Tag Archives: IOOH

In Bad Days, Just Keep Plugging Along

Yesterday on the last possible out, a perfect game was taken away from the Detroit Tigers’ Armando Gallaraga. The ump, who before last night was considered by players as one of the best in the game, has come under intense scrutiny, as should be expected. Throwing perfect games is such a rare feat to happen in baseball, and for another one not to be realized because of a clear (thanks to slow-motion TV) mistake is a travesty. History did not happen last night because of a blown call.

The ump’s name is Jim Joyce and to his credit, he came out immediately after the game and owned the mistake. He blew it. He recognized the enormity of the moment, probably the biggest in his career and Gallaraga’s career, and he just blew the call. He apologized and feels sick inside, but what else can he say?

He’s getting back to work today, in front of the Detroit fans again, despite everything that has transpired in the last 24 hours. It would have been easy for him to disappear for a few days/weeks, let the brunt of it blow over, and resurface again anywhere outside of Detroit. But, he’s plugging along.

Here’s my parallel – as our performance goes, we all have bad moments. Sometimes, we even have bad days. I often feel like, as a leader of whoosits and whatsits, I’m required to perform and be “good” all the time. I expect that out of myself in everything I do. In fact, I expect to be great more often than not, but the simple reality is that I’m going to have bad moments and bad days and it’s just the way it is. And that’s OK.

I spoke about Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast” yesterday and wanted to include one of my favorite excerpts. It didn’t quite go with that post, but it seems appropriate for this one. Here, he’s talking about his process in working through writer’s block:

“…sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look our over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there…”

We’re human. We have bad days. Do not worry. You have done what you do before and you will do what you do now. Keep plugging along. And know that whatever you’re doing, as long as it is true, all will be good.

What’s Your Inner Bonfire?

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Yesterday, I found myself in one of the many philosophical conversations I’ve had with my colleague, Herb Sawyer (smart, insightful dude) and we were talking about books. Specifically, he was saying how “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” was one of the books that had a profound impact on him and his career. It’s the type of book that when you read it, it’s like a match that sparks something – an interest, a thought, a belief – that was previously unlit. And once it’s lit, it turns into a bonfire. It changes you, your thinking, and your perspective unlike any other book (or story) that you’ve read. It is inspiring.

I’m not that big on business books. Non-fiction, in general, doesn’t do that much for me. (That said, I have read some good ones – “Mavericks at Work”, “Miracle on the Hudson”, “Outliers”, and the aforementioned “A Whole New Mind”, to name a few.)

My inspiration lies in fiction. I love fiction. If I could do anything, without financial worry, I would write fiction all day, every day. I didn’t grow up wanting to write fiction. I don’t even remember enjoying writing as a kid other than perfecting penmanship (who else got graded on that on your report cards?) It wasn’t until college, when I started writing plays and screenplays that I fell in love with creating through writing. Then, I read a book that changed the way I look at writing and how I aspire to create. It lit that flame for me that turned into a bonfire.

There hasn’t been a more powerful book, source of creative inspiration, transformative spark to me than “A Moveable Feast” by Earnest Hemingway. When I read it, it was clear to me that I could and should write forever. I was moved in a profound way, one that reaffirmed a deeper sense of purpose, one that told me as long as I keep doing this, all will be good.

Now, I enjoy books. I enjoy reading. You may feel otherwise. Regardless of the medium, I think it’s important to have one (or a few) of those anchors of inspiration in your career, something that has a profound and lasting impact. At some point, be it hours, days, weeks, or god-forbid, years, we get to a point to where what we’re doing feels like a job. This particular spark keeps me going in those moments and re-invigorates me to the point of being truly purposeful. What’s your spark? Write it down, remember it, share it with others, and when in doubt, no matter how often, refer back to it. Be one with your inner bonfire.

Social Media is alot like Filmmaking

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In my previous life, I was an independent filmmaker. And in the life before that, I wrote. I still write, but I don’t make films anymore, mainly because of time. Making films takes every ounce of brain power, much less time, you can give it, especially if you’re doing it all by yourself. I miss that type of creating. I miss being in something that deep for that long of time.

I experience similar acts of creating with my job, and have ever since I can remember. One of the great things about marketing and communications is the creating aspect. We tell stories and solve problems and ultimately create relationships through pictures and words – the same tools filmmakers use to bring their stories to life.

