Mobile Codes and B2B

Over the past decade, I’ve been involved with many projects to “de-tangle” digital marketing for big companies. Big companies want to know what’s out there in the digital landscape, and how it all fits together. Most importantly, they want to know why the latest trend is important to them. Take Twitter, for example. Is it a real, honest-to-goodness life changer that will be used addictively by a whole generation of digital influentials? Or, will it be the Segway scooter of web 2.0, a tool in search of a solution, that enjoys a surge of activity followed by a slow decline into boredom and malaise? I won’t comment on Twitter (at least not for now), but I will mention a truly cool tool that could be very, very important for B2B marketers.

QR codes were invented in Japan in 1994 and are used a lot in Asia. They’re all over the place in India. The basic concept is simple—a mobile two dimensional barcode. Instead of putting barcodes on merchandise for use in payments, you can put them anywhere. Here’s what one looks like. This is the one for wikipedia's home page:



Microsoft’s biggest announcement at this weeks’ CES was their version of QR codes called Microsoft Tag. These are two-dimensional color codes that contain a lot of information and are very readable by mobile phones’ cameras. A key to adoption of these codes is ease. How close do you have to be to the code to take an accurate picture; how much light is necessary; how good does the camera have to be to pick out the contrasts in color. From what I’ve heard through some savvy friends, the new Microsoft technology is best-of-breed on all fronts. Here's what a Microsoft Tag looks like for B2B Marketing Confidential:





However, we’re back to the Segway question. Will this thing take off, and will it last? I think it will. For one thing, it’s taken off and lasted in the more mobile-phone-savvy countries already. For another, it’s got a lot of real, honest-to-goodness business applications. Microsoft points out several of these:

• Real Estate Listings: Snap a code of a for sale sign, take a virtual tour on your phone.
• Business Cards: Snap a code on a business card and download the person’s contact info.
• Dating: Print out a t-shirt with your code. If people are interested, they snap you and get your digits (my friend Jeremy came up with this, I agree, it’s a bit sick).
• Linking to Facebook / Twitter: Snap codes and people automatically see what you’re looking at and where.

There are lots of others that I’ve thought of for B2B marketers:

• Put codes on retail displays / end caps. Snap the code and you download a coupon and get loyalty points
• Put codes on all of your hardware components. Snap the code and you’re automatically routed to the best tech support person for that device, along with the device’s serial number and configuration.
• Put codes on drug posters. Snap the code and a doctor downloads all the clinical data and prescription guidance.
• Put codes all over at events. Snap the codes to create a customer event portfolio, complete with time visited. The sponsors also know who you are, who else you visited, etc.

There are probably 10,000 other applications. I came up with the above in three minutes; I think with some heads-down time you could come with many more meaningful B2B applications. So B2B marketers, start planning for mobile / QC codes in your planning. Some open questions:

• Is Microsoft going to out-innovate Google here for a change, or will Google release their much better version shortly and snap up all the share?
• What does this mean for GPS integration? Didn’t even go there but imagine that…
• Implications for privacy? Is there a way to streamline “opt-in”?

So, so cool. I don’t say stuff like this too often, but this is exciting.

Corporate vs. Product Advertising in Tech

When talking about allocating a marketing budget, one of the most important questions is the split between corporate and brand spending. In other words, is it better to lift the brand as a whole, or hawk specific products? Peeling the onion another layer, when doing corporate advertising, should a company focus on "hard" attributes--also called "corporate ability" or CA advertising--or on softer "corporate social responsibility" or CSR?

I hadn't really thought about this much in the context of tech until today, when I started running through various ad campaigns and realizing just how bereft most are of CSR advertising in tech. Literally the only company I can come up with that does CSR is Microsoft. Am I missing someone? I guess you could argue that Google does it, but that's not really advertising as much as big PR stunts.

I think the reason for this is simple: most tech companies don't really do anything "bad", or at least they're not accused of it. Have any tech companies recently changed the climate? Cut down a rainforest? Enslaved children to mine silicon? If they have, it doesn't make the news because they're so far down the value chain from these activities. And of course, this is why Microsoft has to run ad campaigns on its CSR.




Keep in mind, the above table contains estimates I put together in five minutes. They are 100% wrong.

This leads me to wonder, does CSR even work to a technology environment? Does it almost backfire? I mean, I watch these Exxon Mobil / BP greenwashing ads and I literally want to vomit. Maybe Microsoft would be better off ignoring CSR because the audience is so savvy. I think there's probably a big inverse correlation between CSR effective and audience sophistication.

What about product vs. corporate spending? Apple doesn't do any corporate spending. They market their products only, and yet have an incredibly strong brand. This is because their products are (1) linked together through design, creating an "idea" of an Apple brand just by handling, viewing and using their products, and (2) are advertised in very similar ways. So, they're getting the double-whammy of getting product SKUs out the door with product advertising and strengthening their brand.

Could any company do this? Could Microsoft do this? Are they better off just abandoning CSR and CA altogether and advertising products through a unified portfolio approach? I think it's worth a shot.

Media Companies vs. Ad Agencies: Data, Value Chain

Some good insight from AdAge, AMA, and Booz and Co. on the battle between media companies and ad agencies. http://adage.com/video/article?article_id=132255

The highlights:

• Media companies own a lot more data than they used to and are using these data to sell themselves
• Media companies enjoy proprietary networks that they can instantiate with data and customer tracking
• Agencies are having trouble adding the right staff in critical digital areas--database analytics, web analytics, and other CRM components
• Agencies are clearly feeling the heat from media companies and it'll be interesting to see how they respond.
• The value chain is shifting: Example given is Meredith (a women's media network with magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, and Parents) which has started to turn itself into an agency. They are the agency of record for Kraft's best in class CRM effort.
• Check out Meredith 360 which is their solution for integrated marketing. Their goal is clearly to own an audience everywhere, and eventually to own the data around that audience as well.
• If there are any other examples of media companies that are adding agency services I'd love to hear about them. We know Google is going here, but I'm also curious as to why Yahoo! hasn't tried to leverage its strength in finance or sports to try to own these audiences somewhere other than online.