Click here to view the embedded video.

There was that 3D projection mapping experience on an LA Hotel a while back. And in October, the brand brought a print ad to life with the help of a handy iPad.

This time out, Lexus is going a bit simpler, keying into QR codes - the scanning of which reveals models kinda-sorta hidden in SI print ads for the new IS.

Still, the pursuit of perfection could have added a little more punch to the reveals than just having the models strut toward us. Integrating with the car in some fashion - or really just doing anything a little more interesting - would have been a better pay off for going to all the trouble.

Okay, it's still pretty cool. And it's apparently just the opening act. According to ADWEEK, the Lexus IS is also included in Sport Illustrated's first-ever 3D projection mapping experience on the facade at Caesar's Las Vegas.

Get the full scoop here.

First up: Five big trends to look for in the world of social media marketing.

5. Social Gets More Physical

In the year ahead, look for an increasing number of social initiatives to move away from pure-play digital to the physical world. Coca-Cola has been a leader in this, with efforts like the Happiness Truck and Happiness Vending Machines, which engaged consumers in the physical world, and helped those consumers propagate the experience via digital.

You also saw Microsoft use branded mobile game apps like "Dance Cam" to engage in the physical world by enabling folks to create dance videos on their mobile phones and then share them.

And ad hoc physical world social networks will become commonplace. Look at efforts like Heineken's personalized QR codes for music festivals, where users can create their own customized QR code stickers that other attendees can scan to spark up conversation.

Factor in augmented reality, and "liking" things in the physical world will take on all-new forms.

In a world gone mobile, having a desktop presence or experience becomes increasingly irrelevant.

4. 'Presence' Takes A Backseat to Campaigns

As I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, the first question to ask about social media is not "how?" It's "why?" When you think in terms of objectives, you begin to see the value of augmenting social "presence" - that much vaunted, ongoing conversation with consumers - with specific, short term and very actionable campaigns.

Look at Mercedes' "You Drive," a TV campaign that viewers could "drive" via Twitter. Or Mustang's "Dream Mustang" social media street fight. And of course, Coca-Cola's live social Super Bowl experience - in which the brand's popular polar bears comment on the game and ad bowl commercials in real time.

These are short-term efforts designed to engage consumers for a specific amount of time, around a specific promotion. Look for more of that in 2013, especially in the form of games.

3. Brands Bash Social Media

We're all finding ourselves starting to unfriend "friends" who aren't really, well, friends in an effort to get as authentic in our online relationship building as we are offline. With growth rates for Facebook leveling off in mature markets, attrition may come to the fore. Already, a huge bulk of brand "likes" are from inactive accounts.

Perhaps it's no surprise that more brands are using social media to poke fun at social media instead of glorifying it. Mitsubishi's "Unpretentious" app enables you to run over your most annoying Facebook friends, for instance. And DKNY recently made fun of social media by creating a fake success story to build actual buzz through social media.

Indeed, I've said this before and I think it will continue in the year ahead: For some brands in some categories, a premium will be placed on how few friends and follows you have, instead of how many. Authentic, high quality connections will begin to mean far more to brands than mass, unqualified connections.

2. More Standalone Branded Social Platforms Emerge

To engage consumers in social, marketers have largely turned to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and so on - with good reason. You should reach consumers where consumers congregate. But as mentioned in trend #5, that doesn't mean in some desktop Internet experience anymore. It's the physical world.

In 2013, more brands will move beyond viewing social media as (just) a cool way to connect with consumers, and start viewing social media as a cool way to enable consumers to connect with one another, enabled by the brand.

One of my favorite examples actually emerged a few years ago, when Vail Resorts launched Epic Mix, a mobile app that enables groups of real friends to connect with one another while they're skiing. They can see where their friends are physically on the slopes. They can automate status updates based on those activities. They can earn points that they can redeem back at the lodge. And once they're back home, they can review their performance and share it with the broader community.

One need only look at PlayStation Home, AMEX OPEN, and Johnson & Johnson's BabyCenter to see that social media is about lot more than Facebook & Twitter - and that brands can be the enabler of community, instead of just a participant.

