The emergence of scannable barcodes in advertising has generated lots of publicity in the last couple of years, but not much corresponding data about consumer adoption. To help address that imbalance, barcode technology provider ScanBuy has released a new report offering insight into usage barcodes based on its own platform data between June 1 and September 15. Among the key findings: There were more barcode scans performed in a single month starting in July than in all of 2009, highlighting the technology's growth as an ad vehicle. Scanning via the company's barcode system has increased 700% from the start of 2010. By downloading the company's ScanLife application, users with a camera phone can get product information, coupons or other content via tags placed on product packaging, print ads or outdoor signs. The mobile barcode reader supports 1D and 2D codes as well as the company's proprietary EZcodes. While much of the barcode buzz has centered on the newer 2D format, often referred to as QR codes, ScanBuy found both 1D and 2D codes are being scanned about equally, "showing people are less concerned with code format, and more interested in getting information quickly," according to the company. Linking to a Web site was by far the most common type of action encouraged by a 2D code, with 85% driving traffic to a URL. Among traditional 1D, or UPC, codes, health and beauty products were the most popular category, making up 21% of scans, followed by groceries (14.4%), books (12.6%), and kitchen items (9.2%). ScanBuy said people are also actually making purchases through mobile devices, with books and electronics showing among the highest conversion rates. Looking at user demographics, the study found that half of barcode users are ages 35 to 45 and skew male, reflecting the smartphone and early-adopter populations. Android was easily the most popular smartphone platform among barcode users, with 45% owning devices powered by Google mobile operating system. Second was BlackBerry (27%), followed by the iPhone (15%), Symbian (9%), Java (3%) and Windows Mobile (1%). In its mobile marketing playbook released this month, digital agency 360i noted that barcodes have given retailers, packaged goods companies and brands the tools to deliver content and promotions on mobile devices. But the agency warned that technology and business hurdles remain. "The wide variety of barcodes -- including the names (1D, 2D, UPC, QR, etc.) -- can create confusion among marketers and consumers alike, and both seek a more consistently reliable experience," stated the report. Indeed, ScanBuy competes with other barcode scanners including Jagtag, Microsoft Tag, Red Laser, Shop Savvy and Sticky Bits. The market for vendors is still shaking out.
From blogging to product reviews, is consumer-generated media past its prime? Well, while social network participation continues to grow, other forms of social interaction are now stable or on the wane, according to new research from Forrester. Worldwide, every country surveyed by Forrester saw increases in the "Joiners" category -- i.e., those who are joining social networks or maintaining profiles on them. But between 2009 and 2010, however, no national markets saw real growth in the "Creators" category. "A lack of growth in this area translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content, and perspectives," Forrester analysts Jacqueline Anderson and Josh Bernoff said in their report. For example, one-third of online consumers in the U.S. regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube. But only 10% of U.S. online consumers upload videos they have created to public sites. "The traits required to be a Creator are unique, and at this moment, the consumer market interested in these behaviors has plateaued," according to Anderson and Bernoff. Worldwide, new "Critics" are not emerging in most markets. In the U.S., Europe, and metropolitan China, the percentage of Critics remained flat or declined. Only in Japan and Australia did this group experience any real growth -- 12% and 4%, respectively. Forrester finds that the lack of new Critics in most markets is a cause for concern, because they are responsible for posting ratings and reviews, and that customers continually find peer ratings and reviews helpful and influential in their decision-making process. In the travel industry, for example, Forrester found that 92% of leisure travelers are more likely to book a hotel if it has a five-star rating, yet only 6% of guests post a review of their recent hotel stay. Illustrating a demand for Creators and Critics, most markets saw an increase in Spectators -- i.e., the audience for Creators and Critics. Forrester's report uses the Social Technographics Profile system to examine global changes in consumers' adoption of social technologies. Forrester created the Social Technographics Profile in 2007 to simplify the analysis of consumers' social technology behaviors.
Rep. Henry Waxman reportedly is readying legislation that would require wired broadband providers to follow neutrality principles for at least two years, but would also strip the Federal Communications Commission of the ability to reclassify broadband access as a "telecommunications service." A draft of the measure, which surfaced online on Tech Daily Dose late Monday, also would exempt wireless carriers from some key neutrality rules. Specifically, the bill provides that wired Internet access providers can't block lawful content, applications or services and also can't unreasonably discriminate in transmitting traffic. It also contains an exception for "reasonable network management" techniques. Wireless providers would only be banned from preventing consumers from visiting lawful sites and from blocking lawful applications that compete with voice or video communications services. The measure states that the FCC would be able to fine broadband providers up to $2 million for intentional violations of the law. The statute also would expire at the end of 2012. If enacted, the bill would completely scuttle the FCC's ability to craft neutrality rules by preventing the agency from reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act. Currently, broadband is categorized as an information service; a federal appellate court ruled earlier this year that the FCC lacks authority to enforce neutrality rules because broadband is considered an information service. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski responded to that ruling by proposing that broadband access be reclassified as a telecommunications service, subject to some common carrier rules.
