Stickybits logo

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA – There is a new social media tool called Stickybits, which I think could be big and has implications for both B2C and B2B PR and marketing – along with anyone who likes messing around with the interweb.

The premise is that you can attach videos, music, text, PDFs, Zips or anything to a given barcode. The idea sounds a bit bizarre at first until you consider when, how and by whom it can be used. Stickybits is currently receiving lots of hype on the blogs and also in the mainstream media with the LA Times among others writing about the service.

B2B PR and Marketing
Imagine you are an office products manufacturer and you want people to be able to access your product manual, a message from your Managing Director, good reviews about your product, feedback from other consumers or, well, pretty much anything. All this content can be attached to a barcode. No longer does a consumer need to turn to the internet and make a search about your brand. Instead this can all be shared via your barcode.

B2C PR and Marketing
Again, much like B2B, user generated content can be attached to your brand. This could be brand ambassadors or fans of your product waxing lyrical. Or, more likely, this could be activists making complaints about your products and services, or campaigning against you. Imagine if a complaint was the first thing that a customer finds when researching your brand? Not ideal!

Importantly, the first person who scans your product has veto over what else can be uploaded against your product. Imagine if this person is someone with a vendetta against your products. Simply put, someone else would have control of your brand’s presence.

Here is an example that I created for a Beer called Red Angus, so you can see the kind of content that can be attached to a bar code. (Excuse the use of my son in the video, any excuse to show off Armand. The content is somewhat daft too, but a guy has to have fun when blogging hey?)

As well as attaching content to existing code, you can print your own barcodes and stick them on anything. Here is an example barcode which can then be printed off and attached to anything. Their bar codes look like this:

There are some interesting examples of what to do with Stickybits here on their wiki.

Of course, it is still early days for Stickybits, but it is backed by people with proven track records in social media. There is also a limit to the popularity of Stickybits because use of it is largely limited to iPhone and Android phones. The app is currently available on iPhone and Android here.