Acura Dealers Premiere New Ad Technology

A group of three leading Acura dealers from New York recently introduced a new concept in advertising, succeeding to link the world of physical products to the digital world. What they are talking about is a brand new system that will let users scan an advertising in a paper and directly link to an Internet webpage about the specific product advertised in the paper ad.

The system was developed by the New York Acura Association, a partnership between top U.S. Acura dealers Paragon Acura, Rallye Acura and Acura of Westchester in collaboration with auto-focused ad agency Level5 Advertising. They came up with a bar code technology, named QR (for quick response) that can be printed on a physical medium in order to be scanned and link a user to that ad’s digital world counterpart. The bar code is almost invisible and can be recognized by a smartphone (for instance, any phone that runs Google's Android operating system) using a special QR scan application.

“For years, advertisers have dreamed of finding a way to connect the physical and digital worlds of advertising. The innovative move offers both the ad industry and the auto industry, which depends on attractive print ads to showcase its newest models, a vehicle to navigate the transition from print to pixel, which the world is undergoing at the moment,” explains Paragon Auto Group in a press release.

It then directs the user to a relevant online content associated with that code (for example the car maker's website, a video-ad, or even the car's own Facebook page). This technology was first developed and used by Japanese researchers in an attempt to index car parts. The QR Code as relevant to the marketing sector was first featured in the Business section of the New York Times on Wednesday, April 14.

"It makes sense for Acura to be on the cutting edge of technology with our marketing and advertising. Our clients expect it," said Brian Benstock, VP and General Manager of Paragon Acura. "Introducing QR Code in our print advertising is a win for both the New York Acura Association and the New York Times."