To help promote what is possible with the new digital economy, Bullseye has produced a limited run of T-shirts containing the Semacode of the Bullseye mobile site.

Here’s our creative director Kev proudly modelling the t-shirt, as I point my camera phone at the semacode, which takes my phone directly to the site without having to key in the full URL.

This link lets you tag any URL to create your own semacode.

Semacode readers are included on many new phones such as Nokia’s N95, but will also run on any recent camera phone if you download and install the free reader.

Here are some download links
Nokia http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/terms.htm
Other http://semacode.com/download
If you have web access from your phone you can simply go to http://www.i-nigma.mobi which automatically recognises if your phone supports the reader and provides a direct download (it’s about 400k).
Smartphones http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp

The uses for Semacodes are varied, but here are 2.

Print media.  Used in print media they can be used to link an article or ad to a particular website. Say you see an ad for a product  in a Health and Beauty magazine, the code could be used to enable people to directly go to a page containing more information about the product, a place to purchase or a page to enter a competition. 

Music. You have just released your first song and you want to provide people with a direct download to their phones. You create a semacode that links to the free song download URL.

One of the emerging technologies that we have been researching is semacodes.
Semacodes look a little like an out of focus crossword puzzle, but are actually used to provide information to mobile phones.

Usually, the code or tag contains information such as a URL which the phone captures via it’s camera function.  This overcomes one of the barriers to using mobile phones for internet access, which is typing in long addresses.

This code shown here actually points to the URL http://www.bullseye.com.au/mobi which is a site we have created containing some useful mobile site links, along with a mobile version of this blog.

This link lets you tag any URL to create your own semacode.

Semacode readers are included on many new phones such as Nokia’s N95, but will also run on any recent camera phone if you download and install the free reader.

Here are some download links
Nokia http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/terms.htm
Other http://semacode.com/download
If you have web access from your phone you can simply go to http://www.i-nigma.mobi which automatically recognises if your phone supports the reader and provides a direct download (it’s about 400k).
Smartphones http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp

The uses for Semacodes are varied, but here are 2.

Print media.  Used in print media they can be used to link an article or ad to a particular website. Say you see an ad for a product  in a Health and Beauty magazine, the code could be used to enable people to directly go to a page containing more information about the product, a place to purchase or a page to enter a competition. 

Music. You have just released your first song and you want to provide people with a direct download to their phones. You create a semacode that links to the free song download URL.

A recent Nielsen study of more than 22,000 active mobile data users, shows gaining acceptance of mobile advertising in the US reports Marketing Charts.

23 percent of US mobile subscribers (58 million people) say they have seen mobile advertising in the previous 30 days.

Half of mobile data users (51 percent, or 28 million people) who recall seeing a mobile ad say they responded to the ad in some way.

However, just 10 percent of US mobile data (e.g., text-messaging) users say they think advertising on their mobile devices is acceptable – but an increasing number appear to understand the value proposition of ad-supported mobile content, Nielsen said.

Nearly 1/3 of mobile data users say they are open to mobile advertising if it lowers their overall bill, according to the survey.

Among other findings of the study:

• The number of data users who recalled seeing mobile advertising between the second and fourth quarters of 2007 increased 38 percent (from 42 million to 58 million).
• Teen data users (age 13-17) were the most likely age segment to recall seeing mobile advertising (46 percent recalled seeing some type of mobile advertisement, compared with 29 percent of all data users).
• 26 percent of those who saw an ad responded at least once by sending an SMS text message, the most popular ad response.
• 9 percent say they have used click-to-call to respond to a mobile ad (i.e., users follow a link on their phone to call a specific number).
• 13 percent (18 percent of males) said they are open to mobile advertising if it improves the media and content currently available.
• 14 percent said they are already open to mobile advertising so long as it is relevant to their interests.
• 23 percent expect to see more mobile advertising in the future (up from just 15 percent in Q1 2007).

Perspective:  The Australian market is probably 12-18 months away from these numbers, due to barriers such as access speeds and cost. 

MoFuse is a service that allows you to generate a mobile version of your site without the need to do any technical coding at all.

Just to prove it works, I whipped up a mobile version of the Bullseye Blog

http://bullseye.mofuse.mobi/   and as the picture shows the formatting looks pretty good in both normal and Iphone mode.

Whilst Mobile is still an emerging channel in Australia, but with the impending launch of the iPhone, an increase in available content, and bundling of access packages the uptake will gradually increase.  We think 2009 will be when Mobile comes of age in Australia, but it is important for brands to start experimenting.