SnapTell Blog

TechCrunch Reviews SnapTell Explorer

TechCrunch has this to say about our iPhone SnapTell Explorer app:

If you have an iPhone, you’ll probably want to check out SnapTell Explorer, a free application now available on the App Store. The premise is simple: take a photo of the cover of any CD, DVD, book, or video game, and the application will automatically identify the product and find ratings and pricing information online.

I was skeptical when I first saw the app - the iPhone has had difficulty with image processing for barcodes, and most image recognitions systems I’ve tried on other platforms have been iffy at best. But SnapTell just works. Every time.

The app correctly identified just about everything I threw at it: Xbox games, Pocketbook O’Reilly manuals, The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom, Kurt Vonegut novels, and a number of more obscure books (yes, it worked on The Twinkies Cookbook). It even managed to ID a copy of Civilization 4, despite the fact that it was covered in obnoxious price tags and stickers. I actually tried to mess it up by taking photos in poor lighting and odd angles, but the app still stayed nearly flawless. No, it doesn’t have everything - I managed to stump it on a book about Danish Grammar - but it will do just fine for any trip to a retail store.

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's Explorer for the iPhone Reviews

We're getting some great reviews from bloggers on our newly released free iPhone app -- SnapTell's Explorer for the iPhone.

AppVee posted a video review on YouTube:

2 Cents posted this review:

I am an iPhone Apps junkie.  I download the things on a whim, impressed by the capabilities, only to discover weeks later that they have almost no practical application what so ever.  However, I happened upon one today, that just might prove useful.

SnapTell is a free iPhone app that… Well here’s the description:

Snap a picture of the cover of any Book, DVD, CD, or Video game and within seconds see a rating, description and links to Amazon, Wikipedia, IMDb and more.  If you like the item, click on a link to buy it right away.

CogDogBlog reviewed the app, and added some interesting thoughts on image recognition app use in educational/museum settings:

I’ve been playing a little with the QRCode readers like NeoReader on the iPhone, especially in Japan, where there where QR codes in the newspaper, on stores, on public signs, but its a challenge because you have to get a square on framed shot, it’s hard to get a good photos of the small ones. It takes too much effort.

So I gave SnapTell a quick test last night, taking a picture of a paperback that has been traveling with me, so its front page is curled and torn, and I took this photo under room light, what I would call non-optimal photo conditions. So I took the image in the SnapTell app, clicked “use photo” and within 5 seconds it correctly identified it. 100% correct as Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry. More than linking to Amazon, it ferrets a relevant link in Wikipedia to the author plus a link to a preset Google search (and Yahoo) for more information.

Thanks, everyone! And if you haven't tried SnapTell's Explorer for the iPhone yet you can download it for free here, from the app store.

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.

Mobile Marketing Around the Web

• Mediabistro.com has launched three new blogs: MobileMarketingToday.Com, MobileDevicesToday.com and MobileAppsToday.com, which join Media Bisto's MobileContentToday.com blog. Mobile Marketing Today looks like it will be a great place to keep up with the good, the bad and the just plain odd in the mobile marketing world.

• We're wondering why Ralph Lauren is making its customers download software and scan barcodes to "quickly" access the brand's new mobile shopping site -- Lauren figures that people will happily "use their phone to scan barcodes on ads in magazines, and even in store windows," according to an article in Pocket Lint. SnapTell's Snap.Send.Get could have effortlessly whisked customers to the Lauren site, all they'd need to do is snap pictures of the products in question. Our solution works on any phone, and requires no software download, no scanning of barcodes, no adding ugly barcodes to ads and window displays.

• AT&T wants mobile app developers in New England to create the Next Great Mobile Application, in what the company is describing as "a high-tech version of 'American Idol. The grand prize winner gets $10,000 in cash and a slot on the AT&T devCentral Web site, plus the application will be promoted in all AT&T-owned stores in New England. National versions of the Fast-Pitch program have resulted in such apps as Ascendo Fitness, My Local TV News Over Wireless and Mobile Comic Books by uclick, this is AT&T's first regional challenge. Better move fast, the contest ends September 30th -- see the entry information here.

 

Mobile Marketing - getting from here to there

RCR Wireless News has an opinion piece by Louis Gump, VP Mobile, The Weather Channel Interactive, on the state of mobile advertising. Gump cites the sort of stats that tend to be front and center in such pieces  -- JupiterResearch report predicted that mobile marketing in the U.S. alone will grow to $2.2 billion in 2012, up from $708 million in 2007 -- but moves quickly to the broader and more interesting question of where exactly the industry is today; how do we get there from here?

