New devices equal new advertising opportunities.
Stephen Whaley, director, Digimarc Embedding Institute, unveiled the Digimarc watermarking technology that converges print and the Web. Pointing out that 62 percent of Web visits are prompted from print, and that 70 percent of searches are abandoned, Whaley discussed how the Digimarc MediaBridge technology attempts to lessen search frustrations. For example, Panasonic ran an ad in Wired magazine that, when held up to the viewer, took the magazine reader to a page with a unique offer, not available any other way. Currently Digimarc-embedded ads are running in Popular Mechanics and in Wired , with a slew of other magazines scheduled to join in shortly. Advertisers include Sears Craftsman, Ford, Jack Daniels, Visa, IBM and Onstar.