Augme Technologies Inc. has expanded its marketing agreement with Graphic Packaging International Inc. to provide services for the mobile redemption of 2d bar codes.

The partners’ goal is to create marketing opportunities and purchase-incentive programs for consumer brands and marketing agencies. The loyalty codes combined with mobile interaction enable purchase-incentive programs for targeted marketing campaigns, contests and customer rewards.

“At GPI, we are in constant watch out for new capabilities that will enhance our customers’ ability to market their products,” said Charlie Brignac, marketing manager and director of business development at Graphic Packaging International, Marietta, GA. “When we identify new technology that we feel is on target with our objectives, we assess our ability to develop the technology in-house.

“If we do not have the resources to develop the technology in-house, we are aggressive in finding third parties to partner with to bring the new technology to the marketplace,” he said. “We are diligent in finding strategic partners that will give us the leading-edge position in the new technology.

“We believe that Augme Mobile was the ideal partner for us in developing a mobile marketing platform for our customers.”

Graphic Packaging International, a subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Co., , is a provider of paperboard packaging services for food, beverage and other consumer products companies.

Augme Technologies specializes in technology and services for interactive media marketing platforms that enable marketers and agencies to integrate brands, promotions, video and other digital content through the Internet and mobile communications.

2D bar codes inspire loyalty
Loyalty codes are number sequences or 2D bar codes added to packaging that enable the capture of additional purchase information such as product and size purchased, store name and geographic region.

GPI has developed processes related to the high-speed production and printing of these codes on product packaging.

By integrating these codes with the Augme Ad Life mobile marketing platform, the platform facilitates interactivity between the brand and the consumer.

The GPI/Augme platform for code production, printing and mobile redemption via text messaging and 2D code scanning enables brands and their marketers to identify and collect targeted consumer-purchase information.

Mobile redemption will increase consumer participation in loyalty programs, according to GPI.

“We have had consumers tell us that they would not participate in a loyalty program that required them to go to their PC to enter a code,” Mr. Brignac said. “This is why My Coke Rewards uses text messaging as a method of entry for loyalty codes.

“Many of today’s busy consumers are not going to take time out of their schedules to run to their PC’s to enter a loyalty code,” he said. “Conversely, if they have an entry option available such as SMS via cell phone when they open their product, the likelihood of entry is dramatically increased.

“Our customers consistently report that their Internet marketing programs provide their highest ROI—the availability of mobile response will increase the traffic to the brand sites and further improve the ROI of these digitally based marketing programs.”

Analyze this
Augme and GPI claim that they enable brands to be up and running with new loyalty code marketing campaigns in as little as two weeks.

Furthermore, the analytics derived from codes and mobile interaction gives marketers up-to-date metrics on consumer demographics and behaviors by comparing responses against more than 120 million consumer profiles, enabling marketers to refine campaigns and incentives for their target audience.

Consumers engage in a campaign by using their mobile phone to redeem loyalty codes printed inside a packaged product.

In addition, marketers can extend the brand beyond the loyalty process enabling participating consumers to easily receive interactive rich-media content over their mobile phones, which can offer extra loyalty points, rewards or prizes, instant coupons or other interactive marketing content designed to leverage the intelligence delivered by the platform.

For CPG marketers, the offering from Augme and Graphic Packaging creates opportunities for marketing sweepstakes, couponing and other incentive programs used to drive product purchases.

There is one other important consideration for the addition of a mobile redemption process. The addition will require brands to mobilize their digital assets.

The number of smartphones is expected to surpass the number of PCs in 2010.

Brands must be able to deliver their digital programming via mobile  or they could lose a significant portion of the consumer traffic that they have built via the Internet. 

“This platform could be for rebates, loyalty offers, coupons, whatever—the 2D bar code serves as proof of purchase,” said Anthony Iocovone, chief innovation officer at Augme, New York. “Loyalty programs have shown very strong ROI for these brands, so a number of brands are accelerating random codes, but no turnkey solution exists to redeem these codes via mobile devices.

“In terms of cost efficiency and time-to-market efficiency, mobile redemption feature is an attractive offer for brands looking to do so, because all elements are tied in together,” he said.