In order to further drive engagement with Sports Illustrated?s annual swimsuit issue, readers of the latest edition can scan the editorial pages of the magazine to access behind-the-scenes videos. 

The 2012 Swimsuit Issue, which hit newsstands this week, is the first top-100 U.S. magazine to use digital watermarking for promoting a video. Sports Illustrated also has a new Swimsuit View mobile application to enable readers to scan pages of the magazine and be linked to the videos.

"You will see innovation on every Swimsuit platform this year," said Terry McDonell , editor of the sports group at Time Inc., New York.

"The magazine tablet app showcases the highest levels of photography through scrolling-panoramic sequences, we created a new music section on SI.com and on your iPad and iPhone the 360-degree views of body paint will offer an entirely new perspective on Swimsuit,? he said.

Extending the brand experience
The digital watermarks are embedded in the pages of the swimsuit issue and are invisible to the eye so they do not interfere with the design of the page.

Readers can point their smartphone?s camera at the model?s photo and the digital watermark is automatically detected, which triggers the associated interactive content.

"Sports Illustrated is considered to be one of the pinnacles of photography," said Ed Knudson, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Digimarc, Beaverton, OR. "It just does not make sense to sacrifice the photos in the publication by marrying them with QR Codes or Tags when there is an option that helps maintain the visual experience as it was intended."

Readers can access videos for the 19 different model photo shoots that took place for the issue using the app.

Satellite TV company, DirecTV, is sponsoring the free Swimsuit Viewer app and is featuring supermodel Kate Upton in a brief DirecTV ad at the end of each video.

?A mobile viewer app makes sense for a brand because it continues the brand experience,? said Roger Matus, executive vice president of Nellymoser Inc., Arlington, MA.

?Third party scanners take the reader out of the magazine's brand and then the third party controls the experience,? he said. ?With a third party scanner, there is no way to know if the reader would ever come back, and the data about what the user does is controlled by somebody else.?

The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android.

The Digimarc Discover Platform from Digimarc Corp. was used in this effort for the digital watermark technology and to enable smartphones to see and hear media content using built-in cameras and microphones. Nellymoser developed the app and supports the video delivery.

Sports Illustrated is among a growing list of national magazines that are using digital watermarks and 2D bar codes to make their print issues interactive via mobile.

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 (see story).

Hearst Corp.?s House Beautiful is using mobile bar codes to bring the publication?s static advertisements for Glidden paints to life (see story).

This is the second year in a row that Sports Illustrated?s swimsuit issue includes a mobile campaign powered by Nellymoser.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is one of the magazine?s most popular issues every year and has 20 product extensions in digital, social, broadcast, publishing, mobile and consumer products.

?The goals for a publisher are to encourage readers to spend more time with their brand and to provide more opportunities for their advertisers,? Mr. Matus said.

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