NeoMedia Adds To Strategic Advisory Board

NeoMedia Technologies, the global leader in camera-initiated barcode transactions for mobile devices, announced this morning during the company's shareholder conference call the induction of new Board of Advisors member Ian Maxwell, who brings with him extensive industry experience and is dedicated to the growth and expansion of NeoMedia Technologies.

Ian Maxwell, a well respected industry veteran, has been a director at Vodafone for the past 21 years. In 2003, Ian was instrumental in Vodafone's strategic partnership with Microsoft in which both companies came together to implement plans to help create mobile web services standards that would enable new business opportunities for application developers and mobile network operators across fixed (wired) and wireless networks. As a global leader in the mobile telecommunications market, Vodafone has over 300 million customers in 25 markets across 5 continents.

The development of NeoMedia Technologies' Strategic Advisory Board has combined many talented and highly qualified executives with much to offer in the technology and telecommunication fields. All the members bring extensive knowledge of the wireless and telecom industries, and NeoMedia is happy to have their commitment.

Ian Maxwell joins Marc Lefar from AT&T, Rich Cremona from Open Wave, Joe Gilbride from Saatchi & Saatchi, and Clarence Wesley from Xerox Mobile Solutions.

McDonalds Finds Success With 12Snap & Gavitec

Gavitec AG - mobile digit, a NeoMedia Technologies company and the leading provider of mobile ticketing and marketing solutions, in conjunction with 12Snap, an innovative market leader specializing in mobile marketing and customer loyalty solutions for advertisers, partnered with McDonalds to launch a mobile couponing initiative in Germany.

What do 99% of all people have in common? Besides their love for good food, they love to get something for free! With the SMS Lounge, McDonald’s invited customers to save money with their mobile phone. One text message was enough to register at their favorite restaurant for the service. In the following months, people received a mobile voucher directly from the restaurant onto their phone every two weeks. The coupons – embedded in a 2D barcode - could be redeemed by scanning them at the restaurant using Gavitec's EXIO readers.

By establishing a long-term dialogue that drives people to the restaurant and increases sales, not only does it offer people a service that gives them a real value, but it also helps build awareness by using a mechanic that presents McDonald’s as an innovative brand.

"Mobile Couponing continues to develop the idea of the bonus program, by tying to learned consumer behavior, but at the same time, the cost for suppliers and customers is drastically reduced", explained Stefanie Krebs, managing director of 12snap Germany. "The phone is always there and thus the ideal platform for timely actions and coupon offers. Regular Incentives and a clear use promise are the best starting point for a permanent emotional customer connection."

Since its initial launch in July 2007, more than 10,000 participants have used this McDonald’s service. Being the first of its kind mobile couponing initiative throughout Germany, the brand achieved response rates up to 29%.

Nokia and Vodafone assisted 12Snap and Gavitec and helped make this mobile couponing initiative a great success.

Gavitec Scanners Used By T-Mobile & Vodafone

Gavitec AG - mobile digit, a leading provider of mobile technologies and marketing solutions and a wholly owned subsidiary of NeoMedia Technologies, today announced that its mobile ticketing scanners were deployed last week at the T-Mobile Street Gigs and Vodafone Music Unlimited events. Since the first Street Gig in June 2007, more than 10,000 music fans received access to these unique events by having their mobile tickets redeemed by the Gavitec scanners. In addition, Vodafone Germany adopted mobile ticketing to distribute exclusive tickets for their July 13th event in Leipzig.

Last Summer, T-Mobile put on a series of spontaneous live music events known as Street Gigs in surprising and unexpected locations across Germany. Tickets for the concerts were available to winners of a “mobile ticket lottery” running on the T-Mobile Street Gigs website. All those registering free of charge as a member of the new T-Mobile Street Gigs community at www.t-mobile-streetgigs.de simply gave their mobile phone numbers. The lottery winners were then sent a pair of mobile tickets in the form of a 2D barcode directly to their mobile phone on the day of the concert. At the gig venue, winners had their mobile ticket scanned by the Gavitec scanner linked into a live database. Once the tickets were validated and redeemed, the winners could enter the venue and enjoy a great night in an exclusive location. Since the first gig in July 2007, more than 10,000 winners have attended the T-Mobile events using mobile tickets.

