Andy Cantu recently published his thoughts on an interesting new mobile technology, JAGTAG. His post is presented below. You can read more of Andy’s blog here.

A few months ago in my portfolio class my art director and I came up with a campaign that heavily used QR Codes throughout several media channels. Whether it was in our print ads, displayed on the wall of a street corner display, or available for download at the endgame call-to-action website, there was something missing that a few experts brought to our attention. Sure, they thought it was a cool idea but the approach limited all these ads to only people with smartphones. Bringing this campaign to those without smartphones would’ve required a completely different approach, using some form of mobile advertising.

Enter the JAGTAG. These little bundles of marketing joy appear to have the same look and feel of QR Codes. The biggest difference, however, is that these do not require a special app to initialize it after photographing. All you have to do is take a photo with your 5-year-old flip-phone’s 1mp camera and TEXT the photo to a provided number. In a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds, you’ll get a reply with some form of media or call to action (certain limitations apply depending on your phone, of course).

jagtag

I think this new spin on providing a way to advertise and market on the go can really open the door to more business willing to give it a shot. I think augmented reality is really cool, and QR codes were a great way to spread them, but I can understand how some business would look at that and remark, “And I’m supposed to use this how?” This is a more simplified solution which I think allows many businesses to use it in really simple or really clever ways. Ideas are already brewing in my head and I can’t wait to see who’ll start using this next.