When the Colorado ski resort Keystone opens for the season in November, it will offer a new experience that ties in social media with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and location-based services through Facebook and Twitter. The online and mobile technology platform, EpicMix, connects friends and family on and off the mountain in Vail, Colo. The ski season pass or lift ticket, enabled with RFID technology, puts the skier in the social experience. Ski resorts have relied on RFID to provide access to lifts for years, but when the Keystone Resort opens in less than 38 days, the application will tie into software that connects a community through a portal dashboard online and mobile applications. RFID readers on the mountains record speeds, run times, performance, and location through software and a semiconductor chip in the lift ticket. To see a map of the runs, skiers simply access the information online or through a mobile phone. The software collects all the information and knows the skier's endurance level and frequency of visits, providing lead generation for marketers and advertisers. Skiers can keep track of friends on the mountain and runs on the go either through Android or iPhone applications and location-based services. The mobile app gives tools to message friends and provides weather and traffic updates. Achievements are rewarded through EpicMix pins that skiers can share with friends through Twitter or other social networks, and display online in Facebook. The pins have been created for hundreds of milestones. As accomplishments are achieved, the skier unlocks a new pin that is added to the collection. A trigger allows the skier to share that pin with friends automatically. The potential to send automated Twitter posts and have them indexed in Google or Bing real-time search engine feeds provides another outlet for marketers to promote the resort. If powder is dumped on the mountains and skiers earn badges, those tweets are picked up by search engines that tell others who monitor the slopes about the beautiful ski conditions. Technology visionaries in the advertising and marketing space have been talking about this integration for years. Similar to the infamous BMW Mini Cooper ad that identified motorists on billboards driving by, the resort's application will have an option to experience an intimate relationship with the skier. Engineers at ODIN designed the back-end software and RFID infrastructure. The data collected through the ultra high-frequency (UHF) RFID tag embedded in the ski lift ticket is filtered through the software's operating system. Patrick Sweeney, ODIN CEO and author of RFID for Dummies, says the technology collects and transfers the data, pulling it into the user interface for skiers to see. It's an opportunity for resort marketers and potential advertising partners like Rossignol to communicate with skiers one on one, offering personalized promotions and deals. Skiers opt-in to features depending on their preference. "Within the next five years, every mobile phone will have an RFID reader built in," Sweeney says. "Apple has two RFID patents, but from what I understand they plan to use near field communication technology, which limits the read range to about an inch." After a conversation with his good friend and former Apple CEO John Sculley earlier this year, Sweeney believes Apple could make a major mistake and lose a huge market opportunity with the G5 iPhone by embedding NFC rather than UHF RFID technology.
Making good on its vow to bolster content, AOL on Tuesday announced the acquisition of popular video sharing startup 5min Media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal is part of AOL's broader content-centric strategy, which CEO Tim Armstrong has been pursuing for the last year. "5min Media is the perfect complement to our powerful video capabilities -- it provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering," Armstrong said Tuesday. "AOL is building a video ecosystem for the next decade." 5min is a syndication platform for instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos -- both professionally produced and user-generated. To date, its success has been largely attributed to partnerships for branded content with top media companies like Scripps and Hearst. To win the content game, AOL is presently hiring hundreds of journalists, editors and various multimedia creators to flesh out its content offerings. Earlier this year, it brought on David Eun, as president of AOL Media and Studios, to "galvanize and build content networks of scale that can win," he told Online Media Daily. "I don't think it's a secret to say that the turnaround of AOL is hinged on content ... It's going to make or break [the company.]" Last December, 5min attracted 30.5 million unique viewers, according to comScore. To put that number into perspective, AOL saw 30 million unique viewers that same month. In terms of videos streamed, 5min saw 75.4 million streams, while its video library now boasts 150,000 videos across a variety of categories ranging from food and health to home and garden. AOL said it has already begun to integrate 5min Media's video content on its sites through a commercial agreement executed prior to the acquisition. Earlier this month, 5min struck a syndication partnership with News Corp.'s IGN Entertainment. Per the deal, IGN Entertainment joined the 5min Video Games Channel. Using its proprietary VideoSeed technology, 5min is semantically matching short-form videos like IGN's game reviews, instructions and news from its gaming brands across the 5min network of more than 800 sites, including MegaGames.com, GGL, NextGenWalkthroughs.com and PlayedOnline.com. Founded in 2006, 5min is headquartered in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv.
