February 28, 2014
Condé Nast-owned Brides magazine’s second Live Wedding promotion is throwing mobile into the combo that allows you to reach more consumers, nonetheless it is make a shocking choice by leveraging the seemingly-disappearing Microsoft Tag.
The promotion will award a star-style wedding to at least one lucky couple in addition to support their favorite charity. Brides is promoting Live Wedding with a print ad that includes a Microsoft Tag to attach readers to the mobile-friendly microsite.
“Mobile is very important within the promotion of Brides Live Wedding, in addition all of our promotions,” said Michelle Myers, vice chairman and publisher of Brides Magazine, Ny.
“In year one, we saw tremendous success with a number of our marketing extensions for this system in mobile – across celebrity sites via mobile and incorporating the selling elements in Brides Wedding Genius,” she said.
“As we embark on year two, we will be able to continue to take a position in marketing efforts across mobile to be where we are able to engage the audience and expand beyond traditional barriers and expand our marketing footprint.”
Live Wedding
In 18 days, Brides will reveal the pinnacle three couples, and consumers could be ready to vote for his or her favorite couple through May. Consumers can enroll to be emailed when the 3 couples are revealed.
All of the marriage details, including the dress and décor, shall be chosen by consumers, and the winning couple can be married on the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, California. Consumers can be capable of watch the couples’ journey on YouTube starting in March, and the ultimate couple’s wedding could be broadcast live to tell the tale June 8.
The Live Wedding promotion is sponsored by JetBlue, Invitations by Dawn, St. Regis Monarch Beach, Simon G., Sally Hansen, Target, Jos. A Bank and Neutrogena.
The promotion’s microsite is obtainable via desktop and mobile at http://brideslivewedding.com.
The mobile microsite
Brides Magazine is promoting Live Wedding with print ads in magazines equivalent to Allure, Architectural Digest, Glamour, Allure, Bon Appetit, Teen Vogue, The hot Yorker and Vogue. The ads feature a black and white Microsoft Tag that leads on to the microsite.
Brides ran the Live Wedding promotion for the 1st time last year, nonetheless it was primarily built on desktop. This year the magazine decided to head to pill and smartphone in addition to engage with consumers at other touch points.
The magazine have been build up its mobile presence over time with its Wedding Genius app that that is constantly updating and adorning, per Ms. Myers. Brides also just launched a brand new mobile newsletter.
The print ad in Allure
Microsoft Tag
It is interesting that Brides chose to apply Microsoft Tag in its print ads in preference to another print-to-mobile activation technology inclusive of QR codes, Spyder Link, digital watermarking or augmented reality. Microsoft Tag is a unprecedented sight in magazines today.
This past August, Scanbuy actually acquired Microsoft Tag, and in two years Scanbuy will completely take over the technology (see story).
Allure have been one of many bigger users of Microsoft Tag, using it for its Free Stuff issue four years in a row (see story).
According to Ms. Myers, however, the technology was a sensible choice for Brides.
“We desired to provide an experience that easily translates across all of our platforms,” Ms. Myers said.
“With over five million in audience in our print vehicle, incorporating the tag easily enables the reader to get to the experience via their device seamlessly to engage with this system,” she said. “We have seen tremendous success leveraging Microsoft Tags into a lot of our multi-platform programs.
“Microsoft Tag is likely one of the most recognizable mobile technology platforms available. Brides was using this platform as a vehicle to integrate print and digital for the past few years and makes the adoption by our audience easier.”
Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York