Though these personalized videos were a novelty last year, they may be mainstream in 2012.
Last, year, J.C. Penney made mcommerce waves by adding a never before seen gift tag opportunity for its customers during the holiday season, through the use of QR codes.
This year, companies around the world are offering their own take on this service.
A company in Brazil, named Diageo, the largest spirits producer in the world, has announced that it will be bringing gift tags with QR codes up to a new level. With so many more smartphone users this year than there were last year – and the promise of another wave of additional users to be added as gifts are given over the holidays – this may prove to be a highly popular technique.
The QR codes from Diageo were already found on many liquor bottles for Father’s Day.
The success of the QR codes in its Father’s Day campaign on the labels of bottles of White Horse, Johnnie Walker, and Old Parr whisky made it obvious to the Brazilian company that Christmas would offer yet another opportunity to let smartphone users benefit from their mobile devices.
That previous campaign allowed gift givers to create a personalized video message that could then be associated with the individual QR codes that were found on the liquor bottles that were given as gifts. Then, when the recipient received the bottle, he could use a mobile device to scan the code and view the video.
In order to be able to offer this service, and to make it possible yet again for the holiday shopping season, Diageo developed a marketing platform that was based on EVRYTHNG Engine technology.
Many mobile marketers believe that this type of gift tag made out of QR codes will become quite popular this year, as people use their smartphones for an increasing number of daily tasks, and become accustomed to using the devices as a part of virtually everything that they do. It is not unlikely that other merchants and large retailers will soon begin revealing their intentions to provide similar opportunities to their customers.