Lara.Burhenn@digimarc.com | +1 503-469-4704
Beaverton, Ore and New York City, NY – NRF Booth #132 – Jan. 13, 2014– Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced the availability of the Digimarc® Barcode, a high-performance digital watermark-based barcode at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention and EXPO (Retail’s BIG Show) 2014. The Digimarc Barcode is a game-changing improvement to traditional barcode functionality that is faster, more reliable, more versatile and more secure than today’s UPC symbols – and best of all – it occupies zero space on the package. The Digimarc Barcode brings a wealth of new benefits to retailers, brands and shoppers alike, starting with a dramatic improvement in checkout time and unprecedented in-store mobile engagement. Top brands, including Cooking Light, Costco, Ford and Sharper Image are already using digital watermark technology in magazines, brochures, catalogs and food packaging to engage with consumers via mobile devices.
NRF attendees will be the first to experience the amazing performance of the Digimarc Barcode in Booth #132 (read below for more NRF details). Others can watch the full experience in this video: www.digimarc.com/barcode#video
“Barcodes have had a profound effect on retail. After fifty years of service, however, the underlying technology is ripe for change brought about by digital innovations and an increasingly mobile-centric shopping experience,” said Ed Knudson, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Digimarc. “Our testing shows that professional checkers can easily scan packages carrying the Digimarc Barcode at rates exceeding 36 items per minute, compared to industry average scan rates of 24 items per minute when scanning traditional UPC codes. Elsewhere in the store, shoppers can point their mobile phones at any Digimarc’d item and be instantly connected to engaging mobile experiences from the brand or the retailer. It’s a win for everyone – retailers, brands, and their customers.”
The Digimarc Barcode utilizes patented digital watermarking technology, an imperceptible pattern that can be embedded into the images and graphics of printed consumer packaged goods, and in some cases, directly into the packaging material itself. The pattern is not visible to people, but smartphones, POS scanners, and other digital imaging devices with more sensitive “eyes” can read them. Digimarc’s breakthough in barcoding makes the entire package scannable with no dedicated space required – unlike the traditional visible UPC code.
The Digimarc Barcode brings an expansive number of benefits to retailers, brands, and consumers, including:
More than 80 percent of smartphone owners use their phone in-store and more than half of all consumers are already using a mobile device to perform shopping-related tasks such as price comparison, checking product reviews, and accessing coupons and deals. Retailers and brands can take advantage of this trend and simultaneously improve checkout speeds by including Digimarcs in their packaging and marketing materials. Reading Digimarcs is easy. It can be done with the Digimarc Discover mobile application or by including reading capability in branded applications via SDK.
Digimarc’s patented digital watermarking technology has a long track record in numerous other industries, including copyright protection for movies, television and radio audience measurement, and in global banking to deter counterfeiting of currency. Eager to connect print to online, the publishing industry has also had tremendous success incorporating Digimarcs into print editions of magazines and newspapers to extend and enhance reader engagement.
In the magazine industry, the largest epicurean magazine in the country, Cooking Light, owned by Time Inc., is spreading its mobile engagement profile using Digimarcs. Cooking Light Digimarcs every recipe in every issue, helping its 11 million consumers find tools online for shopping, menu planning, sharing recipes and more. The brand recently expanded their Digimarc-enabled mobile engagement to the packaging of its food line, comprised of 22 products. Using the same process as in the magazine, consumers can scan Cooking Light product packaging for meal preparation instructions and other helpful information, building broader mobile engagement and more brand equity and customer loyalty.
Digimarc is the only supplier with a comprehensive engagement platform addressing all media – print, audio/video and packaging – providing an effective, cohesive, economic, and efficient cross-media engagement at every touch point in the Shopper’s Journey. Visit www.digimarc.com/retail to learn how Digimarc will take your retail operation and shopper engagement strategy to the next level.
At NRF attendees can enter the Digimarc Package Scanning Game, a contest designed to prove how much faster anyone can scan items carrying the Digimarc Barcode. Every player will receive a prize just for playing, but the contestant with the top speed of the day will win an iPad Air. The next two fastest times will be awarded a GoPro® Camera.
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading innovator and provider of consumer engagement, media management, and security solutions that create digital identities for all forms of media and many everyday objects. Digimarc’s digital IDs are imperceptible to humans and enable computers, networks and devices like mobile phones to better "see, hear and understand" brand impressions and other objects of interest. 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 and the latest news, please visit www.digimarc.com and follow us on Twitter @DigimarcCorp.
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