DAVE CLARK <mediadc_at_email.msn.com> WROTE:
> Lisa Melvin asked on June 20 for comments about some
> free software from Digimarc that allows a user to hold
> up an ad to a Web-cam, and the software reads the ad
> and opens the web site.
>
> My take is that sure it's a possible solution, but why?
> This seems to me one of those "we do it because we can"
> deals. Pretty dumb idea IMHO. Do you really want a
> visitor who is so lame that they can't type in a URL?
As I understand it (and please everyone feel free to
correct me if I'm wrong), the point of this form of
advertising is to give the advertiser more control over
tracking the response rates from the print ad. For
instance, you're running an ad for the month of July
for a particular configuration of your product at a
reduced rate. With normal print ads you'd plug in your
url (www.----.com) and people would be sent to your
main page. This is where it gets tricky, how then do
you figure out who is coming to your site specifically
due to that ad?
Well you could send them to a different page you can
easily track (ex: www.----.com/index2.html), which
would work. The question is, how many readers are
going to remember the "index2.html"? And if you're
selling a single product and want to shuttle them to an
even more specific page (ex:
www.----.com/12345?premium-config.cgi)? How many
readers are going to be able to remember that one, or
have their copy of the ad in hand when they're at their
computer? Possibly a reasonable amount, but I think you
can see my point.
Ellie Deyneka
Publications Coordinator
www.Tuxtops.com
Laptops with Linux!
Received on Thu Jun 22 2000 - 14:39:33 CDT