I can’t help but liken social media to filmmaking. Brands can go the independent route and spend a fraction of the cost to do it themselves. Or they can go the studio route and hire “professionals” to monitor, manage, reach out to, engage, report, and analyze every aspect of their social media presence(s). Studios have the infrastructure in place to churn out film after film. Independents have themselves and a few of their friends to make a film at a time. Both can produce really good films, but the amount of time that it takes doesn’t differ between the two.

Quite often, I believe there’s a misperception that going the independent route enables organizations to get it done quicker, cheaper, and perhaps even just as effective (if not more) than hiring someone else to do it. There is no formula, regardless of who does what, for success. But, just like films, social media requires time. It’s a serious commitment and someone’s got to be down deep for an extended period of time to even put themselves in a position to succeed.

Films have an advantage over social media because their stories end. In social media, the stories grow and evolve and continue on indefinitely. They turn into relationships. And relationships, no matter what direction you go, can’t be skimped.

Wayfinding + mobile + social = Novomap

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I met a couple of guys from a Toronto-based company, Jibestream Media, at a show a few months ago. At the time, I was playing around with the Las Vegas Convention Center’s wayfinder, and this guy walks up to me and asks me about wayfinding.

Side note – my take on wayfinding (and probably many others’) is that I think it’s such a utilitarian tool that can easily be implemented through touch technology and can also serve as an effective DOOH advertising platform. The context, primarily where it’s actually placed, drives its effectiveness at doing both. For instance, I don’t think the in-mall static paradigm is broken and needs interactivity, but it can certainly be enhanced for dynamic advertising purposes. Wayfinding in a place like hospitals, on the other hand, should have a presence and interactivity might help its utility be more effective, particularly with mobile integration. Advertising here might be less important, but can nonetheless be incorporated and leveraged.

Anyway….I sat down and talked with the company’s VP of Marketing, Chris Weigand, and watched demos of their solution – NOVOMAP – and in the end walked away pretty impressed with him and it. Novomap is an interactive out-of-home platform that is built to handle wayfinding, dynamic advertising, mobile interactivity, and even social connections. What I think is interesting here, aside from how great the solution looks (highly produced, great graphics, animation, and an easy-to-use UI), is all of the hooks that they’ve incorporated. They’re tapped into what’s needed and what’s wanted. By and large, mobile & social capability are not selling points to large facilities. Wayfinding and dynamic advertising are tools that can impact their bottom line, so, I think that’s always the base of any solution like this. This is what gets their attention. But once these guys get in the door with the utility and a platform that can drive the prospective company’s business, they’re in a position for incremental value via smart, connecting-type solutions. The type of solutions that will get people talking and excited – because mobile interactivity and connectiveness is now today’s consumer’s utility.

If you hear the way these guys talk about their solution, you walk away feeling like they have it figured out. They’re talking about it in all the right ways. They’re working like crazy to get this into as many places as they can, even in test scenarios. If you haven’t heard of them, check them out. I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with them over the past few months and would love to see them succeed. I think they have a pretty cool product that is effectively powerful. Keep it up, guys.

Three Bloggers’ Perspectives

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Was on a panel with Adrian Cotterill from DailyDOOH and Dave Haynes from The Preset Group. This is our perspective.

14 people at beginning, easily doubled in 5 minutes

We all went through intros first. I could have framed myself a little better. Lav mic is weird.

Dave – been around for a really long time, 2006 started blogs, 1,500 posts, much more of an opinion piece – why you should look at this, bit of a filter for the industry

Q1: How digital media can improve customer engagement and increase sales lift?

Adrian: Does digital really need explaining? Surely, we’ve seen sales lift

Dave: Digtal media still a little mysterious to people…when we talk about sales lift, we see in the past year that results that are shared around. Walmart showed up at conference last year and showed results on their smart network – they were getting phenomenal sales lift…industry avg 10 -15 % lift

Mike: I think you have to separate those two objectives. Engagement is very different than conversion – it can certainly play off of each other. Dynamic, moving images have an impact. When talking about OOH, placement is part of the equation. Then, f/u with the most appropriate content so it can achieve that goal – sales lift.

Q2: Examples of successful implementations and their impact on brands?

