Greenpeace Japan has recently launched an anti-GMO (genetically-modified organisms) campaign (japanese true food site), aimed at informing and empowering consumers to support GMO-free products and put pressure on the food industry to provide more choice and better labelling of GMO content in foods. [...] Food items are rated with a green face (good), yellow face, (not so good), and a red face (bad) based on the presence of GMOs.

[...] Not only can shoppers see whether an individual product merits a green, yellow or red face, they can also read background information about the source company that produces that item and in particular, their customer feedback telephone number (I’m sure you can see where this is going). Many Japanese mobile browsers are configured to automatically identify and hot-link phone numbers on webpages – so it’s just a one-button click to ring the company and leave them a phone message about just why their product is not being purchased today.

In the works: a GMO-free QR code reader that would mean consumers would be able to scan the unique mobile-friendly bar code that are printed some products and get an immediate green, red or yellow face.

But as the barriers to entry start to come down, the hardest work for marketers really begins now, said Stoller. And simply duplicating applications used for other digital media won't cut it in the mobile space. "I think banners and text that say 'buy Pepsi' are never going to work," he said. "The whole model needs to be rethought."

Procter and Gamble, meanwhile, has launched a Mobile Ad Lab. which will create 35 mobile marketing programs over the next nine months. "Two-thousand seven will be a year of growth for the U.S. mobile industry. We will be seeing a lot of the large marketers entering the arena with test and learn executions," said mobile marketing guru John Hadl, who advises P&G.

As a result, next month the DMA will publish guidelines on marketing via Bluetooth and will raise the issue of initial opt-in with its new Mobile Marketing Council. This is extremely encouraging, hopefully meaning that marketers will learn to walk before racing ahead with this new channel.
No matter what the outcome, I can’t help thinking that whatever emerges with the advent of BlueCasting, the issue here has to be consumer choice. Communications must be targeted, permission based and above all engaging to combat consumer aversion. A mature, long-term approach that focuses on creating a dialogue with a customer - not a monologue - is essential. Otherwise, we risk wrecking the potential of this exciting, new medium.

Le Code QR (pour Quick Response) peut être considéré comme le code-barres de la nouvelle génération. Alors que ce dernier ne peut enregistrer qu'une suite de treize chiffres* au maximum, le code QR peut stocker environ 7'000 caractères numériques et 1800 caractères alphanumériques**. Ils peuvent être lus par le téléphone portable.

Mitsuo Wada sieht also eine starke Tendenz zu "Multistaged Communication" und "Customer Interaction". Die ursprüngliche Funktion von Werbung, nämlich die Vorstellung eines Produktes und die Erhöhung dessen Absatzes, wurde abgelöst durch Prinzipien wie Imagestärkung und Kundenbindung. Dieser Trend findet dann seine letzte Konsequenz in neuen Werbeformen, die einen direkten Kontakt zu den Kunden und somit eine enge Bindung zwischen Konsumenten und Unternehmen ermöglichen. Der hohe Grad von Imagewerbung und emotionaler Ansprache ist ein deutlicher Vorbote für diese neue Werbekultur.

... and a photo for Jan Chipchase