Hypertagging

Netimperative: As its name implies, people have to be outside their homes in order to be exposed to posters, tube ads and other outdoor media, whereas – mostly – online consumption and interactivity takes place behind closed doors – either in the home or the workplace.
The apparent lack of compatibility between the two mediums is compounded by the fact that outdoor advertising is one of the oldest and most traditional of advertising platforms. Posters have been confronting us as far back as we can remember and were up and running when the idea of the web seemed like a rather far fetched fantasy. The industry is also infamous for exchanging money via brown envelopes rather than bank accounts, and operating with an ‘I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine’ approach that might seem rather archaic to the forward thinking youth of the interactive generation.
But the growth of mobile phones in the UK – in which 47 million people now have a mobile phone – has taken interactivity out of the confines of the bedroom and the workplace and onto the street.
Hypertag, which installs interactive devices on posters which allow passers-by to download information onto their handsets, has made unlikely bed-fellows of outdoor advertising and mobile interactivity.
The poster that talks back [Netimperative]