I was watching TV last night and an ad came on for continuing education. It’s one with fingers walking around the place. The ad was OK. I didn’t really pay much attention. But at the end of the ad the call to action was - “search for EMA online”. Not visit direct.gov.uk/ema or what you’d normally get, but just search for EMA online.
This quote from Nick Burcher's is particularly interesting and has relevance for any graphic designers.
Search boxes, QR codes and other developments like this seem to have the potential to fundamentally alter the way that consumers respond to ads and it will be interesting to see where this goes!
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# Nick Burcher on March 28th, 2008
I saw examples of these Japanese search box ads in a presentation that Nikkei BP gave on the Japanese market at the end of last year.
In Japan the Search box with recommended search terms is also used on TV ads and intriguingly press ads in newspapers / magazines carry these Search boxes too (even though it is much easier to just print the web address rather than print a search term and then optimise Search engine results accordingly!)
Another form of quick link, the QR code, is also prominent in Japan - often running alongside the Search box on outdoor or in print. Ads feature a bespoke (QR) barcode and scanning / photographing this with a mobile phone results in your mobile browser going straight to the desired website. Few UK phones can deal with this yet but many new handsets have this inbuilt (eg the Nokia N95.) The beauty of this is not just that it makes it easy for consumers to reach your site from their mobile, but it also introduces a whole new level of interactivity for static ads on outdoor / in print (its easy to track respondents too). The Sun newspaper are experimenting with this technology and in December 07 ran a 4 page feature on QR codes - I don’t think it will be long before these start appearing regularly on UK ads / in UK editorial.
Search boxes, QR codes and other developments like this seem to have the potential to fundamentally alter the way that consumers respond to ads and it will be interesting to see where this goes!
I saw examples of these Japanese search box ads in a presentation that Nikkei BP gave on the Japanese market at the end of last year.
In Japan the Search box with recommended search terms is also used on TV ads and intriguingly press ads in newspapers / magazines carry these Search boxes too (even though it is much easier to just print the web address rather than print a search term and then optimise Search engine results accordingly!)
Another form of quick link, the QR code, is also prominent in Japan - often running alongside the Search box on outdoor or in print. Ads feature a bespoke (QR) barcode and scanning / photographing this with a mobile phone results in your mobile browser going straight to the desired website. Few UK phones can deal with this yet but many new handsets have this inbuilt (eg the Nokia N95.) The beauty of this is not just that it makes it easy for consumers to reach your site from their mobile, but it also introduces a whole new level of interactivity for static ads on outdoor / in print (its easy to track respondents too). The Sun newspaper are experimenting with this technology and in December 07 ran a 4 page feature on QR codes - I don’t think it will be long before these start appearing regularly on UK ads / in UK editorial.
Search boxes, QR codes and other developments like this seem to have the potential to fundamentally alter the way that consumers respond to ads and it will be interesting to see where this goes!