Adrian: Harrods – amazed at how well they’ve done retail…screens embedded into the fabric of their environment

Dave: Believes that there are more unsuccessful implementations vs. successful…Tim Horton’s (donut shop in Canada) – they see real sales lift on just “digital” amid their menu boards….Microsoft’s retail stores, baked right into it

Mike: Mini/BMW – digital billboards, RFID, AR

Nike – virtual shoecase, matching shoes kiosk, Chalkbot

These brands have a very good understanding of their audience so they’re able to use various mediums really effectively.

Q3: Measurement methodology & ROI?

Adrian: taken from keynote this morning, the emotions

Dave: not so down on the research and analytics, yes it’s imperfect, but it does a good job of showing how long people are looking at screens…typically the viewer engagement on these screens is 3 seconds…wow

Mike: DOOH is passive so measure it like any OOH installation – eyeballs, traffic, etc..

IOOH is active so measure it on actions

This is why I think interaction is so important.

Q4: Successful trends we are seeing?

Adrian: People don’t need an excuse or prompt to touch a screen these days. Mobile interaction is something that is also taking off. Audio/music/sound – this being explored more now, too.

Dave: Mobile & social….extremely early days for that….this industry has to open its eyes a lot wider as to what’s going on around them……the days of “captive” audience is over…no one is really captive anymore

Mike: I think you have to look at social and mobile separately from OOH. Both are gaining traction and both will play a large part in OOH.

Aside from that, people are getting more familiar with expectations that they can interact with their surroundings.

Q5: Who needs to be involved in the process for success?

Adrian: Surely everyone in the company! Merchandisers, marketers, IT, and don’t forget retail staff!

Dave: All about objectives and are you getting return on those?

Mike: Client side – Brand managers – marketing, communications

Agency side – brand teams, advertising teams, media buyers, research, analytics

Implementation side – content creators (developers, designers), system admins (tech)

End user from the standpoint of acceptance

Q6: What makes a project a winner?

Adrian: Microsigns…put them underneath mobile phones in stores

Dave: Most of the really good projects in this space have come from outside the industry…..

Mike: Depends on what the objectives are.

If you want to change perception, can do.

If you want to deepen engagement, you can.

If you want to drive sales/conversion, you can.

It’s all about:

Who are we talking to?

What are we trying to say?

How are we going to say it?

Q7: What brands and venues can do to succeed through the use of digital signage and DOOH?

Adrian: Spend money, don’t try to do anything on the cheap, get good advice, think creatively, don’t forget content, integrate mobile..

Dave: change in business models

Mike: Have to be clear about your objectives. What are they trying to do?

Hope that they have smart people around them.

Agree with cheap and the content.

Q8: What does the future hold?

Adrian: Where you now see cardboard and print, you will now see digital. More installations will be interactive, responsive by touch and gesture, and mobile.

Dave: I don’t know what he said.

Mike: Technology gets better, people get smarter. It’s not about “digital” out of home screens, it’s about interacting with our spaces around us.

The Simple Difference Between DOOH & IOOH

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I have come to a realization – or better said, I have verbalized a thought into simplistic terms. And here it is:

DOOH is passive.

IOOH is active.

By now, you probably know my love for the “DOOH” moniker. I think it confuses everyone in the industry and no one corrects it. The closest thing I’ve heard is from Keith Kelsen – he defines “DOOH” as a digital OOH ad network and “Digital Signage” as a digital OOH platform that does not include advertisements. He, at least separates them. I would argue that even “non-advertising”-based platforms are grey, at best, in inherently being an advertising platform.

To me, “digital” out of home means nothing more than applying a digital display to an OOH installation. As such, you have a very passive experience. Is it more dynamic than static? Yes. Is it more effective than static? Has a good chance. But at the end of the day, both of them are passive solutions.

It’s very simple – if you want to engage your audience, you have to be active. Include interaction. Implement an IOOH solution. Not a DOOH solution.

More Important: Technology or Audience?

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I’m working on an augmented reality solution for a medical client of ours and I’m once again struck by an interesting dichotomy, one that I find recurring in every “emerging” solution I’ve launched: the balance between pushing technology and utilizing its strengths vs. creating a solution appropriate for the audience.

