InTune is using Didmo’s custom QR codes that direct music students to Magmito content-rich applications to enhance the teaching-and-learning experience. Now, learning about jazz in the magazine, for example, is enhanced by bonus content such as copy, images, videos and audio tutorials, neatly packaged in a Magmito application that students and teachers are using right in the classroom and for homework assignments.

InTune Monthly is the only magazine written exclusively for music-making students in grades 7 – 12 and their teachers. Used by teachers as an in-classroom text, the magazine focuses on enriching and broadening the traditional music curriculum in middle and high schools and appeals to the independent player as well.

Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG is a private German company that makes high end microphones, headphones, telephony accessories and avionics.

Mobile Commerce Daily’s Dan Butcher interviewed Ted Ianuzzi, vice president of sales and marketing at Didmo, Stockholm, Sweden. Here is what he said:

What was Didmo’s strategy behind integrating QR codes into Magmito?
We have been monitoring the migration of QR codes from Japan to North America quite closely, with leading handset manufacturers starting to install QR code readers on all new phones.

When Sony Ericsson asked us to support QR codes as part of their Creations Day Magmito mobile application at Mobile World Congress, we took the opportunity and took action.

With camera phones accounting for 73 percent of all phones in use today, QR codes not only have mass tech appeal, but simplify application distribution and provide a free alternative to traditional distribution such as SMS. Snapping a QR code provides advertisers with an instant connection from print advertising to mobile.

We will also provide support for other codes in the near future.

Where QR codes are relatively new and somewhat unknown in the United States. We are receiving significant interest among clients.
 
What challenges do QR codes address for clients such as Sennheiser?
QR codes support customer engagement at the point of heightened interest with an enhanced experience that is not only deep and rich but also controllable by the brand marketer or retailer.

Print advertising, for example, is still a leading media for driving Web traffic. However, advertisers have been limited to the media buy’s real estate – full page, half page and other traditional ad units.

The fact that a user then has to access more content when back at their computer risks losing that customer along the way.

Now, with QR codes, brand marketers and retailers can control with immediacy customer engagement and the enhanced content experience as well as the shop, learn, buy process at the same time of heightened interest.

By using Magmito applications, it does not limit the experience to smartphone or iPhone users. It only provides an application experience deep with content for all phones as well as additional features and experiences, for example, videos, audio and etcetera, for more sophisticated phones.
 
What are the features and functionality of Sennheiser’s application? Is it pay-per-download or ad-supported?
Sennheiser is actively targeting and promoting their products and services to the audiences they serve such as music lovers for headphones and musicians for microphones.

Sennheiser’s application content ranges from interactive contests to product how to’s, to where to buy.

From scanning the QR code to engaging with the content – reading and entering a contest – the user can then move on to buy the product from online or bricks and mortar retailers, all from their mobile device. Magmito effectively closes the loop from print to mobile.

Sennheiser has licensed the Magmito Pro tool, giving them the power to create an unlimited number of applications. They are sponsoring the downloads of those applications.

One cool use of the Magmito Pro tool is they are now creating Magmito applications for bands and venues they endorse/sponsor, extending their brand to fans who happen to be prime targets for headphone purchases.

The bands and venues get a subsidized mobile promotional communications channel, the application complete with Twitter RSS feeds, show schedules, etcetera.

The fans get an enhanced mobile experience and content from the band/venue they have an affinity for. Finally, Sennheiser gets a mobile promotional channel to targeted prospects. It is really a win/win/win.

Now, with QR codes, that distribution can happen more immediately and through alternative media.

We’ve heard of QR Codes pop up on band’s facebook pages, venue napkins, clothing, posters, etcetera.

We see app stores embracing QR codes soon as well. Imagine seeing a catalog of apps on a website or in a print catalog and scanning the code to immediately download the Magmito application.
 
In addition to linking to an app download page, what are some other use cases for QR codes?
Driving users from QR codes to Magmito applications differs greatly from sending them to a video or WAP-only enabled site. 

Magmito applications are essentially totally inclusive mobile Trojan horses for distributing basic to advanced level content such as copy, images, video, audio, etcetera, and to all phones.

Having a QR code direct a user to a video only is a neat experience but limits the audience to only those phones that can experience video and have the connectivity to do so.

The same holds true for a QR-to-WAP site.

Those with poor connectivity cannot engage.

Using a QR code to drive a user to a Magmito application, however, supports the largest reach of virtually any phone by providing a content rich experience.

At the end of the day we believe that customers want content from brands they have an affinity for via apps and should not be limited to the kind of phone they have.

Magmito allows brand marketers, agencies and retailers the ability to feed that mobile appetite and engage customers with an enhanced experience on any device. QR codes simply make the experience more immediate and direct.