Outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux has mobilized its out-of-home advertising on bus shelters within the Quartier Numérique, the "Digital Area" in Paris, France.

JCDecaux tapped mobile 2D bar code provider Mobile Tag as the technological partner to deploy flashcodes -- 2D bar codes -- at the bus stops. This new flashcode service called Mobilités will enhance the Quartier Numérique by offering both Parisians and tourists access to external content via mobile phones with Internet access.

"JCDecaux is one of the largest out-of-home media networks in the world, and they are very interested in making their traditional out-of-home media interactive," said William "Chip" Hoffman, CEO of Mobile Tag Inc., Atlanta. "They've chosen to work with Mobile Tag to do so, and we've embedded 2D bar codes in their ads.

"The out-of-home media segment is particularly in tune with digital, and we allow consumers to interact with out-of-home messages using the bar codes," he said. "This is primarily in France today, but as the markets mature, we will expand it."

JCDecaux Group is a multinational outdoor advertising corporation based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, known for its bus-stop advertising systems, billboards, bicycles and street furniture.

Mobile Tag, a mobile software developer, has two main products: mobiletag and Meepass, with NFC tag management recently added to their product portfolio.

Mobile Tag has established business partnerships with the major French and European mobile carriers, including the Orange and Vodafone groups, and has formed partnerships with Gillette in Spain, Pages Jaunes (French Yellow Pages) and Universal Music Group in France.

"The mobile operators in France use Mobile Tag to power a carrier-wide service -- there are 4 million-plus phones embedded with our technology," Mr. Hoffman said. "We offer mobile bar codes with associated actions that can be read by those phones in a fully interoperable fashion."

To develop the bus shelter service, JCDecaux chose to adopt Mobile Tag's technology, which enables users to explore Paris by accessing a mobile Internet portal.

The 19 JCDecaux bus shelters located in the Quartier Numérique now give instant access to practical, historical, cultural and entertaining content using flashcodes.

To get content, users shoot one of the 2D bar codes located on either side of the bus shelter with their mobile phone's camera, which then gives instant access to the mobile portal via their Internet connection.

With a mobile phone's camera, the mobiletag application enables users to shoot 2D bar codes that integrate Internet-based services and multimedia content such as music, photos and video, as well as other mobile phone functions.

"Go to this Web site, make this phone call, get this coupon, bar codes can enable whatever action they're trying to promote with a particular advertisement," Mr. Hoffman said. "A bar code acts as an HTML link and the mobile phone works as a mouse -- scanning a 2D bar code is just like clicking on a link in a Web site, so bar codes fundamentally turn their out-of-home properties into Web properties.

"Bar codes transform a formerly static ad and turns traditional media into interactive media using the mobile phone," he said.

"The advertiser gets demographic info on who clicked what and where, so there's a Nielsen capability from the bar code helping the brand or agency directly keep track of the ad's effectiveness."

The mobiletag application lets consumers receive cultural and historical content created exclusively for JCDecaux by Les Guides Gallimard (Gallimard Guides).

Travelers in Paris can also visit the mobile site "Ma RATP dans la poche" for regular transport updates, a route planner and maps, and can consult the Ville de Paris (City of Paris) official calendar of cultural events.

"Mobile bar codes will be as meaningful of a service as SMS was, and it's being implemented country by country, operator by operator," Mr. Hoffman said. "Most of the operators in the U.S. are talking to us.

"Going forward, I expect for bar codes generally to be one of the biggest services that people interact with on their phones," he said.