One school of thought is to push the limits of the technology. Since it’s new and often times experimental, we should try to use it for what it’s worth. If it’s touch screens, push for it to be multi-touch, allow the user to “throw” items, work in video hosts and multiple pathways – all make for rich experiences and play to the strengths of that particular technology. If it’s mobile integration, customize everything, send coupons/messages, utilize the Bluetooth and/or GPS. If it’s augmented reality, play as much as you can with the real world object and use it to base as many interactions between the two worlds as you can. In all cases, we’ve got this technology, it has so many possibilities, push them to show how strong they are.

But then you have the other school of thought – how is the audience really going to interact with them? I understand that we can’t underestimate the audience. When I was in college, in screenwriting classes, I heard over and over again – “don’t underestimate your audience. They’re smart.” Same thing applies here, especially since this sort of marketing is more experiential. But we can’t overestimate them either. From my point of view, and most people around me, we know how these technologies work and we’re anxious to play with them. We’re in the minority. Most people, particularly over a certain age, don’t feel completely comfortable in front of their computer and don’t fully understand the capability of that device. Same thing with mobile phones. Forget about something that they’re required to go up and touch, especially if it doesn’t look touchable. Or something that they’re required to hold up to a webcam. I’ve seen over and over again that in most cases, you have to keep it simple, which is counter to really utilizing these emerging technologies to their full extent.

And this is so indicative to where we are in the industry right now. This sort of marketing and experience – IOOH – is intimidating. I think people see the hassle or the “weirdness” of it all instead of seeing its potential – a new way of learning and communicating. We can create experiences through these types of technologies that can make people’s experiences outside of their home much better, much more seamless, much more effective. By and large, they just don’t know it yet.

So, I’d just say, it’s always important to think about the capabilities of these technologies. Always know what they can do, but create solutions – regardless of how “much” it utilizes the true power of the technology – that are most appropriate to your audience. The basic fundamentals of marketing still apply – know who you’re talking to before you come up with a solution. To be most effective in this new field, keeping it simple will pay more dividends and help out in the long run, more than whiz-banging people right off the bat with this newfangled technology. We can be just as capable of creating innovative solutions.

Thoughts? Let me hear them.

Applying Technology to my OOH Basics

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A couple of days ago, I shared my vision of OOH. It’s pretty simple. In my view, OOH is broken down into 3 buckets – categories of displays if you will – billboards, posters & kiosks. They are separated by 3 differentiating factors – amount of information, length of engagement and potential for human interaction.

This view is important to me because of what happens when you start to add technology onto it. What exactly does that technology do? And what is the true impact of technology on this medium? So, first, to show my view on the most overused moniker in the industry – Digital Out of Home (DOOH):

When you add digital to this model, you get the same exact model with just a little different shading. It doesn’t change much other than the fact that there is now some sort of technology applied to the medium. In this case, “digital” is just the addition of display technology. As I’ve said before, display technologies are a finite list of technologies – LCD, LED, projection. All it does is enable a static display to become dynamic. For advertisers, this, of course, has a substantial impact, both with advertising-based displays/networks and non-advertising-based displays/networks. But the true effect on the consumer’s experience isn’t drastically different. When you apply a display technology to a billboard, you get a different type of billboard, but by and large, it has the same effect. Ditto for posters and kiosks. As a consumer, I’m still getting the same amount of information, I’m still engaging with it the same length of time and the potential for my interaction with it hasn’t changed. The primary difference is that it now moves. Is it more effective? Maybe. If I respond better to moving images rather than static display. If the content is compelling. But I don’t think it moves the needle by itself. The true magic happens when you make OOH & DOOH interactive, which I’m calling Interactive Out of Home (IOOH).

Now, not only is the model shaded even more differently, it takes on a completely different form. Interactive billboards become something closer to posters. Interactive posters become something closer to kiosks. And kiosks become something they’ve never been. Interactivity and the technologies that enable it have a profound impact on OOH & DOOH. I call these technologies enabling technologies – technologies that enable personalized experiences from each of these displays. Technologies like touch screens, motion sensors, RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, mobile and its enabling technologies like GPS, 2D/3D barcode scanners and Augmented Reality – the list is certainly larger than the display technology list, but still finite (at least right now. I have no doubt it will grow with time.) But they all drastically effect the experience in the same fundamental way – they enable a level of personalization that is deeper than any of these displays provide in their raw, even digital, forms. This personalization is really the key to effective communication, which is the key to creating and sustaining relationships between brands and their audiences. This is the special effect that I believe OOH, as a medium, can and will have on marketers and consumers in this new day and age, particularly as newer technologies are introduced. But it’s all about the interactivity. A traditional OOH installation can be made interactive, just as a DOOH installation can be made interactive. In some cases, I believe the technology inherent in DOOH makes it easier to incorporate enabling technologies, but this is not always the case. It does not need to be “digital” to include interactivity. A perfect example of this is our QR code initiative at SXSW. A static (non-digital) QR code was added to a static display (car, which in this case, I would consider a “poster” in my model – not that it includes a wealth of information, but a static car like that, in that type of environment, provides a level of human interaction and length of engagement similar to a traditional poster) and with the use of mobile as the enabling technology, attendees were able to experience a deeper, personal engagement with the brand. This is why I think it’s critical to make a distinction between “digital” and “interactive” in this way. Interactivity allows the consumer to experience more information, and engage and interact with it in a deeper way. It is worlds different than just “digital.”

