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Using smartphones for brand marketing

International Herald Tribune November 17, 2010 | TANZINA VEGA

TANZINA VEGA International Herald Tribune 11-17-2010 Using smartphones for brand marketing Byline: TANZINA VEGA Type: News website google iphone app

Google and several brands are testing a smartphone application that sends users to an ad Web site after photographing an ad or label.

A year ago, Google introduced a smartphone application that lets people take photographs of objects and get search results in return. On Tuesday, the company will take that capability into the world of marketing with an experiment allowing five U.S. companies to use the application in their promotional materials.

In the early days of smartphones, people could find out about a movie by entering its title in Google’s browser and searching. Then Google introduced the ability to use voice to enter a question. The Google Goggles visual search application, available in iPhones and Android phones, allows people to take photographs of an object, like a movie poster, and find out more about it in search results.

Google hopes the experiment will give it insight into how people want to interact with a brand. “It’s a learning experiment for us more than an opportunity to make money,” said Michael Slinger, Google’s head of mobile search advertising sales in North America. “We’ve got the distribution and interesting visuals. Everything hinges on whether the users will adopt this or not.”

Google has reason to believe it might pay off. The company says mobile searches on Google have risen 500 percent in the past two years, and the Google Goggles stand-alone application has been downloaded more than 250,000 times. The application was also recently integrated into the Google iPhone application.

While the technology is not new, the idea that brands can begin to play with it is. Google announced its intention to use the Goggles application as part of its mobile advertising strategy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx conference in New York in September.

While a visual search for a Frida Kahlo painting might show results like a Wikipedia page about the artist, companies that are taking part in the Goggles experiment — Buick, Walt Disney, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Air Lines — can point people to a Web site for cellphones or other content.

Most of the campaigns have print components, like magazine ads or movie posters, that can be scanned. And though most people using smartphones have gotten used to scanning bar codes on some ads, with Google Goggles people can scan the entire image to get a result. website google iphone app

For Buick, that means having Goggles-enabled ads in magazines. The ads will show the Buick Regal and will run in U.S. publications like Entertainment Weekly, People and Time in November, and Esquire, Fast Company and Forbes in December.

“People still equate us with big floaty, boxy cars that are driven by people in their 70s and 80s,” said Craig Bierley, director of advertising and sales promotions for Buick-GMC. “This is really about positioning Buick in a progressive marketing space so that people think of Buick as a progressive company.”

When a person scans a Goggles-enabled Buick ad, the first result to appear is a mobile site with a video, a photo gallery and the option to find a dealer. The target demographic for Buick is baby boomers.

The company will measure the success of the experiment by tracking information, like how many people watched the video on the mobile site, looked for a dealer or viewed the photo gallery. They will also monitor what people are saying about the brand on social media sites.

Buick will also use poster-size versions of the ads at two events Thursday in New York City. The first will be at the Wired Store, where people can see a Buick Regal poster. Buick will also offer posters at the Out 100 awards ceremony at the IAC Building, where the company will be the presenting sponsor.

Disney will use Goggles-enabled movie posters for the film “Tron: Legacy,” which will be released in December worldwide. The 30,000 posters will be distributed in 5,000 theaters across the United States. People who scan the posters will be taken to a mobile site where they can view a trailer for the film and be directed to Fandango.com or Movietickets.com to buy tickets. The trailer will be the same one that people see in theaters.

T-Mobile has begun running its Goggles ads for the T-Mobile G2 smartphone in publications like Spin, Glamour and Rolling Stone.

Goggles can also use labels from the British beverage company Diageo. People who scan the labels on bottles of certain alcoholic beverages will be taken to a mobile site where they can find things like cocktail recipes and wine reviews.

The most recent partner, Delta Air Lines, is expected to start working on Goggles ads soon.

Mr. Slinger of Google said the company was receiving calls from other companies interested in trying Goggles, including some in the retailing and automotive industries.

TANZINA VEGA