Exclusive Interview: ShotCodes CEO Dennis Hettema, Coca-Cola Launching ShotCodes outside of Asia on Sprite Bottles.

For this follow-up to my previous mobile media article concerning the application of ShotCodes for mobile marketers, I had the privilege of interviewing ShotCodes founder Dennis Hettema just as ShotCodes announced it is going global for the first time!

Today (October 2nd 2006) the Coca-Cola Corporation in Mexico became the first company in the world to use ShotCodes’ mobile barcode scanning. Forty million Sprite bottles have been labeled with ShotCodes, circular barcodes that can be scanned with standard camera mobile phones that have the ShotCode software installed. This marks the first time ShotCodes has been used outside of Asia.

Created by Dutch/Swedish OP3 and implemented by Mexican KTC and Codice, ShotCodes connect users instantly to Sprite’s mobile web page. The technology functions much in the same way as you would expect a normal barcode scanner to work. You are, however, using your standard camera mobile phone.

Once scanned, a Sprite trivia question is automatically presented. Answer this question correctly and you’ll instantly know if you’ve won one of millions of prizes. The prizes range from free pizzas at Domino’s Pizza to DVDs at Blockbuster Video. Every winner receives his/her prize instantly in the form of a jpeg image. This image is a digital coupon that contains a unique code to claim your prize, an innovative mechanism introduced in this campaign for the first time.

The campaign is supported by eight weeks of TV, radio and in-store advertising. According to Hettema, who is OP3′s founder and creative director, millions of Mexicans already have compatible mobile phones.

Mobile barcode scanning, which is ubiquitous in Japan and Korea using technology comparable to ShotCode, has never been introduced on this scale outside of these countries. Japanese consumers are used to “clicking” on physical objects by reading special consumer barcodes. Outside of Japan, it’s not that obvious. However, Coca-Cola Mexico intends to change all that with this first implementation of ShotCodes.

OP3 and its Mexican implementation partners, KTC and Codice, are responsible for the back-end of this new and innovative mobile marketing campaign. With the unique mix of Shotcode, SMS and Mobile coupons, KTC and Codice offer the Coca-Cola Corporation Mexico a high tech way to interact with its target audience, leveraging the popularity of mobile phones among teenagers.

ShotCodes have previously been used by brands such as Heineken and Xbox.

And now, for the details of my sit-down interview with Dennis Hettema:

Heather Paulson: How did ShotCodes get started?

Dennis Hettema: In the beginning of 2002 I founded www.higherlevel.nl together with Mikky Vrolijk. Higherlevel.nl is now Holland’s largest network for innovative entrepreneurs. Through this network I met a lot of entrepreneurs, and many asked me if I wanted to start a company with them. I had just recovered from a dot-com crash so I was taking my time in chosing which opportunity to take on next. Eventually Ron Verweij (who now works at m-barco) told me about a technology that allows the reading of barcodes with camphones. We both loved the idea and decided to start up a company. Sadly Ron didn’t have the opportunity to continue which meant I continued alone. The company was founded at the end of 2002 / beginning of 2003.

Heather Paulson: What is the inspiration behind ShotCodes?

Dennis Hettema: Ever since the beginning of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), I was inspired by the possibilities the mobile internet presents, yet I always hated typing internet addresses on my phone. When WAP just got started, I tried to surf around and I noticed:

1. There weren’t many pages that worked
2. It was incredibly frustrating to type an internet address on my mobile phone

When Ron showed me that you can scan barcodes with camphones, I instantly knew that this would solve both the above problems and provide a lot of extra benefits.

By creating an offline weblink, people can start “clicking” on physical things and the possibilities then are mindboggling. Provide a trivia question directly off of a Sprite bottle and when answered right, you’re instantly presented with a prize (like Coca-Cola Mexico’s Sprite campaign), buy tickets for concerts instantly off of concert posters, get medicine descriptions instantly of the medicine bottle, create interactive games where people “click on” (scan) ShotCodes in real life situations to get feedback on the game. In the end, a ShotCode is a weblink so you can bring the interactivity of the web to the offline world.

Heather Paulson: How does ShotCodes work?

Dennis Hettema: In order for shotcodes to work you need to download a small client application to your phone. You can see if your phone is compatible at http://www.shotcode.com/download (or visit mob.shotcode.com on your mobile). Once you’ve downloaded and installed the application, you start the application, aim your camera at a ShotCode and click. That’s all there is to it. After you’ve clicked you’re automatically connected to the website that corresponds to the ShotCode you scanned.

Heather Paulson: What makes ShotCodes different?

Dennis Hettema: Here I come to some of the extra benefits I mentioned in question two. First of all, we’re very happy with the shape. When we bought High Energy Magic (about a year ago), we noticed that people really reacted to the circular shape and the crosshair you see on the symbian phones (when you aim the cam at a ShotCode and it’s recognized, a crosshair pops up).

Little did we know that the shape has become our premium USP (unique selling proposition). Looking at the Coca-Cola Corporation’s Mexican Sprite campaign, the ShotCode on the bottle is quite large yet it doesn’t disturb the look and feel of the label. This is very important for any form of campaign. You want your artwork to be as attractive as possible, and a lot of people have expressed they like the look and feel of ShotCodes.

Then the technology itself. It’s been specifically developed for camera mobile phones. Well, resource deprived devices with bad lenses, i.e. mobile phones. It’s stable and very user friendly. We’ve managed to accumulate the largest list of live tested compatible devices and this list is growing rapidly (we’ll be adding about 50 phones during the next few weeks).

Ultimately there is another very important point. When we got started with OP3 there were about four players in the worldwide mobile barcode scanning market. Nowadays I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re talking 50 to 60 players. Most of these companies will use an open standard code such as a datamatrix, QR or Aztec code. The problem is that some of these companies try to route these codes over their own servers, adding special algorithms so that their codes can only be read by their readers. Now, imagine the following situation. I’ve downloaded a datamatrix reader from company A and I try to scan a datamatrix code from company B. This does not work because company A’s reader doesn’t understand company B’s datamatrix code. The only way to find this out is by scanning and failing. With a ShotCode you’ll instantly see it’s a ShotCode and that it should be read with a ShotCode reader.

Heather Paulson: What are some key things people should know about ShotCodes?

Dennis Hettema: Apart from the functionalities and possibilities I mentioned in my previous answers I think the most important thing is that the possibilities are endless and that if you want to creativily push your product or develop an application for mobile phones, chances are that ShotCode could support, help or even improve your mobile efforts.

However, I’m the founder of this company, so I’ll say nothing but positive and exciting things. I think the best answer to this question is to go and try it out for yourself. You can sign up at http://www.shotcode.com to create your own ShotCodes (free for non-commercial use) and start creating your own applications instantly. So please, try it out, judge for yourself and if you got feedback drop us a line.

My next mobile media article will focus on the application of ShotCodes and other mobile applications in the affiliate marketing space… Stay Tuned.

Contact persons:
OP3 – Dennis Hettema, Founder & Creative Director
Email: dennis@op3.com
Phone: +31630046164

KTC – Joost Van De Velde Director Mexico
Email: joost.vandevelde@ktconsulting.com.mx
Phone +525591956448