Augmented Reality Challenges QR in Print-to-Mobile

With print-to-mobile marketing growing, the scale and engagement of "augmented reality" image recognition is wooing some publishers and advertisers away from QR codes and tags. Augmented reality certainly has a fan in publisher Meredith Corp. A recent Mobile Marketer story quoted Doug Crichton, director of mobile engagement at Meredith: “Digital watermarks unduly complicated our editorial production processes, and QR codes/Microsoft Tags weren't moving the needle. So far, augmented reality is driving more reader engagement than QRs/Tags did.” Earlier this year, Meredith rolled out a branded augmented reality application for editorial and advertising in its four parents network titles: Parents, American Baby, FamilyFun and Ser Padres. Meanwhile, Time Inc.’s lifestyle group is using digital watermarks in several publications, including watermarketing a MyRecipes cook book so consumers can save recipe info for grocery shopping. Similar to augmented reality, the draw of the digital watermarks is that they do not cover up the images on pages, which suited Time's reliance on big pictures in recipes. That's not to say that QR codes have fallen by the wayside, especially when the goal is to drive traffic. QR codes immediately signal consumers that there is a mobile component to a printed piece for quick lead generation. As a result, many marketers are balancing the advantages of print-to-mobile options by using different forms of technology at the same time, the Mobile Marketer story notes. P&G’s CoverGirl recently used a combination of QR codes and augmented reality on pages within Condé Nast’s September issues of Allure and Vogue, for example. See the complete story at http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/16338.html