Everywhere I look I see articles and blogs focused on mobile! mobile! mobile! And rightfully so. It's definitely a topic worthy of the marketing hype. While reading through MediaPost, I came across an article about mobile and in-home television and combining the two technologies to bring mainstream advertisers an opportunity to reach consumers in a relatively new way.

A lot of us have been prompted to use our remotes for more information (called Request for Information or RFI) on a product or service, during a TV commercial. While this is a great tool, advertisers are starting to understand, though, that while we have a remote control in one hand, a lot of people have their mobile phones, iPads or other devices in the other hand. This can open a whole new window for advertisers to engage you with.

That's where IntoNow, a mobile-marketing company, offers some potential. The company has focused on social media interaction while watching TV over the last several months. Using your Apple gadgets, TV viewers can share with their friends exactly what they're watching (another version of checking in). Example: (as used in MediaPost),"I'm watching Dexter, Season Two, Episode Six". IntoNow works similarly to the music download App Shazam; it will listen to the audio of the program and then search it's database for a match. Users of shazam can then download the song through iTunes. IntoNow can identify episodes from five years' worth of programming on 130 networks so far.  

Now, if you combine RFI and mobile concepts together and you've got Pepsi's new campaign with Major League Baseball. A person can point at an MLB-themed spot on their TV and have a digital coupon sent to their phone in the way of a barcode. You can then redeemed the coupon at a store by simply having the cashier scan the code. Easy enough, right? 

The system can also offer consumers/viewers information about products or links to videos. This got me thinking, with the buzz about QR codes growing, this "point and click" technology can also certainly take off outside of the home. Especially for the DOOH industry. Imagine you are out grocery shopping and an ad is running for Peeps (since it's Easter this week and who doesn't love a Peep). You can point your phone at the ad and voila! you've got yourself a coupon to be scanned at checkout. A "share" option, where you could share the coupon with friends within your social media networks, would be the cherry on top. 

Just as it does for TV advertisers, the industry can gain a lot of insight using this RFI method. Both advertisers and networks can learn more about the consumption of running ads and participation levels (downloads versus usage). I think there is a lot of opportunity to be explored.

Here's a screenshot from the IntoNow application. Can you see the opportunity now?