Posted January 1, 2016
Good Housekeeping Gets An Interactive Makeover
BY Geoffrey Karr
Publishers, Brands and Agencies — Pay Attention.
The 100 year-old Good Housekeeping Seal is now interactive. The December issue of Good Housekeeping introduced the interactive Good Housekeeping Seal (made possible by digital watermarking). Readers in the December issue can scan the Seal using the Good Housekeeping Scanned, Sealed, and Delivered app and enter a sweepstakes. Not only did Good Housekeeping receive a major face-lift in its January issue by introducing a new cover, layout and content, but Good Housekeeping kept the good times rolling by including 19 different watermarked Seals on advertisements from brands like Whirlpool, Benjamin Moore, and Panasonic. After scanning the interactive Good Housekeeping Seal, you can enter 19 different sweepstakes from each advertiser.
If you're thinking, "Why does this matter to me?", let me share some insights on why the interactive Good Housekeeping Seal could impact your future publications, advertisements and brand messaging.
Publishers — following in the steps of Good Housekeeping, you can create watermarked branded design elements (or icons) that can be used on editorial and ads in your publications. We’ve seen higher response rates on watermarked branded icons than other print-to-mobile technologies like QR Codes and Tags. Your readers are also more likely to scan a branded icon if your trusted name and/or branding is on the icon. Plus, if you reward readers with desirable payoffs after scanning a branded icon, they will be more compelled to scan these icons in the future. Some of your readers won’t even bother scanning a generic QR Code since these disappointing experiences can be foundeverywhere. Branded icons are an easy way to make editorial and advertisements interactive without sacrificing your magazine's aesthetics. Seventeen, Martha Stewart Weddings, Shape and Lucky Magazine are other publications that have had success developing watermarked icons.
Brands — if you've earned the trusted Good Housekeeping Seal, you're about to get rewarded! Since the interactive Seal will soon be recognized by Good Housekeeping's 4.3 million circulation, it's time to start putting these interactive Seals on all your ads. Another benefit of using Digimarc's technology is that we can provide detailed metrics on every watermarked Seal regardless if the same ad is used across multiple magazines. For the first time, you can actually see what publication gets the most readers to interact with your brand and determine the types of incentives your audience responds to. You won’t receive this type of detailed metrics if you placed the same ad in different magazines using image recognition — you can only get this using digital watermarking!
Agencies — let me repeat what I just said for brands — The benefit of using Digimarc's technology is that we can track the watermarked Seal on all your ads and tell you what publications and types of incentives people respond to. This means you can tell your clients how ads perform in every type of publication instead of just providing circulation numbers. Of course, this will help you plan better campaigns in the future and get more people responding to your client's advertising campaigns. If you don't want to use the watermarked GH Seal, no problem. Create your own watermarked branded icon. Think about it — why isn't the Starbucks logo interactive? How many times do you come across the Starbucks logo in one day? I’d love to scan the iconic mermaid and get instant discounts, find the nearest locations, or download music from this month's featured artist.
So, if the 100 year-old iconic Good Housekeeping Seal is adapting and transforming to the times — shouldn't you?