If you were not careful in reading an article titled “Welch’s, Uncle Ben’s, Johnsonville activate print ads with mobile bar codes” on MobileMarketer.com today, you might think a breakthrough consumer engagement solution with widespread applicability was being unleashed upon marketers. That was my initial response, given recent experience with an actual bar code iPhone application and its inability to function at the point of sale.
The article describes a technology called SnapTag which is a unique coded circle intended for placement around a company’s logo, then printed in magazine advertisements and presumably posters as well. This coded circle corresponds to a pre-defined mobile interaction which is instantiated when a consumer takes a photograph of the logo with their device then sends it via MMS or email to a number or address posted alongside the logo. Read the story quickly and you envision a ubiquitous bar code-like technology which does not require special software on the mobile device, as is the case with Quick Response 2D bar codes.
Step back a moment though, look more closely and in fact what SnapTags actually do is make a mobile interaction more complicated than it needs to be. The encoded circle serves the same function as an SMS keyword. In the case of SnapTag, a photo must be sent via MMS to some phone number or mobile email address. In the case of a traditional text message communication, a consumer instead texts a keyword to some shortcode number. In both cases, the action causes a response to be sent back to the consumer, potentially driving a visit to the mobile web or triggering an email.
Where I can see SnapTags being useful is in connecting a brand to mobile by virtue of combining the two in a single image a consumer must capture with their camera in order to engage in the interaction. However, given the greater ubiquity of SMS text and the added steps involved for the consumer with SnapTags, I think the same is possible simply by placing a keyword and shortcode alongside a logo. Real bar codes encapsulate data which is interpreted on a device and potentially contains information, pointers to mobile web or text communications — all independent of the transmission of data over the network.
