“From a study on what kind of New York Times articles get shared by readers the most: People preferred e-mailing articles with positive rather than negative themes, and they liked to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics. Perhaps most of all, readers wanted to share articles that inspired awe.”

If it works for articles, it works for advertising.

http://creativity-online.com/news/stickybits-stickybits/142743

Stickybits allow you to add digital attachments to real world objects. Place one of the app’s barcode stickers to any physical object and attach any digital content via your iPhone or Android device.

Smartphone users can then scan the stickers to view the files, which they, or the original poster can update with new content. The Stickybits site suggests several uses, like attaching resumes to business cards or video to snail mail greetings and tracking inventory of boxes.

Thanks for writing about this – little by little the US is getting turned on to this technology that has been in wide use in Japan in years. I believe the original 2D code is the QR (“Quick Response”) code developed by the Japanese company Denso-Wave. ScanBuy is doing a lot of innovative programs such as an article in the march Esquire magazine, but they are a proprietary code, an alternative to that is using one of several common open-source (FREE and unfettered by business relationships) 2D code formats including QR and DataMatrix codes. There are numerous websites that offer free personalized codes.

You can find more info including videos and a free code generator at 2DCodeMe.com, as well as links to making personalized t-shirts, shoes, store window decals – whether it’s a fashion statement or just plain promotional message. I think it’s cool to link to your t-shirt to your blog, or your facebook page, or anything online.

Regards, Anne

Interestingly, there’s an article in today’s AdAge related to this topic (read it before it goes into their paid archives!)

An App for That, Too: How Mobile Is Changing Shopping
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142318

As far as the T-shirt concept and scan effort, I’m grateful for finally providing a legitimate reason “to look” – but my wife may still take some convincing, “But honey, I was only scanning her blog information”. Fat chance but it’s worth a shot.

One thing I regularly test is category-linking versus deep-linking to product pages, which is where AB testing can be incredibly insightful and doesn’t require any changes to the page itself ( http://www.alanmitchell.com.au/techniques/to-deep-link-or-not-to-deep-link/ ).

In terms of multivariate testing, I’ve only used Google’s Website Optimiser but the level of insight and flexibility LiveBall provides could make it worthwhile for larger campaigns which could easily make back its hefty $1,295 monthly price tag with improvements in conversion and revenue.

Cheers,
Alan