It's an early spring morning and you've walked the two blocks to the train station while listening to an audiobook on your iPhone. The train's on time and you get a great seat. On the arm of the seat is an ad, small but powerful: 50% off a Grande coffee at Starbucks, with coupon.
What coupon?
At the bottom of the ad is a 1x1 inch block of black ink, the design familiar but meaningless...until your realize what it is. You pop out your iPhone, take a photo of the insignia and your phone automatically takes you to a mobile site with a virtual coupon. Show the coupon on your screen to the cashier at Starbucks and get your half-price java.
Everyone knows the Internet is not only the present but the future. But the future holds marvels that have not even been thought of by most people. And along with web technology comes advances in print, video, and beyond. Imagine:
• Newspapers, magazines, greeting cards and flyers that have a thin, flexible video screen with a slide show or actual video playing. This technology is almost here - miniature batteries that can power the device for a few days, wafer-thin computer chips and inexpensive video displays will soon come together to give print that "Harry Potter" effect. And they say print is dead.
• Seamless connectivity between your home computer, laptop, phone, TV remote, iPad and car. The kind of connectivity that will allow you to listen to emails while driving, program your TV from anywhere and turn appliances on and off from your phone or car. A lot of this technology already exists. It just needs to be consolidated.
• Giveaways that send people directly to you site. For example: You go to a baseball game on bat day and get a free baseball bat, courtesy of Rustler Steakhouse. Until now the only advantage Rustler gets out of the promotion is branding exposure. But...add a scan-readable code (like on the subway seat ad) to the bottom of the bat and suddenly you've captured a client...they go to your site to get the coupon, and you get ROI.
This is just a taste of the exciting advertising opportunities that lie ahead. Remember, just five years ago the iPhone didn't exist, and using a smartphone to view websites was a slow, cumbersome novelty. Imagine what things will be like five years from now.
Engelhardt & Partners Automotive Advertising
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