This sort of engagement opens up an exciting and scary world of possibilities. Brands will sooner or later understand that they can (and should) use the spaces and things around us, in our everyday lives, as effective communication tools. It has a drastic impact on them and their ability to touch their audience anywhere they want/need. We’re a ways off though, as you’ve heard me say before. But make no mistake, technology – specifically enabling technologies (not display technologies) – transforms the OOH world into something that has only truly been applied in books and movies. For now, we keep pushing and experimenting.

Out & About: Westin Hotel Guest Touch Screen

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My team and I stayed at a brand-new Westin hotel in Austin while we were down there for SXSW. On the first morning, waiting for some team members (entirely too early mind you), I was happy to see a large touch screen in the guest-lobby. So, I had to play with it. The experience that I captured by myself was not an enjoyable one to view. A couple days later, I recruited my colleague, Herb Sawyer, to walk through the experience for me.

So, let’s stack it up against the scorecard.

Purpose – From the looks of it, the primary purpose is utility. One can search flights, news, weather, goings-on in the surrounding areas, even stocks if you’re so inclined. I suppose the Westin wanted to provide a centralized, convenient location for travel information, more than anything. Perhaps it’s designed to serve as an interactive concierge? If so, it’s located at the other end of the lobby from the actual concierge desk. So, it doesn’t really cater to guests looking for that information.

More than that, I guess my question would be, as Herb and I get into at the end of the video, what does this enable the user to do here that they would not be able to do on their mobile phone? There is no special content, aside from the local attractions & dining, that could not be found in a mobile application. And even with apps like Yelp, I could find that on my phone. I’m really trying to find the purpose here, but I’m left scratching my head.

11th Screen Score: FAIL

Drama – If I weren’t always on the lookout for this sort of thing, I would have easily missed it every time I was in the lobby. And I was in the lobby at least 10 times. The actual placement isn’t as bad as the orientation. It is depressed inside a large wooden casing on a table. It just looks like a big box sitting on a table. The screen is tilted so far down that it is almost flat, like a table-top. If this were oriented a little differently, so the guests could at least see a touch screen that they could interact with, it might elicit more interaction. As it was, no one was interacting with it.

11th Screen Score: FAIL

Usability – Navigation was fine. It was laid out in a similar fashion as a traditional website with tabbed navigation. I did not like the fact that on the HOME screen, the large modules in the main section of the screen were not clickable. Other things like non-scrollable flight information and inconsistent map views didn’t exactly enhance the experience. While it was usable, it didn’t seem to be designed by web experts, certainly not touch screen experts. It did pass the mom test, though. I think it would have anyway.

11th Screen Score: BARELY PASS

Interactivity – This experience is entirely touch-based. The screen responded well to touch. Buttons and scroll bars were large. I could essentially do anything I wanted in 1 touch. In this sense, it didn’t utilize the technology for what it’s capable of. Give me multi-touch, at least.

11th Screen Score: BARELY PASS

Information – Here’s what the experience includes:

Time – I can get this on my watch or on my phone. If I don’t have either, look no further than here. It takes up 1/4 of the screen throughout the entire experience. They could have hidden it so it’s easily accessible while allowing more room on the screen for other, more important information.

News (and scroll) – the irony here is that the hotel gives away free copies of USA Today on every floor. Here, I only get the headline and byline. I’d love some photos, at least.

Weather – as Herb says, it would be great to see weather where I’m going. Much more important than where I’m staying.

