General Mills Using Microsoft Tag On Food Products

A while back I made a post about Windows Mobile Tags and perhaps it went a bit unnoticed, but now we have some commercial use starting. At the same time, I put my tag on the blog and it’s on the right hand side under the advertising information so if you want, download the software and try it out with your camera on your cell phone or use this one to the right.

Windows Tags – Bar Coding Information Made Easy from your Cell Phone

Here’s mine in case you missed it on the site. The software can be downloaded here. This is really very cool. Just last week it was announced that Windows Mobile units will soon be able to do ultrasounds for medical imaging.

Windows Mobile Smart Phones on the Horizon for Imaging Kidneys, Liver, Bladder, Eyes, Prostate and Uterine Screenings

Kurt Shintaku, who I’ve known for a number of years through the Windows Mobile Users group made the announcement on his blog at the link below. At any rate, be it the grocery store or medical imaging the cell phone lives! I remember those very early days, oh about 10 years ago when the Mobile Users Group started and we had black and white PDAs that didn’t even include a phone. This User’s Group by the way is the longest running and one of the first Users Groups started by Microsoft and we all kind of grew up together with mobility. I’ll have to keep an eye out and try the phone at the grocery store. BD

General Mills, as part of their Brand Marketing Strategy, is leveraging Microsoft Tag, to reach out to their customer base and encourage more interaction with consumers beyond just “reading an advertisement”.

By integrating Microsoft Tag, they actively engage their customers at a richer level by bridging them from static advertisements to immersive ones online that provide stronger context, interactivity, and optimally, greater consumer value.

Client Software:
The client software runs on virtually any camera phone on the market, including Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry series, Nokia’s Symbian phones, and of course Windows Mobile devices. The software captures and interprets the tags and sends the user to a mobile web site.

Tag Format:
The “Microsoft Tag” itself is a Microsoft-developed format that distinguishes itself from other camera-consumable 2D coding systems by being very versatile in it’s usage. It’s EXTREMELY “durable” and readable even if blurred from motion, distance, or lighting. It can be placed on magazine ads, product boxes, and traditional surface mediums as usual, but it can also be used on:

Billboards, bus ads, and other “distance” advertising mediums

Computer screens & TV ads
(For example, the Microsoft Tag images in this blog post are VERY small… but they’ll still work with a 640x480 camera using the tag reader despite being blurred or of poor visibility)

Service Backend:
The Microsoft Tag software not only sends the consumer to the appropriate mobile web site, it also tracks the users hit centrally on the Tag Services’ backend so companies advertising with it can see how effective they are and potentially when, where (based on ad placement), and how often people are responding to their ads in REAL TIME – metrics that have to date been unavailable to marketers.