BMO Capital Markets Introduces 2D Barcode Ads
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Toronto-based BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of BMO Financial Group, has introduced two-dimensional barcodes in select versions of its weekly advertisements.
The first advertisements sporting the 2D bar codes have begun running in The Wall Street Journal. Using the camera on their mobile phone or PDA, readers of the newspaper can use a special free application to photograph an ad’s barcode, which then activates the device’s browser and links directly to a customized page on the BMO Capital Markets Web site. The barcodes, known as EZcodes, are expected to grow in popularity for their ability to engage a targeted audience instantly with an advertisement’s interactive message.
“Our clients are increasingly on the go,” said Rick Kuwayti, head of marketing for BMO Capital Markets. “This innovative technology gives advertising a much more powerful punch by putting valuable information into the hands of a growing segment of mobile users at precisely the moment they want it.”
The first BMO Capital Markets ad to utilize the 2D barcode technology appeared on the front page of the Money & Investing section of last Friday’s (Aug. 7/09) Wall Street Journal. Titled ‘Good Health’, the ad highlights the firm’s 9th annual Focus on Healthcare Conference which took place in New York last week. Readers who photograph the 2D barcode are linked to the conference archive Web page, which contains Webcast presentations, research reports and marketing materials on the more than 75 companies that presented during the event.
“We’ll be running such advertising on a selective basis, beginning with the front page of The Wall Street Journal’s Money & Investing section every Friday,” says Kuwayti. “Sometimes it will be to highlight the work we helped our clients achieve, and other times it will be on something special such as last week’s event attended by 600 industry executives and investors. We want to make it convenient for mobile users.
Kuwayti says that BMO Capital Markets will look at using 2D barcodes in other papers, mainly in the U.S., where it wants to reach senior executives of large companies, investors and governments.
Creative for the ads is by Condon + Root, with media by Prometheus, both in Chicago, working with BMO Capital Markets in-house staff in Toronto.
BMO Capital Markets has 14 North American offices and 26 worldwide, offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services.
August 11th, 2009 at 23:14 @009
Sounds like the Cuecat has met the mobile phone.