Note To Self: Don't Blog at 3am

Being tasked to create posters for our project, I took a nice look in to how films and other events have created viral poster campaigns in order to hook an audience to build up anticipation.

Inception Campaign

The first film I looked at was Inception. They added QR codes or Quick Response codes that people with QR readers could photo and it would lead them to a website. Inception did this for majority of their media campaign and it got the ball rolling for build up, not that it needed it as the plot was kept secret for a long time. The only issue of using QR codes are that our target audience of 11-14 year olds probably wouldn't have access to the type of phone that would allow downloading of a QR reader. Then again, my 8 year old cousin has a smart phone, so it would require some market research to find out if that:

a) 11-14 year olds have access to smart phones
b) They know what QR codes are

At the same time, as long as everything doesn't hinge on the QR code being used, I see no reason why it can't be included, so I think it would be worthwhile looking in to it further.

Just so you know, this is what a QR code is:

Using a QR reader, which is a simple app you can obtain for free off of app marketplace or app stores. This particular one was created for a speculative web address we may be using.

Here is another one that I took a photo of Tim Burton's 9 poster from a few years ago that was put up in a cinema:

I think the most important part is creating a striking poster that catches peoples eyes. If we were looking at people who had a phobia of sex, I would personally take a leaf out of The Simpsons book...

"SEX!!! now that i've got your attention, vote Bart!"

But anyway, I digress, i'm going to start knocking together a few ideas for the posters to present to the group when I next see them. I aim to be armed with knowledge about QR codes and iPhone apps and at least 2 or 3 poster designs to impress the group when I head back.

Augmented Reality Application 

The current aim for the iphone app, by the way, is an augmented reality app which is still an early technology and hasn't really been exploited to it's full potential of yet. It essentially allows an app to use the camera on your phone, or I suppose now your iPad, to react to items you are pointing at. For instance, one of the first times I had ever heard of something like this was from Google, where you would point your camera at, say, Big Ben and it would then next to it put up a load of information about it. Then you swing down to point at the Houses of Parliament and there's now information about that. Really smart stuff but it really never fully took off. I believe this was pre-iPhone days because now, you have Star Charts, which allows you to point up to the sky, presumably a clear night is required, and it will tell you about the constellations in the sky depending on where your camera is pointing.

The best example I have about the use of QR codes and Augmented Reality is from the "virtual" band Gorillaz. They gave out a..... you know what, i've said too much already, I should probably actually do some work and research now. I'll save Gorillaz' endeavour in to this technology for my next post.