Interactive Print for the Holidays?

You’ve seen what it takes to create interactive print. Who’s doing it?

By Pat McGrew, EDP, Kodak

Last time around, the discussion revolved around what it takes to prepare for a communication strategy that involves both print and pixel components, such as putting QR or other 2D matrix bar codes onto print communication to create a conversation. The promise of adding these codes to print is that the consumer can immediately interact with the print to respond to a call for action or to get more information. The challenge is that there is some back office infrastructure that must be in place to ensure that the customer has the appropriate experience.

That infrastructure is not trivial, but there are a number of companies that will happily help you set it up. The challenge is in figuring out how and when it makes sense to incorporate boxy blocks.

One company that has taken up the challenge is retailer Target. For this coming holiday season the folks at Target have planned a comprehensive campaign incorporating a mobile site, Android applications, iPhone apps, text messages and bar codes. (Read more about their plan in this interview with Molly Hanus Koenst, spokesperson for Target Corp. in Mobile Commerce Daily at >>>.

The Sunday, November 7 Holiday Toy Sale circular is the first I’ve seen of the Target campaign, so I was anxious to try it out. Full disclosure, I no longer have a child in the family that warrants toy shopping. However, I was anxious to see what Target thought I should see when I clicked on the ScanLife code in the circular.

To be clear, it was only in the toy circular and not in the regular weekly circular advertising like housewares, electronics, and or even the new 16GB, Wi-Fi enabled iPad. With the ScanLife application it’s possible to scan the “info-rich bar code” and “instantly receive content,” according to the explanation provided in the circular. The Target folks provide three ways to get the bar code scanner if you don’t already have one.

I turned with anticipation to see what I would find. The codes appear on page 4, where I was invited to scan the code to see how to rock with the Paper Jamz guitar, see the tricks that the Gogo My Walkin’ Pup can perform or to see Bigfoot sightings. These are the only three codes anywhere in the circular. When I scanned them my Android ScanLife reader immediately recognized the codes and took me to the mobile site. The content was as described in the circular, but I had to sit back and scratch my head.

While it was cute to see Gogo go, and the Bigfoot sightings were amusing, they didn’t do anything to really sell me the products. If the marketing was intended to intrigue a child and get them to ask for the toy, the assumption is that the 3, 4 or 8 year old to whom these toys are targeted has a Smartphone. If it was targeted to me as a parent or grandparent, it missed the boat.

Even more sadly, there were only three codes in the circular. Despite the promise of the mobile plans for the 2010 season, this proved to me just how hard it must be to really enact this type of code-based print interactivity.

Pat McGrew, EDP, is the data-driven communication evangelist at Kodak. Her email address is Pat.McGrew@kodak.com. Twitter is @PatMcGrew, and blog is http://patmcgrew.growyourbiz.kodak.com.