Powa Technologies, a London-based mobile payments company, announced new tech today that recognizes print and other ads with or without QR codes, finds the products, and enables customers to buy it
using pre-entered information through the PowaTag app.
The technology opens a new channel for conversions, as well as allowing businesses to measure the ROI of channels that previously had no
clear way of measuring it.
In the UK, ad spend is predicted to reach £20.7 billion, or $31.33 billion, an increase of 5.8% over 1H of 2015.
“PowaTag can collect the data
which says an advert in Vogue converted into more sales than a billboard at Piccadilly Circus, or the insight which says an individual consumer really likes red shoes but isn’t so interested in
black ones,” states Dan Wagner, CEO of Powa Technologies.
The tech also allows brands to divine the most productive placements for ads in the physical world.
The technology works
not only on print, but can also recognize watermarks in broadcast audio (like Shazam for ads), as well as scan URLs embedded on social media, iBeacons, JavaScript and react to NFC technology.
It essentially turns physical advertisements into a catalog for users with the app.
Previous efforts in the West to integrate scanable codes into the consumer experience have petered
out, mostly because of the time it takes for users to open an app and highlight the code.