It's 6 P.M. and hundreds of potential customers are sitting in buses, trains, and subway cars thinking about dinner. How do you capture their attention-and their business-right then and there amidst the sea of advertising and competition? Microsoft Tag is the answer.
Microsoft Tag is a revolutionary new technology that combines the portability of mobile devices with the Internet's ubiquity, allowing you to reach customers when and where they are most likely to buy.
With Microsoft Tag, there's no need for customers to type URLs or text short codes to reach your Web site. They simply point their mobile devices at a Tag and instantly jump to a site where they can:
- Make a reservation
- Look at a menu
- Get directions to your business
- Download a coupon or other special offer
- Order and pay for products and services
- Read a review of your business
- Watch a promotional video and more
Turn static elements into interactive experiences.
Microsoft Tag lets you transform physical marketing materials (such as digital signage, billboards, print advertisements, direct mail, and kiosks) into interactive experiences. Connections happen in a flash, so customers are more likely to bridge the void between reading a direct mail promotion and making an online reservation or between seeing a print ad and purchasing your product. And because it's so easy to forward Tag-based information electronically, your customers can actually help you extend your marketing reach through viral marketing and social networking sites.
Track your success. Amp up your ROI.
Microsoft Tag allows you to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns by capturing impressions and analytics, just like online clickthrough data does. But here's the critical difference: You not only see which campaign pieces are generating responses, but you also see when and where your customers respond-heatmap data that has never been available before. You can even capture the information on Tags that are forwarded from one user to another. This kind of powerful tracking and reporting can significantly boost the ROI of any marketing strategy.
Put state-of-the-art technology to work for you.
Microsoft Tag uses High-Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs), a sophisticated technology invented by Microsoft Research to maximize the performance of mobile phone cameras. And thanks to the advanced image-processing techniques employed, even the fixed-focus camera lenses common in most mobile devices can easily read Tags.
HCCBs integrate different symbol shapes into colorful geometric patterns to pack the maximum amount of information into the least amount of space. While traditional black-and-white barcodes, for example, store 1 byte (8 bits) in eight symbols, Tags can store the same amount of data in half the space. And because Microsoft Tag readers can decode both color and black-and-white imagery, you have all the flexibility you need to support a variety of media production demands.
Integrate and print Tags as you would any other color graphic. No special processing is required.
Publish in a variety of media. Printed Tags can be as small as 5/8-inch square and as large as 120 inches square. Tags can also be used on video displays, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and more.
Use Tags almost anywhere. Tags are readable from long distances-even when they are out of focus-so you can use them on billboards and signs.
Don't worry about damage. Enhanced error correction capabilities make Tags readable even when they are partially damaged.
Update content every day without having to reprint or republish your advertising. The same Tags can be updated to point to different content.
Test out Microsoft Tags today. It's free!
Creating Tags is easy and, during the beta period, it doesn't cost a thing! To get started, visit the Microsoft Tags site. You provide the text or the URL for the Web page you want to display each time the Tag is snapped, and Microsoft will instantly create your Tag. Use it in your next campaign, then return to the Microsoft Tags site to review analytics or create more Tags.