Everyday I hear about some new technology that is going to “change the way I consume media” or “reinvent how I gather information.” I feel like I have an illness and I’m hanging on to my multimedia lifeline fed through a Facebook Feeding Tube and RSS IV. One side effect of this digital epidemic is the slow painful death of printed media. Newspapers and magazines are going out of business as publishers desperately try to develop online media revenue to make up for what’s being lost offline. The New York Times for example only generates between 10 and 12 percent of total revenue through online channels.  Link

Recently I stumbled across a technology that I think could actually breath a little life back into paper. I don’t think that it’s going to save the industry, but admittedly it may “change the way you consume media” and quite possibly “reinvent how you gather information.”

Imagine opening up the Dining and Wine section of the New York Times. It’s Thursday morning and you are looking for date ideas. As you pour through restaurant reviews and information on the latest peanut butter epidemic an article about an aphrodisiac food recipe captures your attention. This article not only provides a seductive recipe that will loosen her drawers but also recommends a wine, romantic movie and even a sound track for later that night! The article is great but unlike a website there is no way to extend this experience or provide and further value.

Now imagine you are reading the same article but this time there is a small box that looks a little like a barcode printed at the end of the page. You snap a picture of the barcode with your mobile phone and right away coupons for the recipe’s ingredients are sent back to your phone along with a map of movie rental locations and a link to the iTunes store with information on purchasing a sex romp remix. Now we are talking! The only thing better then that would be if a prophylactic popped out of your Bluetooth headset!

The technology that can make this happen is called 2d bar codes. The “1d” version is the standard bar code that we are all familiar with. 2d codes on the other hand hold much more information. Adding these codes to packaging, newspaper articles, billboards or any other offline media for that matter can extend the experience of engagement far greater then a static message can. The codes, which look like a group of small randomly placed boxes, can be captured with the camera on your mobile phone. Once software on your phone recognizes the unique code any number of online events can automatically take place.

One major issue facing adoption right now is that the majority of US phones do not come with software to read the codes. In Japan every new phone comes with the reader preinstalled. In fact this technology has been used over there for years.

Recently a few US brands have attempted to use these codes in marketing messages. Last year Papa Johns actually gave away pizzas to consumers who used their 2d code promotion. And more recently Ralph Lauren used the codes in a series of their own campaigns.

These “pull bar codes” really do close the communication gap between offline media and online marketing events. Everyday I see thousands of urls printed in magazines, billboards, bus shelters or on packaging and I remember about none of them. I admit my retention span is shorter then most, but I bet if you had to recall one URL you saw on a billboard, printed in a magazine or plastered on a bus shelter today you couldn’t do it. Replacing printed URLS with 2d codes will allow us to engage with messages at the time we see them. The same information that marketers want us to visit their website for can be brought right to our phones at the time we see the ad.

There are obviously many more practical applications for this technology then I have given in my hormone filled rampage example, but I’ll let you discover those for yourself. I will share with you some of the research I came across as I learned about these 2d codes that you might find useful. Creating codes is surprisingly easy. Depending on which type of phone you have some services will work better then others.

First you are going to need software for your phone that can read the codes and you are also going to need an application to create the codes. The most basic actions these codes deliver to your phone is automatically sending you to a website, sending your phone a SMS, adding a contact to your phone or creating a calendar event. You will find that some services offer different codes then others and not all codes will work with all phones. Not to make things more confusing but there are also a couple different versions of codes. The most popular 2d code is a QR-Code. I recommend finding software for your phone that can read QR-Codes. If you would like to create QR-Codes I have posted some links for sites that can help you do that. You also can look on the right hand column of this site. I have posted a QR-Code generator for your pleasure. Now go be creative and do something cool with these codes. My girlfriend is coming over soon and I have a seductive meal to cook.

Bee Tag - I have a Blackberry and found this site has the best reader.  It is  also good for generating codes.

Snappr - Great QR-Code generator site

2D Sense - Iphone reader and code generator site

Qreate Buzz -   Free campaign builder with analytic software

Check back for updates. I will be writing a more comprehensive post about 2d code readers, generators and campaign builders shortly.