Lucky magazine began incorporating mobile response codes into its editorial content with its November 2011 issue and is continuing the strategy in its latest issue after initial results show readers are scanning a wide variety of codes as they flip through an issue.

The March issue of Lucky magazine features digitally watermarked editorial content to enable readers to enter a sweepstakes or download a Paris shopping guide. Throughout the issue are small, red caption boxes containing a mobile phone icon to make it easy for readers to identify the pages they can scan to access additional content.

?The companion app has become sort of an immersive experience for the magazine,? said Roger Matus, executive vice president at Nellymoser Inc., Arlington, MA.

?We think that it has to do with the fact that the app created a Lucky experience, with deals, stickers and other content found within the app,? he said.

The Lucky Shopper application was built by Nellymoser.

Widespread scanning
Nellymoser?s analytics show that the Lucky Shopper app is being used by readers to scan a lot of different mobile response codes throughout the magazine. It also shows that readers are using the app to take photos of items that do not have a code attached to them.

The pages are watermarked using Digimarc Discover technology.

Lucky began incorporating digital watermarks with the launch of its Lucky Shopper application, which includes a universal bar code reader so users can scan the imperceptible Digimarc watermarks, as well as other mobile response codes such as QR codes and Microsoft Tags.

The December issue of Lucky featured a digitally watermarked Burt?s Bees full page ad, making Lucky the first national magazine to watermark an advertisement.

Lucky is using the technology to increase engagement with its readers and enable its advertisers to reach their target audience with print-to-mobile experiences.

Lucky has designed a "Lucky Shopper" mark that is digitally watermarked placed throughout the issue. 

"Unlike some of our other customers who have watermarked various images within their publication, Lucky has watermarked the Lucky Shopper mark itself and provided a brief description of the 'payoff' associated with each mark," said Ed Knudson, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Digimarc Corp., Beaverton, OR. 

"Unlike QR codes or Microsoft Tags that detract from the design and layout of the publication, Lucky's use of a custom, watermarked mobile response code enables the mark to be tightly integrated with the design and branding of the publication," he said.

The additional content such as deals and stickers gives Lucky a way to monetize the app with sponsors for some of the sections.

In general, Nellymoser has learned that the more codes there are in a magazine, the more likely people are to scan.

The Lucky Shopper app is a good example of how publishers? mobile strategies are evolving.

?If you started at the beginning of the year, publishers tried to create a miniature version of the magazine on the phone,? Nellymoser's Mr. Matus said. ?While that increased readership it did not increase subscriptions and it was very hard to monetize the experience.?

?The trend we are seeing now is to integrate the reading and scanning experience,? he said.

?We are going to be building a lot more of these apps with publishers that work with every single ad and code in the magazine in order to increase the interactive participation and increase newsstand sales and subscriptions.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York