The high margin deliverable is the analytics. Everything else is a commodity. That's the really good news about clickable print + why it's TransInfo

What would happen if clickable print with smart QR created a clickstream that could be analyzed?

MediaPost Publications
How Much Is Our Behavior Worth?
08/14/2009:
by Stephen DiMarco, 7 hours ago
". . . I'd assert that the information that the Web creates about consumers exceeds the commercial value of Internet advertising (nearly $25 billion in 2008). In other words, what we can learn about consumers' digital behaviors is worth more than what companies pay to reach them online."

This may be a provocative view for publishers and their ad sales teams, but it should ring true for the rest of marketers. Part of the challenge is that digital data has been pigeon-holed as only useful for online advertising decisions: simple Internet audience measurement on one end, and highly addressable, behavioral targeting on the other.

So as Internet marketing grew up, we became obsessed about the near-term impact of banner ads at the expense of more holistic Internet research. Many marketers, influenced by this CPA-mania, still view the Web as just a direct response medium and a cheaper channel for surveys. We now need to broaden the applications for digital research by measuring people and their behaviors, not just the ads. We have an opportunity to re-define what behavioral research is, so that marketers can more easily access and act on it.

Print accessed with GPS smartphones give you time and location of lots of people's behavior.

In order to unlock the new value that behavioral research offers, it's first useful to point out what makes online consumer behavior data unique. Panel-based online behavior data is: 1) observational (passive collection mitigates bias); 2) dynamic (updates in real time as behaviors occur); 3) longitudinal (measures how behavior changes over the course of time); and 4) extremely comprehensive (measures behavior across all sites a person visits). And when combined with other data -- in particular, attitudinal information collected via surveys from the very same online panel -- it creates the most holistic view of consumers in history.

As far as I can tell neither TinyPurls and Smart QRs are not on his radar. Someone should give him a call.

Here are two comments as of 6:08 EDT.

srishti gupta from Beyond Interactive

commented on: August 14, 2009 at 4:19 PM

Very insightful post! I agree with the points mentioned. The only word of caution is that online consumer behaviors do not always mirror offline activity...they are quick signs but not the whole story. Intersecting the information with offline measurement is critical

David Cooperstein from Forrester Research

commented on: August 14, 2009 at 3:50 PM

Very interesting Stephen, and I agree with your points. I get how you might be able to extend analysis of purchase funnels and profiles with online panels, and that would clearly extend the "Value" of the Internet as a part of the overall economic engine.

The one thing I struggle with here is that a lot of these sales (and the media to drive them) are spent off line. Would you propose that all research on an off-line be synchronized to accommodate this reality? Quantifying the intersection of the two broad media types would certainly increase the impact on line media has on the economy.