Digimarc Earns Recognition as a Gartner Cool Vendor in Consumer Goods 2014

Press Contact: Lara Burhenn

Lara.Burhenn@digimarc.com | +1 503-469-4704

Vendors selected for the “Cool Vendor” report are innovative, impactful and intriguing

Beaverton, Ore — May 6, 2014 — Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that it has been recognized as one of four “Cool Vendors in Consumer Goods, 2014” in a report published April 28, 2014 by Gartner, Inc.

According to Gartner, personalized mobile offers, retail execution and collaboration were central themes in this year’s Cool Vendors report as consumer goods companies seek to drive improvements in consumer engagement and retail trade collaboration. To view a summary or purchase the “Cool Vendors in Consumer Goods, 2014” report visit https://www.gartner.com/doc/2723018/cool-vendors-consumer-goods.

“We believe that faster throughput during the checkout process enabled by the Digmarc Barcode could yield billions of dollars in annual cashier labor costs,” said Ed Knudson, EVP of sales and marketing at Digimarc. “These are estimated hard cost savings for retailers. The Digimarc Barcode is a feature of Digimarc Discover, a broad-based solution with many more benefits for retailers, brands, and consumers. The additional benefits include unprecedented mobile engagement throughout the shopper’s journey.”

Digimarc Barcode benefits include:

• Faster Checkout — The Digimarc Barcode contains the same Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) data currently carried in the product’s UPC symbol. These data are invisibly repeated multiple times over the entire package. This means that checkout clerks, as well as shoppers using self-checkout, can quickly scan items without having to find and position the barcode toward the scanner, resulting in shorter lines for customers and improved margins for retailers.
• Enhanced In-store Shopping Experience — For retailers and brands, Digimarc Barcodes create deeper in-store engagement opportunities with mobile-enabled shoppers. They can connect shoppers with additional product information, special offers, recommendations, reviews, social networks, and more. Other benefits include item level traceability, freed real-estate on packaging and improved package aesthetics. Digimarc Barcode can also be used for brand authentication and defeating barcode swapping.
• Improved Engagement Elsewhere in the Shopper’s Journey — Using Digimarc® Discover and other Digimarc-enabled mobile applications, shoppers can scan packaging, store signage, print ads, circulars, free standing inserts (FSI), and other brand marketing for instant access to helpful information that aids in their path to purchase in-store, at home and everywhere in between. This provides an opportunity for retailers and brands to engage with consumers and collect important customer data. Digital watermarks can also be embedded in audio material, enabling television ads, radio ads, and in-store audio to become interactive and engaging consumer touch points.

Learn more about Digimarc Barcode at www.digimarc.com/retail

About Gartner

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Digimarc

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.