Lifestyle magazine Men’s Health is making print ads interactive with a new campaign that integrates print ads and mobile phones through a new partnership with imaging processing firm SnapTell.
All print ads in the magazine’s July/August summer issue, which hits newsstands June 24, will let readers interact with the brands and receive promotions through their mobile phone. Consumers can take a photo of any part of a print ad with their camera phone and text the photo to a short code to opt in to receive a message back from the company.
“Men’s Health is looking to create a very personalized interaction with their consumers,” said Gautam Bhargava, CEO of SnapTell. “Instead of just a flat print ad now the publisher is offering a value add to advertisers with a deeper engagement possibility. Ads become interactive and have analytics tied to them.”
Every ad in the issue, including ads from Axe and PowerAde, will have SnapTell functionality. The ad content remains the same and the advertiser does not have to change any wording or add information. “These ads will not have any special barcodes or content to interact,” Bhargava added. “There is one universal call to action within the magazine.”
The technology is compatible with any camera-enabled cell phone and on any network. It does not require special software. The technology picks up on the type of phone a user is using and sends ads that are enabled especially for that phone. Ads can also be targeted based on time of day and area code.
“For the advertiser it [is] a very interactive way to [connect] with the consumer based on a print ad,” Bhargava added.
