I heard about this project from on the FIR podcast #418 and once I started reading about it I started salivating at the Marketing/Tech oportunities! Called the Microsoft Tag , essentially it is a barcode maker but a cool one at that. With the increased usage of Smart phones more and more people are starting to have 2 things with them at all times, a digital camera and an internet browser. With that in mind through the use of these multi coloured barcodes people can upload them to their phone using their digital camera and it is then translated into specific webcontent through the Microsoft plug in.
If you go to the site Microsoft gives a few potential uses for this product such as downloading a bus schedule, being forwarded to a movie trailer from a movie poster or getting more information from a real estate sign. I’m sure if shown the benefits of this product this can be used in so many other applications such as directing people to product descriptions at retail stores, linking interactive campaigns and paper advertising ( such as magazine, and street signage) even something as simple as a museum tour could be done with this technology.
Overall the biggest function for something like this is that it may be able to give a new form of interaction between consumer and company in a person’s everyday life. And unlike any obtrusive ad campaign out there this is something that the person opts into meaning that firms don’t waste their time with people that aren’t interested in the comodities they provide.
Kudo’s to Microsoft for coming out with this, I’m normally not a huge fan of the company (damn you Vista!) but when they let themselves be a bit more relaxed and creative they can come out with good stuff ( such as the Xbox 360, and the Zune) now if only they would actually release something like this!
