Macy’s featured a barcode in their add in the September issue of Vogue Magazine. By taking a picture of the barcode with a smartphone, the reader was linked to a fashion show featuring Macy’s models and their fall line.
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| Macy's barcode |
The debate as to whether or not readers are actually taking advantage of these new barcode features is still up in the air.
“Four percent of magazine readers who noted ads with 2-D barcodes in the first half of this year actually took out their phones and snapped a picture at least once,” according to GfK MRI Starch Advertising Research.
Four percent, though it’s a low number is good news to advertisers using this new feature.
“Getting four percent of magazine readers who spot a code to actually activate it is pretty impressive,” Garrick Schmitt, managing director for experience and platforms at Razorfish told adage.com.
"I think that's a lot, considering it's an emerging technology," he said.
Many of these ads feature Snap Tags, barcodes that allow a reader to “like” a brand on Facebook and receive special offers.
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| A Century 21 barcode featured in Lucky |
Pongr, a smartphone application that works in the same way as the barcodes is another feature advertisers are bringing to magazines.
The “W” magazine’s April issue used Pongr to help their readers get quick access to the trends they liked as well as enter those who used Pongr into a $1,000 shopping spree giveaway.
This recent wave of image recognition marketing could very possible by the future of advertisements in fashion magazines. The mix of print and multimedia proving to be possible has us wondering, what other technologies could magazines be providing us with next?
Newlin Tillotson
