Enter: The QR Code Condom (Video)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Rick Mathieson

How are you getting laid this summer?

As Bangstyle reports, that’s the question posed by the Stockholm County AIDS prevention program in a summer campaign, aimed at young singles, that makes sex a lot more social.

As part of the effort, 50,000 condoms were given way, each with a wrapper that featured a QR code leading to an app website called The Sex Profile.

Couples were invited to turn on the app and place the phone on the bed. The app then measure things like rhythm, sound, duration, cuddling and so on, to determine the partners’ sexual style and preferences, which were then posted to the website where users could measure how they compare. Essentially, a score for your score, so to speak – with the added bonus of encouraging safety.

Very creative – not to mention, er, viral.

But what’s your view – too salacious by half? Or a new way to make fornicating more fun?

‘Dance Cam’ Mobile App Lets You Create Music Videos on Your Phone

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Rick Mathieson

There are few things more entertaining (or disturbing) than watching folks dance on the Xbox Kinect system on games like Dance Central.

For those tapping their toes until Dance Central 2, there’s a new app from AKQA called Dance*Cam, which lets you create your own music videos on the fly.

In fact, if your video looks especially fly, you can upload it to Facebook and challenge a friend, where two videos are mashed into one so others can vote on who busts a move best.

In general, we’re advocates for mobile web apps over native apps – unless it’s a utility or experience that lives beyond a finite campaign.

This particular app fits the bill – and exists as an experience that can live on its own long past the time Dance Central 5 is set to hit Kinect.

Indeed, one could see how the ability to create on-the-fly music videos at concerts might make for a memorable – and viral – concert-going experience.

(As an aside, you can hear excerpts from a recent interview with AKQA CEO Tom Bedecarre here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Concl, where he talks about the agency’s philosophy and approach to creating compelling brand experiences through digital channels.

What’s your take? Is Dance*Cam the perfect way to promote Dance Central 2?

Serious blackmail material?

Or both?

Heineken Personalized QR Code Stickers Become Ice Breakers At Music Festival (Video)

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Rick Mathieson

Hat’s off to Heineken.

We’re digging this this very cool initiative from Leo Burnett Warsaw for the Heineken Open’er Music Festival: A special system that enabled concertgoers to create customized QR code stickers that other attendees could then scan to spark up conversation.

It’s just one of the ways Heineken’s been using innovation (digital and otherwise) over the last year – from the Occasionally Perfect Billboard, to Starvision personalized club signage to augmented reality advertising.

In this particular effort, QR codes (or”U-Codes,” as they call them here) become social lubricants to make the concert-going experience more social and fun.

And isn’t that that great music is all about?

Mobile Roundtable (Concl): Native Apps or Web?

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

So which is it: Native apps or Web?

That’s the question I post to the Gen Wow June 2011 Mobile Roundtable panelists, Sarah Ortman, senior group manager for consumer and shopper promotions for Clorox, Peter Cole, technology director for digital agency R/GA, and Dorrian Porter, CEO of mobile marketing firm (and longtime GEN WOW sponsor) Mozes, Inc.

Along the way, we’ll get some advice to CPG marketers how to make the most of mobile marketing.

JUNE 2011 MOBILE ROUNDTABLE (CONCL): MOBILE APPS: NATIVE OR WEB?

Audio Link: Download GEN WOW JUNE 2011 MOBILE ROUNDTABLE CONCLUSION

Also Listen to:

Part One: How Clorox Mobilizes CPG Marketing
Part Two: R/GA on Wal-Mart’s Mobile Moves
Part Three: An AlwaysOn Favorite Fuels Fandamonium
Part Three: Location-Based Marketing & A Future Beyond Foursquare

Is Aurasma A QR Code Killer? (Video)

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

Who knows. In a mobile marketing roundtable I recently ran with execs from Ford, Mozes and Crispin, Porter+Bogusky, we debated the pros and cons of QR Codes.

Here, a company called Autonomy (the second largest software company in Europe, according to 2d-code.go.uk), a new app called Aurasma (in beta) seems to use image recognition to activate print in fun new ways.

Still, if you have to turn on the app and focus it, it may not bring much added value. While it clearly does away with weird little icons, unless it’s always on, the app still needs to be turned on and focused, just as in the case with QR Codes.

And another question arises: How will readers/users know when something is Aurasma enabled? Probably an icon of some sort – begging the question of why it’s better than QR codes.

Still, this video offers an impressive look at possibilities.

What’s your opinion? We’d love to hear from you.

Mobile Roundtable (Pt 2): Deutsch LA’s Winston Binch on Mobile+Social+Local

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

Our exclusive mobile roundtable continues: Last week, we heard from Scott Kelly, digital marketing manager for Ford Motor Company, describing Ford’s new focus on mobile and what that means for the year ahead.

In part two, Winston Binch (pictured here), former partner and managing director of interactive for Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, gives us the inside story on one of my favorite social mobile apps, Epic Mix for Vail Resorts (see video below), just days before his move to Deutsch LA.

He also gives us the scoop on new research into what’s working and what’s not in iPad advertising – and how CPB Group is helping to shape the future of advertising on tablets.

MOBILE ROUNDTABLE PT 2: CONQUERING MOBILE + SOCIAL + LOCATION – AND THE NEW WORLD OF TABLET ADVERTISING

(Approx 9:43)

Audio link:

Mobile Roundtable: Crispin Conquers Mobile w

Roundtable: Mozes’ Dorrian Porter Joins Execs From Ford, Crispin To Talk Mobile Marketing

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

It’s not often you get top execs from one of the world’s most powerful brands, one of our most celebrated ad agencies, and one of the most cutting edge digital platform providers in one place.

I did it today (virtually, anyway), in an exclusive roundtable discussion with:

• Scott Kelly, digital marketing manager, Ford Motor Company (pictured here)

• Winston Binch, Partner & managing director, interactive, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky

• Dorrian Porter, CEO, Mozes, Inc

The topic: Mobile marketing – what’s hot, hip and happening (and what’s not), from QR codes to mobile apps to augmented reality to social media and more.

This is a roundtable you won’t want to miss – and you won’t, thanks to the excerpts I’ll post over the next few days.

First up: How mobile has helped Ford leap ahead of GM in domestic sales for the first time since 1998 – and how the brand plans on using this amazing medium to connect with consumers in the year ahead.

MOBILE ROUNDTABLE PART ONE: FORD’S MOBILE MARKETING ROADMAP

(Approx 4:35)

Audio link:

Roundtable with Ford, Crispin & Mozes on The State of Mobile Marketing

Donovan Neale-May (Pt 2): Geofencing & Targeting in ‘Mobile Relationship Marketing’

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

In a new initiative with the Mobile Marketing Association, the CMO Council is launching what it calls “Engage at Every Stage” – a thought leadership program designed to examine how companies can improve customer loyalty and value through a new discipline calls Mobile Relationship Marketing (MRM).

In part two of an interview with Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, we explore geolocation and targeting in MRM, spanning categories from retail to sporting goods to cable TV to live concerts – and beyond

Donovan Neale-May Pt 2: Geolocation & Targeting in Mobile Relationship Marketing

Click to hear interview

(Approx 5:36)

Interview: Donovan Neale-May, Exec Dir, CMO Council – On The Rise of ‘Mobile Relationship Marketing’

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Rick Mathieson

Five billion people can’t be wrong – at least in the eyes of the CMO Council.

I went to the Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, to find out more about this concept, which can have tremendous implications for place-based marketing initiative – in-concert, conferences and other events.

Donovan Neale-May Pt 1: The Rise of Mobile Relationship Marketing

Click to hear interview

(Approx 5:06)