Five companies join forces for huge mobile barcode push

A joint agreement has been announced between Modavox, DuPont, Scanbuy, Graphic Packaging International and Augme Mobile. What have these five companies gotten together for? To promote mobile barcodes on packaging for goods.

The joint Marketing Agreement is to push interactive packaging. By placing 2d barcodes on products, the companies want to give consumers more use from their goods. So someone buying a good can scan the barcode embedded on the packaging, and get product information, coupon offers, advertisements or promotional info.

Modavox and Augme will be handling the content and advertising delivery. Scanbuy is the tech partner for 2d barcodes and barcode scanners. The DuPont branch involved in this deal is the Packaging & Industrial Polymers section, so it and Graphic Pagacking will be providing the actual physical packaging.

From the release:

“DuPont P&IP, along with our collaboration partners, are always looking for ways to bring leading edge packaging innovation to our customers. Mobile enabled interactive technology using 2D codes appears to be the most effective way for a consumer to quickly and easily interact with a package,” said Carolann Haznedar, global business director, DuPont Ethylene Copolymers. “CPG companies from around the world are very interested in this technology and aligning support in the value chain will enable clarity and consistency in its use.”

“While text messaging is currently the dominant method of consumer response in mobile marketing in the U.S., it is anticipated that in the near future the North American market will follow Japan’s lead, where over 70% of all cell phone users scan 2D mobile codes on a regular basis. Through our partnership with Augme Mobile, the Snap2C(tm) initiative allows for the combination of text and 2D codes in a single packaging-based campaign so that the broadest mobile consumer base is established. We are delighted to collaborate with companies like Scanbuy to further develop methods of creating interactive communication between the brands and their consumer base,” stated Charlie Brignac, GPI Marketing Manager for Snap2C(tm).

What we think?

The importance of this really can’t be overstated. It seems like the main drive for this agreement came from DuPont. After long consideration, DuPont has decided that mobile barcodes are the way of the future. And look what has happened now. This is a huge deal between some of the biggest packaging manufacturers in the world. It’s deals like this that will really help drive pick-up of mobile barcodes. Nothing will spread their profile faster than having them printed on the groceries in your local store.

I’m also interested by the extent to which advertising is being integrated with this push. This could actually lead towards some very tightly targeted mobile advertising. There are already services that let you scan the barcode on a product and receive promotions or ads for similar or related items. But none of them have had the depth and breadth of industry backing that this has.

It’s yet another big deal for Scanbuy this week as well. This really has been “The Week of Scanbuy“. What was it about the Scanlife solution that attracted the attention of DuPont? It claims that Scanlife had a strong performance when reading very small barcodes, and that it worked well in low-light environments.