Toyota?s use of mobile bar codes in a marketing campaign at Giants Stadium resulted in a 9.2 percent fan engagement rate.

The program used Jagtag's mobile 2D bar code technology that enabled fans to engage with Toyota in-venue.

?Toyota wanted to extend its Eli Manning sponsorship with the Giants to promote local dealership specials and drive traffic to the showroom,? said Dudley Fitzpatrick, CEO of Jagtag, Princeton, NJ.

By using Jagtag?s mobile 2D bar codes, consumers could engage with Toyota is several ways.

Not only could they get a video multimedia message from Eli Manning, they could also view dealer specials, visit Toyota?s GreatTimetoSign.mobi site, and even enter to win autographed Giants merchandise.

Thousands of fans at Giants Stadium received handouts featuring the Jagtag mobile 2D bar code from Toyota street teams, to promote its "It's a Great Time to Sign" campaign.

Consumers could take pictures of the bar code with their camera phones to interact with the campaign. The campaign achieved a 9.2 percent fan engagement rate.

Brands are leveraging mobile marketing to initiate a continuous dialogue with the consumer at the exact moment interest sparks.

A recent eMarketer report forecasts that advertisers will spend $3.3 billion on mobile advertising in 2013.

For this campaign, Toyota was targeting sports fans attending games at Giants Stadium and used mobile because it works well for out-of-home marketing to easily reach fans when and where the marketing content is most relevant to them, per Mr. Fitzpatrick.

Toyota has been quite active in the mobile space lately.

The car maker?s promotion of the Prius car model tied consumers? experiences on their iPhones to a billboard in Times Square and let people interact with the brand via their handset.

The Prius Experience application was at the center of the promotion and meant to help educate and entertain iPhone users interested in learning more about the EPA-rated 50 MPG 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid (see story).

Additionally, Toyota ran a targeted location-based mobile marketing campaign in September at the NFL?s New York Giants? season opener.

Proximity Blue powered that campaign that combined outdoor, television and mobile advertisements. The location-based campaign delivered a 14 percent increase of people downloading information about Toyota's campaign to their handsets (see story).

?At a sporting event, you have a captive audience watching the game and they can easily snap a photo of the Jagtag, no matter what phone they have, and get content that piques their interests,? Mr. Fitzpatrick said.

?Automotive companies have been using request-to-get mobile technology to engage consumers at auto shows and events, in brochures and in their print ads,? he said. ?Mobile helps automotive marketers extend their print promotions in a way that is more interactive and engaging for consumers.

?Now they can seek out more information on vehicles, find local dealer specials, and even join a community to get ongoing promotional specials, all at their convenience and on their mobile device that they take everywhere.?