Lara.Burhenn@digimarc.com | +1 503-469-4704
Beaverton, Ore — March 19, 2012 — Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that Saveur magazine, published by Bonnier Corporation, has chosen the Digimarc Discover Platform to digitally watermark a full page advertisement for four brands of Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Hawaii in the upcoming April issue, set to hit the stands on Tuesday, March 20th. Saveur is the first food, wine, and travel magazine to integrate digital watermarking technology.
The advertisement will feature an in-app menu that provides the reader with four choices of enhanced experiences, which include the ability to view Sheraton, Westin, Luxury Collection and St. Regis properties in Hawaii, watch a video, make a direct call to for reservations, and share via email, Facebook and Twitter. The Starwood Hotels and Resorts ad is the first to feature the in-app menu, which is one of two new templates available in Digimarc's Online Services Portal, a key component of the Digimarc Discover™ Platform. The benefit of the menu is it allows readers to choose the desired experience within the application before being taken online.
"Saveur is always looking for innovative ways to help our partners engage with our readers in new and exciting ways," said Kristin Cohen, Associate Publisher for the magazine. "We believe digital watermarks hold unique potential for our advertisers that want to offer print-to-mobile experience for readers. The Digimarc Discover Platform provides a simple, effective method to make print ads interactive without compromising the design and layout of the ad with the use of a barcode."
Using the Digimarc Discover mobile application, a free download from the iTunes App Store and Android Market, readers simply point their smartphone's camera at the advertisement. An imperceptible digital watermark embedded in the image is automatically detected and the related interactive menu of experience is displayed onscreen.
"When someone sees an ad for a great vacation destination, they may think to themselves 'Oh, I want to go there,' and then quickly forget about it," said Michael Troy, Director of Field Marketing from Starwood Hotels and Resorts. "By using Digimarc Discover we are able to give the reader more than just an ad or a link back to our site — we are able to give them choices to tour, share and book on the spot; it's very powerful."
"Digimarc Discover offers advertisers unlimited possibilities to target and engage consumers with a wide array of branded, print-to-mobile experiences," said Ed Knudson, EVP, Sales & Marketing of Digimarc Corporation. "We are thrilled that Saveur is offering our solution to its advertisers, and that Starwood Hotels and Resorts is the first to embrace it in their advertising strategy."
The Digimarc Discover™ Platform enables smartphones and other sensor-equipped devices to "see and hear" media content using built-in cameras and microphones. Consumers simply direct their phone at content they are interested in and are presented with a range of associated network services such as purchase a product, view a video, save for later, download a coupon, or share with a friend, for example. The Digimarc Discover mobile applications are available for licensing and can be integrated into existing applications.
Publishers and others can embed digital watermarks into content using the Digimarc Online Services Portal (OSP). The OSP is being used by magazines, newspapers, packaging companies, advertising agencies, and others to enable a variety of new experiences and capabilities from print. Companies interested in learning more about digital watermarking technology and licensing opportunities for the Digimarc Discover platform can visit: www.digimarc.com/discover.
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading innovator and provider of enabling technologies that create digital identities for all forms of media and many everyday objects. The embedded digital IDs are imperceptible to humans, but not to computers, networks and devices like mobile phones, which can now use cameras and microphones as sensory inputs to "see, hear and understand" the world around them within the context of their environment. Digimarc has built an extensive intellectual property portfolio with patents in digital watermarking, content identification and management, media and object discovery to enable ubiquitous computing and related technologies. Digimarc develops solutions, licenses its intellectual property, and provides development services to business partners across a range of industries. For more information, please visit www.digimarc.com.
SAVEUR seeks out stories from around the globe that weave together culture, tradition, and people through the language of food. On every page and online, SAVEUR honors a fundamental truth: cooking is one of the most universal — and beautiful — means of human expression.
SAVEUR is part of Bonnier Corporation's Travel & Epicurean Group. Bonnier Corp. (www.bonniercorp.com) is one of the largest consumer-publishing groups in America and is the leading media company serving passionate, highly engaged audiences, through 50+ special-interest magazines and related multimedia projects and events. Bonnier Corp. is the U.S. division of the Bonnier Group (www.bonnier.com), a 200-year-old family-owned media group based in Sweden with business operations in 21 countries.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 1025 properties in 100 countries and territories with 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element SM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
With the exception of historical information contained in this release, the matters described in this release contain various "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements include statements and any related inferences regarding increases in license and subscription revenues, and other statements identified by terminology such as "will," "should," "expects," "estimates," "predicts" and "continue" or other derivations of these or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements are statements of management's opinion and are subject to various assumptions, risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied from the statements in this release as a result of changes in economic, business and/or regulatory factors. More detailed information about risk factors that may affect actual results will be set forth in the company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 and in subsequent periodic reports filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect management's opinions only as of the date of this release. Except as required by law, Digimarc undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.
Gina Giachetti
About Communications
+1 510 858 8111
pr@digimarc.com
Share this Press Release