 

For some answers to that question Gump turned to INmobile, an online community of mobile executives. Snipped from Gump’s piece:

We posed the question where is mobile advertising on its growth curve? The majority of responses indicate that it is still early, but that the growth has begun to be noticeable. Specifically, 54% of respondents say that mobile marketing is an innovative tactic with occasional business impact. Of the rest, 38% say we are in early experimentation only, while 6% feel that it is now a significant platform for leading marketers and 2% say that it is an established part of the marketing mix.

 

There was a broad recognition that some big brands are using mobile to their advantage. However, the rationale for those who feel that we are in the earlier stages believe that many companies have not yet added a line item for mobile in their marketing budgets; the common definition of mobile advertising is broad; and many people are still hungry for metrics.

 

 

The MMA International Journal of Mobile Marketing

The Mobile Marketing Association has just published the fifth issue of the MMA International Journal of Mobile Marketing (MMA-IJMM), an educational resource created by the MMA Academic Outreach Committee.

Designed to provide information on the mobile channel and its use for marketing, it includes 10 articles from academics, industry experts, thought leaders and global contributors.

This fifth installment of the Journal focuses on the development of a better understanding of the who, how and why of mobile marketing.

Featured articles include:

• A Five Point Measurement Framework for Mobile Advertising Understanding
• Implementing Mobile Social Advertising
• Breaking Free from ‘Dotcom’ Thinking in a Mobile World
• Mobile Marketing: From Marketing Strategy to Mobile Marketing Campaign Implementation
• Mobile Research in Marketing: Design and Implementation Issues

The MMA-IJMM is published twice a year, you can subscribe or purchase single issues through the MMA website.

Best Practices For Mobile Marketing Paper

New Media is offering a free paper (registration required) on Best Practices for Mobile Marketing.

The paper's central idea that “the results of traditional marketing methods are rapidly dwindling” and brand owners need to get into mobile marketing now to keep their message front and center.

"Regardless of whether your audience fits into the B2B or B2C category, or both, we as a global audience are becoming numb to the outpouring of pithy broadcasts, online intrusions, inundation of email spam and barrage of generation-specific print advertising campaigns. It has also become obvious that there is one thing that we all – Baby Boomers, Generation Y, Generation X and Generation Z’ers alike – have in common. We don’t leave home without our mobile phone! It’s become our identity. The type of phone people carry, the carrier they subscribe to and the services they use – reflect who they are.

A 2006 Nielson study showed that over 144 million people in the U.S. (85%) ages 13-54 own cell phones. It’s over 230 million today ... I don’t think there’s any argument that “mobile” has become today’s pervasive form of communications."

The paper explores how mobile marketing can enhance advertising response rates, increase buying traffic and build an opt-in community.

Mobile Marketing Dos and Don'ts

SearchEngineWatch’s Gregg Stewart wrote an outstanding piece on avoiding the potential pitfalls of Mobile Marketing, covering issues such as the importance of giving consumers what they want when they want it and noting that “just because it worked online doesn't mean it will work in mobile.”

Advertisers must understand and respect the similarities as well as the distinct differences between the different kinds of media, Stewart says, and his article provides ways to ensure brands don’t stumble when they make the move to mobile marketing.

For more mobile marketing guidance; New Media is offering a free paper (registration required) on Best Practices for Mobile Marketing, with the central idea that “the results of traditional marketing methods are rapidly dwindling” and brand owners need to get into mobile marketing now to keep their message front and center. The paper explores how mobile marketing can enhance advertising response rates, increase buying traffic and build an opt-in community. 

Keep It Simple

RCR WIreless News has published an interesting column by Laura Marriott, president of the Mobile Marketing Association.

Among the points that Laura makes is a call for mobile marketing solutions providers to keep it simple and provide actionable metrics across the entire mobile marketing industry:

"I heard a great comment from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvyone Worldwide, at the CMO Forum at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, who told us that marketing has moved away from the 4 Ps of Product, Price, Promotion and Place and has instead, evolved to the 4 Es including Experience, Everyplace, Exchange and Evangelism. Does this not sound exactly like what mobile can deliver? A dialogue of engagement between brand and consumer?!

So friends, what can we do?! For starters, stop speaking in jargon! Brands don’t care about SMS, EVDO, MMS or 1XRTT. They care about what their brand goals and objectives are and how mobile can solve it for them. Barraging potential clients with a litany of jargon does nothing but create a fear of the complexities of mobile. Let’s keep it simple, let’s drop the terms, drop the jargon!

Metrics! The GSMA Association, working with all operators in the UK, has launched a measurement initiative to determine what data can consistently be derived from operator networks to help metrics and reporting. A great step forward. The Mobile Marketing Association is working on consistency of ad currencies and flows so that we can deliver qualified metrics on the performance of campaigns rather than different data according to vendor or network. These are great collaborative steps to help build consistent, quality metrics and measurement for our global industry."