Microsoft's - Tag

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Today, I came across a new concept or technology (I don't know what to call it technology or concept? ) from Microsoft - TAG. It is really cool. Read on to learn more about Microsoft Tag.

Microsoft Tag is a new kind of bar code that connects almost anything in the real world to information, entertainment, and interactive experiences on your mobile phone. Tags are free to create and use. You can add them to your ads, posters, product packages, display it on your website, billboards, clothing etc the list is endless. When you scan a Tag using the free Tag Reader application on your mobile phone, it will automatically open a webpage, add a contact to your address book, display a message, or dial a number – there are no long URLs to type or SMS messages to send, isn't it cool?

Moreover, anyone can create Tags and that too for FREE. In addition, Tags are fully customizable, you can create them in colors or just black and white. The important and best part of it is that, you can keep a track of who all checked your tags and from which location so that you can know how well or bad is your offline campaign going on. Here are a few reasons to use Microsoft Tag (as per Microsoft):

• Call-to-action – Use Tag as a direct response marketing tool for print campaigns; Tags automatically integrate print advertising with mobile devices.
• Manage the customer experience - Use Tags to link to a mobile website or video; on a business card to instantly add someone to your address book; dial a phone number; or display a free message.
• Advanced Analytics – Measure campaign effectiveness with enhanced reporting, such as the number of scans of a particular Tag over time and by geographic location. You can also group several Tags together to measure performance.
• Single Reader – The Tag Reader runs on all major phone platforms and is downloaded from a single site. Every Microsoft Tag can be scanned by the Tag Reader, cutting down on consumer confusion from incompatible solutions.
• Maintain brand identity – Using Custom Tags, it’s easy to customize the look of a Tag to reflect your brand’s personality.
• Adaptable size – Tag’s small size allows you to maximize the information delivered to customers without taking up a lot of real estate in your printed materials and visual media forms.
• Reliable reads – The Tag Reader overcomes limited camera phone optics, resolution and processing power to deliver a consistently high user experience across multiple devices and platform types

In my next post I will tell you the various types of Tag you can create and how to create them.

 I have created some Tags for myself, go ahead download the Tag Reader application from Microsoft and check what the Tag has in store for you :-)

 The above Tag will take you to the home page of my blog

 The above tag will show a message on your mobile screen