Ford First to Employ Leading-Edge Advertising Vehicle From Digimarc
11 April 2000
Ford First to Employ Leading-Edge Advertising Vehicle From Digimarc
DETROIT--April 11, 2000--Ford Motor Company today announced it will be the first advertiser to use a new technology from Digimarc Corporation to bridge magazine advertisements to specific product information within the company's Website at www.Ford.com.The new advertisements will debut in the July issue of Wired Magazine, scheduled to hit newsstands on June 13, 2000.
Ford's advertisements in Wired Magazine will be Internet-enabled, meaning they will contain an imperceptible code which when held up to an image-capture device such as a PC camera, will launch a browser and instantly connect readers to a dedicated URL.
"Consumers get excited when they see a Ford ad and we don't want them to become frustrated by having to spend time searching the Internet to access additional information," said Curt Jakesen of J. Walter Thompson-Detroit, Ford's advertising agency of record. "Our new magazine advertisements will instantly connect consumers to additional information on the featured product, helping them find what they want, faster and easier."
Digimarc's MediaBridge system embeds the imperceptible code, known as "digital watermarks" in advertisement images during pre-press production using standard image-editing software. Without the use of search engines, directories, or portals, consumers can be taken directly from magazine ads to opportunities to purchase vehicles online, participate in promotions, or view multi-media presentations of Ford's latest models.
"Web navigation is getting harder and more time consuming -- there are over 1.5 billion pages on the Internet, with 3 million pages being added daily," said Digimarc CEO Bruce Davis. "Search engines only cover a fraction of the content of the Web and home-page-based searching often forces consumers to wade through multiple pages to access specific product information from well-known brands. Digimarc's MediaBridge system enables magazine ads to become direct portals to the Internet, taking the `search' out of online shopping and closing to a matter of seconds the gap from inspiration to purchase."
Advertisements that are digitally watermarked will be marked with a Digimarc symbol in the lower corner. Digimarc's MediaBridge system applications are the latest example of the company's expertise in digital watermarking technology.
About Digimarc
Digimarc is the world leader in digital watermark technology and applications that allow imperceptible digital code to be embedded in media content regardless of whether the content is distributed in analog or digital format. Using its proprietary technology, Digimarc has created the MediaBridge system -- a fundamentally new way to access the Internet. The MediaBridge system allows printed materials, such as magazine advertisements, to become direct portals to relevant destinations on the Internet. The digital data embedded in the printed materials creates a bridge between traditional and online media through image capture devices like PC cameras and scanners that are connected to personal computers and other Internet-enabled digital devices. Digimarc also provides anti-counterfeiting solutions to the world's leading central banks and image commerce technologies to leading stock photo agencies and major corporations. For more information about Digimarc, please visit our Web site at www.digimarc.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Although Digimarc Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially from those expectations. Important cautionary statements and risk factors that would affect actual results are discussed in materials filed by Digimarc Corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Digimarc is a registered trademark and MediaBridge is a trademark of Digimarc Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.