In order to strengthen its commitment to music products, Vodafone Germany sponsored a live concert featuring one of Germany's most popular bands, Ich + Ich, free of charge in Leipzig, Germany. The tickets for this live concert on July 13 in Leipzig's Kohlrabizirkus were available to all-comers registering at www.vodafone.de/music and taking part in a mobile ticketing lottery. The winners received a mobile ticket for 2 persons in the form of a 2D barcode to be redeemed at the concert venue by the Gavitec scanners.

"We are really pleased that music fans can now take advantage of a more convenient ticketing procedure. Our easy-to-use and versatile scanners are already used successfully in other European countries. It is great to bring this fantastic technology to Germany”, says Dr. Christian Steinborn, CEO at Gavitec AG - mobile digit, and continues “Gavitec’s scanners bring not only enormous advantages for mobile phone users, such as improved customer service, reduced queue times, reliable access control, but also provide event promoters with an easy way to collect data and build a personalized customer database. Therefore, it is a remarkable tool to open new distribution channels and to realize mobile marketing campaigns".

Gavitec's Mobile Check-In At Barcelona Airport

Gavitec AG - mobile digit, a NeoMedia Technologies company and the leading provider of mobile ticketing and marketing solutions, partnered with Spanair to launch a new mobile boarding pass service.

The state of the art technology was tested at two Spanish airports - Madrid and Bilbao - and has been extended to Barcelona due to it's overwhelming success.

November of last year, Spanair launched its new Mobile Boarding Pass service, thus becoming the first airline to offer its passengers this type of mobile ticketing service.

To obtain a mobile boarding pass, passengers will be required to check-in using the web-based check-in service at spanair.com, or by connecting to the internet with a mobile phone via the new mobile check-in service at spanair.mobi, which was launched in tandem with the mobile boarding pass service. At the end of the process, the passenger is asked for his or her mobile number, to which Spanair will send the corresponding multimedia message (MMS) free of charge. The multimedia message contains an image with a two-dimensional barcode, which transmits all the information necessary to execute automated boarding, as well as a text information section with all travel details.

In order to use this system, passengers simply need to pass the 2D barcode sent to their mobile phone over the Gavitec EXIO scanners at the Madrid, Bilbao, and Barcelona airports. In doing so, they will obtain a paper receipt with which they will be able to pass through security and proceed to boarding.

Pablo Sánchez, Director of E-Commerce at Spanair, stated that, "Spanair is laying the foundations for the implementation of a boarding card system in the near future that will be 100% paper-less; thereby ensuring greater passenger comfort and a substantial saving of time."

MC2 Meets In London During OMA World 2007

The Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2) held a meeting in London this past week during Open Mobile Alliance World 2007.

The event offers an opportunity to engage the OMA community in the successes and future direction of the organization, as well as demonstrate the commitment of the OMA to the wireless industry and to the global adoption of mobile data services. OMA World is an informational event open to all OMA members at all levels of membership. Selected invitees from the analyst and media community, as well as guests from other industry organizations are welcome to attend.

According to Torulf Jernstrom, Business Development Manager at Nokia, and Dr. Frank Mueller, Chief Strategist at Gavitec, 20 people attended the Mobile Codes Consortium meeting this past Wednesday in London and the entire initiative was looking very good.

The meeting, which included representatives from Vodafone and Orange, even included reps from Mobile Tag, which was spun off from France's leading mobile software developer Abaxia.

According to HP lab's Tim Kindberg, "The Mobile Codes Consortium is the only body seriously aimed at building a mobile codes ecosystem. It is setting the standards that others will follow. It's where Nokia -- not to mention Telefonica O2 -- is really at with mobile codes."

Nokia and Gavitec are both members of the MC2 Steering Group, along with HP Labs, Publicis Groupe, NeoMedia Technologies, Telefonica O2, Deutsche Telekom, and KPN.

Gavitec Powers Mobile Ticketing For Spanair

Spanair and Vodafone Spain have joined forces with NeoMedia's Gavitec to save their customers time with a new mobile boarding card service.

At the beginning of November, Spanair launched its new mobile boarding card service, thus becoming the first airline to offer its passengers this type of mobile ticketing service. The Madrid-Bilbao route will deploy this service up to the end of the year, at which point the company will begin rolling out the mobile boarding card on all of its domestic routes.

