A new variation of cueCat in the Works? Still clueless

Via Tech Dirt : there's new effort by the magazine industry in Europe to do a cueCat like system. Keywords sent with SMS (huge in Europe & Asian with teens and young adults ) get you a email with a url link to a special on line "animated" version of a magazine.

At least they are not spending a zillion dollars on OCR scanners, since most phone allow SMS already.

TechDirt links to a piece in TheFeature which highlights the big problem :

If you're going to get people to respond to some sort of keyword on a billboard or in an advertisement, there needs to be either some sort of immediate gratification or a real, clearly stated value to the user in doing so. It needs to provide some sort of reward. Sending them a link to a free magazine hardly seems like a reward.

and concludes :

Connecting the analog and the digital world is a huge opportunity, but that doesn't mean just any connection makes sense. The connections have to help the mobile user do something useful. This is a solution that is only designed to help the magazine industry. Of course, it won't help anyone if no one uses it.

More details in Yahoo News about cueLess Norwegian publisher Fast Forward Media Group and Belgian technology company Allisblue.

Update : Two million CueCats at $0.30/each, and CueCats vs. Common Sense Marketing

del.icio.us Tags: advertising centrsource ;Technorati Tags: advertising centrsource