Starz Entertainment is the first network to test the waters of AT&T’s Mobile Barcode Services Charter Program.
The service allows customers to scan 2-D barcodes with their smartphones to get more information on products and services. As an AT&T Mobile Barcode Services Charter Program member, Starz is integrating AT&T Mobile Barcode technology into select national consumer and direct-to-consumer marketing programs, including consumer marketing and affiliate promotional outreach for its “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” prequel to its “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” original series.
Starz will experiment with the mobile technology and gauge its effectiveness in reaching interested customers with special offers that highlight the network’s original programming and new movies.
“Starz is pleased to be AT&T’s first TV/network programming member for this program,” said Jennifer Schouten, vice president of affiliate sales and marketing at Starz Entertainment. “AT&T Mobile Barcode technology provides our subscribers and prospects immediate information on programming, services, and special offers and it gives them a convenient way to order Starz via mobile devices. Starz plans to offer this new mobile marketing technology to all of our business affiliates as an enhancement to joint marketing campaigns.”
Last year, AT&T announced the formation of a mobile barcode program designed to provide AT&T and its business customers with a better understanding of the marketing and advertising potential that 2-D barcodes offers.
At last year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, Ericsson demonstrated a barcode scanning system that allowed users to capture the barcode on a DVD movie box with an iPhone or other device, and then watch it, buy it or reserve it when the movie becomes available.