Focusing primarily on business passengers, this innovative system facilitates receiving a Spanair boarding card via a multimedia message (MMS) sent to a mobile phone. The multimedia message contains an image with a two-dimensional barcode, which transmits all the information necessary to execute automated boarding, as well as a text information section with all travel details. Thus, to obtain their boarding cards, passengers will just need to proceed to the special check-in desks and pass the 2D code over a Gavitec EXIO scanner.

To obtain their mobile boarding card, passengers will be required to check-in using the web-based check-in service at spanair.com, or by connecting to the internet via their mobiles via the new mobile check-in service at spanair.mobi, which will be launched in tandem with the mobile boarding card service. At the end of the process, the passenger is asked for his or her mobile number, to which Spanair will send the corresponding multimedia message (MMS) free of charge.

In order to use this system, passengers simply need to pass the 2D code sent to their mobile phone over the scanners at Madrid and Bilbao airports. In doing so, they will obtain a paper receipt with which they will be able to pass through security and proceed to boarding.

Vodafone's director of innovation and business development, Pedro Fuertes, commented that, "The mobile boarding card and, in general terms, ticketing systems based on mobile handsets, are further evidence that mobile telephones, in addition to facilitating voice-based communication, are making life easier for us by allowing for secure access to endless services, at any time and from anywhere."

Spanair piloted this system in June during the Vodafone innovation show, which also served as the launch for this new service. Pablo Sánchez, Director of E-Commerce at Spanair, stated that, "With this advance, Spanair is laying the foundations for implementation of a boarding card system in the near future that will be 100% paper-less; thereby ensuring greater passenger comfort and a substantial saving of time."

Mobile Codes Consortium Takes Shape

Leading mobile communications companies meet in London on Tuesday to consider a plan that would help turn mobile phones into personal barcode readers – a move that will stimulate the first big mobile-driven advertising market.

By pointing a camera phone at special 2D barcodes (Datamatrix, QR, and Aztec codes) printed on advertisements or product packaging, users would be able to find out more information or instantly download coupons or other marketing offers, supporters of the initiative say.

Though already common in Japan and South Korea, the use of mobile phones to read 2D barcodes remains rare elsewhere.

Progress has been held back by the lack of common technology that would let any camera enabled phone read any type of 2D barcode, and then complete the necessary routing needed to link back to the relevant information on the web, according to backers of the London initiative.

Tuesday’s meeting, prompted by an alliance between technology and marketing giants Hewlett-Packard and the UK's Publicis Groupe, has been called to try to promote standards in this area. Companies due to attend include Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, and Deutsche Telekom, said Tim Kindberg, an HP researcher and founder of the Mobile Codes Consortium.

However, other companies involved in the field say signs of strong consumer adoption of the technology in recent months in Japan and South Korea has stimulated a rash of experiments elsewhere in the world that is likely to make the technology widespread, regardless of the standards push.

In one of the widest-ranging initiatives to date, DuPont last week said it would make 2D barcodes available on the cans, bottles and many other types of packaging that it supplies to consumer product companies around the world.

Thanks to early work by carriers such as DoCoMo in Japan and China Mobile, “there are already some pretty basic standards that everyone can live by”, said Scanbuy CEO Jonathan Bulkeley, whose technology is being used by DuPont.

However, Mr Kindberg said the more competitive mobile communications markets that exist in other countries such as Europe and North America make it harder for agreement on technology to emerge in these places. “It’s been on the verge of happening for some time now – the technology is there, but the problem is the fragmentation in the market.”

The HP/Publicis group, known as the Mobile Codes Consortium, hoped to reach basic agreements on technology within a year, he added.

The widespread use of 2D barcodes to make many objects “internet-enabled” would have applications far beyond advertising, said Charles Fritz, chairman and founder of NeoMedia Technologies, whose qode and Lavasphere technology is being used by HP and Publicis.

By making it easy to find information on any object, it would create an “internet of things” that would create extensive links between the physical and electronic worlds, he added.

Word on the street was that there were 22 parties at the MC2 meeting this past Tuesday consisting of Carriers, OEM's, and technology companies such as Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia, and Cingular just to name a few. With such predominate backing from these 22 deeply involved parties, MC2 will certainly set the global standards for mobile smartcode dissemination.