Before the ink could dry on its agreement to by video hub 5min, AOL on Tuesday announced plans to acquire TechCrunch Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although AOL reportedly paid about $30 million for the popular technology blog. Also on Tuesday, AOL announced the acquisition of Thing Labs, a maker of Web-based social-networking software. Founded in 2005 by one-time lawyer Michael Arrington, TechCrunch has established itself as one of the influential blogs in the high-stakes world of Silicon Valley. Its network of sites, including TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, CrunchGear and GreenTech, now reach over 10 million unique visitors -- and racks up over 33 million page views -- a month. TechCrunch also operates a global network of dedicated properties from Europe to Japan. Per the deal, TechCrunch and its associated properties and conferences will join the AOL Technology Network, while retaining their editorial independence, according to AOL. The deal is part of AOL's broader content-centric strategy, which CEO Tim Armstrong has been pursuing for the last year. TechCrunch "precisely matches AOL's commitment to delivering the expert content critical to this audience," Armstrong said on Tuesday, which the TechCrunch network says is "now a must-buy for advertisers seeking to associate their brands with leading technology content and its audience." Said Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch: "Armstrong and his team have an exciting vision for the future of AOL as a global leader in creating and delivering world-class content." While skeptics remain, some industry watches are impressed with the efforts AOL is making to compete online. "Nobody gives AOL enough credit for the massive transformation that the brand has undertaken," said Adam Hanft, CEO of marketing/branding firm Hanft Projects. Regarding the TechCrunch acquisition, Hanft said "it's a brilliant kung-fu move," adding: "Now, AOL owns the snarky, spit-in-your-eye tech site that is beloved by the same crowd that mocks AOL's dial-up heritage." TechCrunch hosts various conferences and events, including The Disrupt series, The Crunchies Awards and various meet-ups worldwide. The AOL Technology Network consists of AOL's tech-oriented properties including Engadget, Switched, which covers the intersection of the digital world with entertainment, sports, art, fashion and lifestyle; TUAW, the unofficial Apple weblog; and DownloadSquad, the weblog about downloadable software and other computer subjects. TechCrunch will remain headquartered in San Francisco, CA, as a wholly owned AOL unit.
Since 2007, Forrester has tracked the growth of social behaviors. For years we've seen increases in more complex social behaviors such as "Creators" -- those who generate social content such as YouTube videos and blog posts. But for the first time, we're seeing a change in the growth trend. The latest Forrester 2010 Global Social Technographics report demonstrates that many social behaviors have reached a plateau. Why, and what does this mean to marketers? There is not a single answer to those questions. The reasons span things as complex as human nature and as simple as Web site usability. For example, is it sensible to believe that Creator behavior will ever be universal? Not every person has a burning need to be a reporter, an industry expert, a videographer, a musician, a thought leader, an editor or a broadcaster. The fact that over 1 in 5 online adults in the U.S. are exhibiting Creator behavior is a testament to how social technologies have lowered the bar, since these tools have allowed more people to create and distribute their ideas, opinions and creations than was ever possible in the past. Human nature changes gradually, so further growth in Creator behavior will come much more slowly than in the past. This will cause marketers and those who produce social tools to focus more on how social content is consumed rather than how it is produced. In fact, there is already evidence of this trend-look at Twitter's new web interface, which doesn't change how people tweet but instead makes it significantly easier to consume others' tweets. There is one behavior that is not plateauing, nor is it likely to stop growing for some time: Joiners. These are people who maintain a social networking profile. While growth in other behaviors have stagnated, Joiners grew again from 2009 to 2010. As social media has become a major communication channel for many people, it becomes hard to avoid for others. Even those with no intent to share continue to join so they can keep in touch with friends, children and grandchildren. Today, avoiding social networks is about as easy to do as avoiding email-it's possible, but it comes at a substantial cost in terms of relationships and knowledge. The fact Joiners continue to grow means marketers must continue to focus their attention and budgets on social networks in 2011. More people will spend more time and get more information through social networks, and where consumer time and attention goes, so should marketer investment. Perhaps in 2011 we'll see Creators again increase, but this will depend less on how humans change and more on how companies, brands and social technologies do.