Back in T-Town

Whew! I just got back from a very busy three weeks in Amsterdam. Between work, looking for an apartment, getting my papers processed and reporting back to Tokyo I had no time for blogging and little time for reading my usual amount of industry news. So I played catch-up this weekend and have been wading through my feeds for juicy mobile news. There was quite a lot of it to wade though! Now back in Tokyo I need to execute my exit plans (apartment, bank account, pension, furniture, utilities, etc.). And play with the new motion-sensor 904i DoCoMo phones before I fully relocate to Holland :).

Animated QR-Codes

ITDesign, makers of DesignQR referred to in the previous post have come up with "movie QR", or animated QR-codes. Basically it looks like they are just animating the images that are embedded in the code. You can see an example below (rather long CM, skip to the last part to see the example).

Scan the code to visit the keitai site and download the follow-up video to find out if Black Jack is Japanese or a foreigner. As a bonus you get to see the kung-fu schoolgirls double-kick QR-Boy in the face. Nice.

QR-Cool

There have been a lot of 2D-barcode upstarts as of late, most of them focusing on making their dot boxes attractive and marketing-friendly. QR-codes, the standard here in Japan, are looked upon as ugly or industrial-looking with low potential to be integrated into a company's look and feel.

Not so. Check out LogoQ and DesignQR. They crush most of the marketing claims touted by other companies, and they can be read with any standard QR-code reader. You know, the reader that comes standard in nearly all Japanese keitai and many Nokia devices. Go ahead, scan a sample.

Here are a few samples from LogoQ.

Here are a few from DesignQR.

A walk on the For-Side

Terrie's Take has an insightful article about the rise and fall of For-Side in Europe and the circumstances surrounding their withdrawal from the European market. Definitely worth a read.

Mobile Marketing Trends in Japan

eMarketer is running an article (tomorrow according to the date ;P) about how mobile marketing is seeing a revival in Japan. Using keitai as promotional tools is not new in Japan, but there has been some serious growth over the past year according to the referenced Dentsu 2006 Expenditure Report (PDF).

The use of mobile advertising in nationwide mass campaigns by clients in industries such as beverages and automobiles is already a well-established approach, and total spending in this medium rose to ¥39.0 billion (up 35.4%) in 2006.

Another referenced report from NPD Group indicates that 2D barcodes have become one of the most used features on Japanese mobile phones. Emarketer has made a nice chart:

Anyway, you should check out the original story at eMarketer and have a look at Dentsu's website for variety of free reports.