Dining – the only dining/restaurant option this serves up is the restaurant in the hotel. From here, I can see the menu and make a reservation. Both of which are handy.

Attractions & Events – there are a number of sub-sections in each one of these categories that could be useful for out-of-towners. They each include various views of maps, which can be helpful and confusing at the same time.

Stocks – as Herb says, is this really needed?

Overall, the amount of unused space really reflects negatively on the brand. No photos, no videos. Just white space. Even if I thought that interacting with this touch screen was more convenient than my phone, all of this information, through apps on my phone, looks better and functions better.

11th Screen Score: FAIL

Personalization – If I went back next week or next month, I’m pretty sure I’d get the same exact experience. It would be great if this were tied into their rewards program and it had some sort of bar code reader/scanner so every time I scanned my rewards card, I could get tailored content around my history and preferences. Then, all of a sudden, this is an entirely different experience and one that is hard to duplicate on my phone.

11th Screen Score: FAIL

I like the concept of these virtual information/concierge experiences in hotels. To me, it makes a lot of sense. But it must be planned and executed in a way that makes it useful instead of a novelty. The novelties are never sustainable. And we need sustainable solutions in this industry if we want it to grow.

What do you think? Have you seen any useful experiences like this in hotels that you have stayed in?

SXSW….with a little more IOOH

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(Full Disclosure – I’ll be at SXSW as part of the Chevrolet SXSW Team. Chevrolet is an official sponsor this year of SXSW.)

So, the road trip came to an end last night. All of the teams made it to Austin safe and sound. They generated tons of great content. It was fun to watch. I think the IOOH experiment was successful. (A few people told me last night that they really enjoyed the interaction.) I greatly underestimated the logistical component of those clues, though. We had to ship and coordinate with ~16 different hotels, all different days to be delivered, and different times to check-in. There were many variables that made this particular component challenging. That’s to be expected, though, when using a guerilla-like approach. We couldn’t do much – this isn’t a sophisticated use of OOH – but the point was to try to be as innovative as we could with this element of the experience.

To me, this is an interesting, very realistic way to give people more information/engagement with something as simple and as ubiquitous as post cards. If I were in charge of a city/state branding initiative, where we were responsible for doing the “standards”, like post cards, I would immediately print the cards with some sort of tags/codes like QR codes/MS tags. There would be so many opportunities for deeper, more dynamic engagement and content. You could drive to videos of city/state leaders, citizens, even b-roll-type footage. Even fun facts about the city/state. Even a website (which I know is not preferred, but could be tailored to the content on the card.) Or if you wanted to get a little more creative, you could drive people from a card of say, The Statue of Liberty, to The Empire State building, just the way we did with the scavenger-hunt post cards. It could actually add a refreshing element to these otherwise novel (at best) objects. I suppose in this scenario, these wouldn’t necessarily be true IOOH because the user would, in most cases, end up owning the card, but it’s still a vehicle to enable deeper engagement through an emerging technology.

And yes, I think QR codes are an emerging technology in the US. I don’t know if they’ll catch on here, but SXSW is doing their part to introduce them to a large, influential audience. I’ve said it before, but I think one of the top stories coming out of SXSW is going to be QR codes. They’re on the badges, they’re posted around the convention center, and we’re contributing by using them in various ways. We’ve placed them on all of the ride & drive Chevy vehicles so that people can learn more about each vehicle that they’re riding in or seeing out in the open spaces around the convention center. And we’re placing them on a new car – the Cruze – as a way for people to interact with it because here, they can’t drive it or even get inside it. All of the codes are placed on the car in locations that are specific to the content that they’ll receive. So, if someone wants to learn about the Cruze’s engine, they’ll take a picture of the code on the hood of the car.

The content behind the codes, though, is really going to be key to make these things compelling and show their potential in how they can benefit the user. We’re incorporating Chevy-in-pop-culture facts centered around film & music with the ride & drive vehicles, as well as special product content. With the Cruze, we’re incorporating quizzes and exclusive video content that people can only experience in this way – through these QR codes at SXSW. The payoff has to equal, or preferably, outweigh the buildup. Otherwise, it just makes for a bad experience and bad experiences are, well….bad.

I’m confident in ours. Tomorrow, we’ll find out.

Example of our QR codes on the Cruze:

More to come tomorrow, after the booth opens and the Cruze is covered in codes. Farewell for the night from Austin!