Having made its GossRSVP interactive media system available for advertisers and publishers over the whole of the USA, Goss is now ready to extend the service to Australasia. The system – which uses a numeric or scanned two-dimensional code printed in advertisements and other material – has been trialled by Goss with a newspaper group close to its Dover, New Hampshire, plant (GXpress July 2008). It was introduced to Australian publishers at the PANPA conference in Queensland’s Gold Coast this month. Mobile phone users can use text messaging and the barcodes, or download application developed with Upcode for faster access. Goss vice president Toby Clarke says the mobile phone is evolving as the personal communication tool: “The GossRSVP program links this technology with print, enhancing the already high ROI value of print by making it more interactive.” The small GossRSVP two-dimensional barcodes and alpha-numeric sequences in printed materials enable mobile phone users to receive electronic coupons, enter contests, participate in loyalty programmes, answer surveys and request additional information to be sent to their phones. Advertisers can control or alter the responses dynamically and offer mobile phone users opportunities to ‘opt in’ for future communications such as text alerts. “The mobile phone interactions and response data are managed by our infrastructure, and our cost model is based primarily on utilisation, similar to clicks-through for internet advertising,” says Clarke. “This makes getting started a scalable low-cost and low-risk proposition.” Individual companies can buy GossRSVP codes for inclusion in their own print materials and monitor and manage the programme through the www.gossrsvp.com web site. A reseller subscription service allows publishers, advertising agencies or other organisations to subscribe to multiple codes and then resell them to individual advertisers. “The reseller model gives newspapers, magazines and other media supported by advertising a new revenue stream and a new way to prove the effectiveness of the printed product to customers,” says Clarke. In pilot programmes over the past six months, retailers have conducted ‘text-to-win’ promotions and sent electronic coupons to phone users responding to print advertisements. Real estate agents have included the codes on for sale signs and a college newspaper used the programme for polling related to the presidential election. A manufacturer has also included the Goss codes with its product, allowing users to download video installation instructions directly to mobile phones.