SnapTell, which we’ve covered before, is a leading provider of image-recognition based mobile marketing services, that today announced they’ve reached a milestone with their revolutionary service.

With their recently released “Mobile Entertainment Explorer” user’s can simply snap a photo of things like CD covers, DVD and BluRay covers, and various games with their camera phones, send it via MMS to SnapTell, and instantly be returned a series of content related to the specific title.  Content like reviews, prices, run times, descriptions of the content and links to buy the DVD, CD or video game, plus more can be sent back to the user via MMS.

Even though it’s still a relatively new service, SnapTell has already grown it’s database to over one million titles, which is quite an accomplishment.  Since it’s ever-growing, it won’t be long until users can access just about any information regarding any media title available using it’s image recognition technology.

The system uses their popular Snap.Send.Get platform that’s available on any mobile device with a camera.  Since it uses MMS transmissions, it needs no special software running on the device, and since the image recognition server can decipher an image of low or poor quality, almost any camera phone can be used to snap the photo.

“…We’re dedicated to providing consumers the simplest means to access desired information on their phones, and now reaching one million in entertainment titles empowers the consumer to make smart decisions when they are out and about and away from their PCs,” said Gautam Bhargava, CEO and Co-Founder of SnapTell. “As we push the image-recognition technology frontier, we will provide solutions similar to the Mobile Entertainment Explorer that help consumers with their day-to-day decisions…”

If you’d like to try out their Mobile Entertainment Explorer, head over to their website to view a demo.  You can simply snap a photo of a DVD cover they’ve displayed, send it as an MMS to fun@snaptell.com, and see the technology in action.  Pretty cool stuff.

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I came across a relatively unknown company today, called CamClick.  They focus on connecting online content to physical products using the the product barcodes that are already in place.

They offer both a content-management system/CRM as well as a java mobile application to read the barcodes with camera phones.  A company can input their barcode product data that they already have into the content management system, and make every product interactive.  They can then make the barcode reader available to their customers and provide a new content channel, and more importantly a new marketing channel.  CamClick states that their CMS/CRM platform is…

…the easiest and fastest way to get started with mobile market communication towards customers and users of your products. The solution is based on standardized technology and does not require any investments or risks to use. It is probably the most economic and effective way to identify your customers and communicate with them. Use your standard product packages as a global interface for mobile users to interact with.

The barcode reader is Java ME-based, and can handle “noisy, rotated codes with approximately .01 inch module widths.”  It’s supposed to be able to decode all major 1D and 2D barcodes, currently manifested by EAN13, Code128 and QR Code via the camera installed on any cell phone.  There’s an online demo video of the application in action, and it uses a Sony Ericsson K550i with an auto-focus camera.  This undoubtedly makes for quicker decoding and content retrieval over a camera that can be blurred and shaky.  As camera-phone technology increases, auto-focus will be a standard feature, and it will no longer be a barrier.

In an interesting article from the Pondering Primate, they discuss the mobile marketing benefits of such a physical world connection.  The makers of the products can “turn-on” the barcodes of the products so to speak, and when consumers scan and decode a barcode, they can be presented with anything from coupons, to health information, to cross-promotional items, etc.  Consumers can in turn, form social-networks around the products, and let brands determine the appropriate advertising.  Scott from the Pondering Primate also points out an interesting example of this in action;

Music star Fergie is using barcodes for mobile ticketing.  CamClic could “turn on” the 1D barcodes of all of her CDs, and when a CD barcode is scanned, her music label can direct a scanner to an appropriate site/info. In addition, Fergie fans could also click on any barcode to be connected to the “Fergie Fan Club”.  How valuable is this data?

The CMS/CRM platform as well as the Java barcode reader are available free of charge, and the company is currently seeking venture capital to increase their offerings and make it available to the masses.

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Generation Y will dramatically change the face of retail marketing over the next 10 years. Bold statement right? Not really if you ask me, folks in this generation are totally at ease with mobile technology and it’s their goto method when they do just about anything which increasingly includes shopping.

If you missed it, Jayne O’Donnell wrote a featured story on mobile shopping this past Wednesday in the Money section of the USAToday and it heavily focuses on how this younger generation is routinely turning to their mobile device as a primary method for their shopping needs. Go read it and you’ll see that this demographic is all over mobile things such as:

• mobile coupons
• text ads
• mobile search services
• cellfire
• NearbyNow
• slifter

NearbyNow is a unique mobile marketing service that the teens and twentysomethings are totally into. This 40-something gets it too. I used it this afternoon during my nutty Christmas shopping adventure. The shortcode for the mall I was at is CU to 632729 (lookup your shortcode). Within seconds I received a menu of options, I wanted to see Sales so I Texted back the sales option. Again, within seconds I had a few Text messages that listed all of the stores that had listed Sales within the NearbyNow system. I texted back the Disney Store option and received yet another text listing:

• Tinker Bell Fleece $10, Reg. $17
• Pooh Fashion Sweater $15, Reg. $20
• My Size Jasmine Plush Doll $23, Reg. $30

That’s mobile marketing folks and it’s how the up and coming generation is getting things done right now. Go read the USA Today article, Jayne writes about how the teen and the parent will both shop at the same store except they’ll use completely different methods. The teen or digital millenial as Laura Evans calls em, is all about using mobile services while the parent is not.

