer for the iPhone is now available for download on the Apple App Store.

This free download, powered by SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get image recognition technology, gives camera phone users instant information on virtually any book, movie DVD, video game or music CD.

We all know you can’t judge a book by its cover, and the same goes for films, music, and games. But fret not, because SnapTell’s new Mobile Movie Explorer can help make sure that you never have buyer’s remorse again -- just snap the picture, send it to SnapTell, and you’ll get comprehensive information and reviews for the product you’re interested in right on your iPhone.

Don't own an iPhone? No problem. You can access the same information on virtually any camera phone, just snap a picture and send it via MMS to [email protected] or use the shortcode SNAPIT (762748).

Snap, Send, Get ... Score!

Are you ready for some …. great giveaways?

ESPN The Magazine partnered with SnapTell to create an interactive magazine packed full of sports-themed free rewards. To reap the bounty readers simply explore the pages of the ESPN The Magazine’s NFL Preview Issue (September 2008), use their camera phones to snap a picture of ads that offer the rewards they are interested in, send the picture to SnapTell via MMS, and they'll get their goodies immediately.

The rewards offered include:

SportsCenter ringtone
Breaking sports news, scoring and fantasy team alerts
NFL Live ringtone
Vodka Recipe from Absolut Los Angeles
Free standard shipping on purchases
College Football ringtone
Free Can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup
Converse One Star Ringtone

Plus, every reader who snaps and sends a picture of any SnapTell-activated ad in the NFL Preview Issue is automatically has a chance to win a trip for two to Tampa, Florida for the ESPN The Magazine Next ’09 Big Weekend Event, starting Friday, January 30 2009.

Brands participating include Progressive, Sony, GMC Sierra, Absolut Los Angeles, Under Armour, Toyota, Wolverine, Campbell’s, Converse, Target, HBO, Mobil, and Champs.

Advertisers get significant benefits as well, including real-time, personalized, interactive on-demand brand communication with their target audience and additional exposure in the magazine.

To find out more about SnapTell’s mobile marketing platform, and how it enables brand owners, marketers and publishers to easily mobilize existing advertising collateral, please email us and/or visit our website.

 

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.