Rakuten exploits cameraphone craze for advertising purposes

Although this certainly won't go down as the first attempt to integrate cellphones into discrete marketing, Japan's largest online shopping mall operator is apparently taking advantage of the country's oh-so-superior handsets and offering up tantalizing "promotional videos" for consumers who snap pictures of ads. Rakuten is reportedly set to hand out thousands of pilot issues of a magazine, Zero90, in hopes that mobile-wielding readers will snap photos of certain articles in exchange for a free commercial intellectually stimulating media clip. While this sounds an awful lot like QR codes, the actual technology used in the pages isn't mentioned, but we do know that Japan-based Clementec is behind it -- and you thought print media had too many plugs as is.

[Via Physorg]

[Barry Thompson @ Jun 8th 2007 7:41AM]

www.pikchu.com are doing something a little similar, in that they are displaying users cell phone pictures, the general public vote on them and they can win prizes.

Its UK only at the moment but hey its a chance to get a PS3 for £1 or go to the Concert for Diana

I'd rather have the PS3

Barry