I receive the offline version of the USAToday and this story in the offline version has a graphic that illustrates a JupiterResearch study which indicates that teens are twice as likely to use their mobile device for Texting and other non voice related applications, this illustration doesn’t appear in the online version of the story. Not sure why but it’s important because that’s the shift that’s taking place in how consumers shop.

Oh, and I opted into the NearbyNow future sales list for this particular mall. That’s more mobile marketing because the system they are using is proactively looking to add users to their database. It was double opt in which means I agreed to join the list and then had a second confirmation. That’s the approach you want to take help keep a clean list.

If you’re a retailer and want to implement a campaign like the one I mentioned above, touch base with any of the mobile marketing firms that I’ve previously covered, they’ll be glad to assist you with your mobile marketing campaign. The mobile marketing companies listed in the top of the grid are all hyperlinked.

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Here’s a hint, remember back in June when I blogged about Tim McGraw? If you don’t check it out, Tim’s folks smartly integrated some mobile marketing into an email campaign using ShopText.

So I was kinda surprised this evening when I opened this Faith Hill email. Ya know, the only reason I opened it was to see if they were still using any mobile techniques in their campaigns. By now you’ve already figured out that they probably didn’t and you’re right. Here’s the offer.

I was looking for the trusty Premium Text offer to see if this CD or DVD could be pre-ordered using a shortcode but it’s not there. Shhhhh, hey let’s start a rumor, I think Tim is keeping mobile marketing secrets from Faith; I’m just sayin.

Oh and the best part of this whole story, my wife chimed in when I showed her the email with this gem… “so what, she has better hair“.

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  A couple of days ago Yahoo made a significant change to the main search bar on their home page by rolling out an auto suggest feature.

You’ve seen these before… start typing and a results panel starts filling in suggested search results; Google has one (not on the home page) and so does Ask (theirs looks the coolest). Heck, even I made my own with a search engine I built for the community I live in. Only Yahoo and Ask have it baked right into their main search bar though on the home page. Anyhow, that’s not why I’m posting though I love the feature.

Just at the edge of the fold on the right side I found Yahoo oneSearch. I’ve not noticed Yahoo promote their Mobile Search Channel via their home page before. I’m sure it’s been there but I’ve never seen it.

It just so happens that I’m in the market for one of those really cool Dyson Vacuum Cleaners. I was in Target about an hour ago and hesitated on their price point. So, I used oneSearch to see if I could find some pricing and I hope someone from Yahoo is reading this because my first impression isn’t so great. Why? Take a look at the marketing piece that got me to oneSearch and you’ll clearly see that it leads folks to believe that “pricing comparisons” can be made. That’s really a stretch, this is not a pricing comparison service.

Here are my first results for “dyson” with “tampa” set as my location. It’s easy to see why I was disappointed right? Prices, where are the prices?

I even wandered into the detail to see if I could get a price. Nope. Although, for you marketers in the crowd you can see the power of Mobile Search by looking over this next snippet… Here you’ve got a mobile device, a merchant, a hot linked phone number to immediately connect the buyer and seller.

I also searched for my hometown “Oldsmar” and oneSearch impressed me with the results. The oneSearch mobile results are 10 times better then the main Yahoo Search Engine that I use in my web browser. Those results are filled with spam. Oh and I learned how to leverage Flickr on oneSearch. At the top of the “City Guide” results for “Oldsmar” were 3 Flickr photos that are tagged with “oldsmar”.

I like the search, I’m still trying it out but I don’t like the marketing piece that got me there, that was sneaky. An idea for Yahoo would be to mobilize Yahoo Shopping which is a true Shopping Comparison Engine.

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If you’re a product marketer 411sync has a WAP based pricing comparison tool that’s worth checking out if you’ve not done so already.

Here’s the default interface:

They’ve actually integrated an impressive list of sites but there are some notables missing:

So where’s the opportunity? Take a closer look at the list again and you’ll see some stuff such as Walmart, NewEgg and Dell.com. These aren’t properties that I would typically classify as Pricing Comparison sites.  However, these merchants managed to get into the mix and I’m guessing others can too. I sent an email into 411Sync asking how other merchants can take advantage of this mobile opportunity. I’ll follow-up when I receive a reply.

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