Media Converged, a division of Qwasi Inc.

While many magazines only started this year to embrace the mobile 2D code technique of activating print with smartphones, Allure is already in its third year of a massive annual multi-platform project. The August ‘Free Stuff’ Issue appears this week, brimming with daily opportunities for readers to scan a Microsoft Tag and enter to win one of 32,000 beauty products. In its previous two iterations, Allure’s mobilized summer freebie issue set new benchmarks for mobile interactions. Last year the issue attracted over 575,000 scans and 830,000 entries.

                                          


This year the program has expanded substantially and grown even more sophisticated. Readers will get a portable Microsoft Tag that can be removed from the issue so they can scan it to enter a daily series of two to three time-limited sweepstakes entry windows. The reader can register for specific contests so that SMS alerts are sent as reminders to enter. There will be 158 giveaways in all, the company says.