1. Social Media Go Geriatric - While Teens Keep on Texting

In 2013, more brands will begin to realize that social platforms like Facebook and Twitter have profound value for reaching people over the age of 40, the fastest-growing segment of users. But millennials use social far differently.

I'll put it this way. If a parent wants to know what a teen wants them to know about, check out the teen's Facebook page. To find out what a teen is really up to, check his or her text messages.

As the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported this year, 63% of teens say texting is their preferred mode of communication on a daily basis, compared to just 29% for social media sites (regardless of which device they're accessed on).

Teens just aren't as into sharing their lives with the world as adults think they are. They're far more interested in closed loop systems like text messaging where they can connect with friends - and, sometimes, the brands they know and trust.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, QR codes were put to some creative use in 2012. And whether they disappear by this time next year as many predict, or morph into something else entirely, they did make a mark, pardon the pun, on several initiatives over the last year.

A look at five favorites:

5. VW’s Creative ‘Crate Code’

You’ll love the payoff (or payload, that is).

4. QR Code Bottles Sell More Beer While Helping Singles Meet at the Bar

QR Codes play Cupid.

3. Heineken Personalized QR Code Stickers Become Ice Breakers at Music Festival

You scan me, I'll scan you.

2. Axe Body Spray Uses QR Codes ‘Peepholes’ for a Mobile+Social Sensation

Drool not included.

1.Retailer’s Shadow-Activated QR Code Boosts Sales 25%

This retailer’s QR code is credited with a 25% increase in lunchtime sales (see video above).

Mobile marketing is so much more than advertising.

As readers of my books THE ON-DEMAND BRAND and BRANDING UNBOUND know, I don’t consider mobile advertising very compelling. So it
won’t come as a shock that there isn't much in the way of pure-play mobile ads in this year’s list of top 10 mobile marketing initiatives.

For me, mobile isn’t about taking an ad model from the old-school Internet – namely a "ad banner" – and plopping it onto a business-card size screen, or even the larger screen of an iPad.

It’s about creating unique and differentiating branded experiences that drive home your value proposition in amazing new ways.

To that end, here are 10 of my favorite mobile promotional initiatives for 2012.

Agree with my list? Disagree? What initiatives would you ad to the list?

Let us know!

TOP 10 IN MOBILE MARKETING 2012

10. Heineken Personalized QR
Code Stickers Become Ice Breakers at Music Festival

Talk about a conversation starter.

9. ‘Dance Cam’ Mobile App
Lets you Create Music Videos on Your Phone

Because there are few things more entertaining (and, often, disturbing)
than watching folks dance on the Xbox Kinect system on games like Dance
Central. So why not mobilize it?

8. Starbucks Brings Mobile
AR to Valentine’s Day

It’s the AR, Cupid.

7. Red Tomato Fridge Magnet
Orders Pizza For You

Freaking genius – and no
mobile app, or even phone, required.

6. Retailer’s
Shadow-Activated QR Code Boosts Sales 25%

Effective? Affirmative.
Clever? Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

5. Axe Body Spray Uses QR Code ‘Peepholes’ For A
Mobile+Social Sensation

Not for the faint of heart.

4. Kit Kat Launches GPS-Based ‘Golden Ticket’-Style
Promo

Kit Kat will do a heck of a lot more than just
give you a break.

3. VW’s Creative ‘Crate Code’

You’ll love the payoff. Or
the payload, as the case may be.

2. Wonderbra Decoder App Gives You X-Ray Vision

School-age boys the world over might think an
age-old dream has come true.

1. Project Re:Brief App Lets
You Truly Buy The World A Coke – Anywhere, Anytime

You gotta love this mobile-age edition of Coke's
classic "Hilltop" spot (video at top).

Philly Sports Live used a Custom QR Code to drive sports fans to its website.

Philly Sports Live is an upstart website that reports on the beloved Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, and Eagles.  It also covers other teams in Philadelphia such as the Philadelphia Union and the college sports programs at Temple and Villanova.

But, despite outstanding journalism, finding an online audience in a city that boasts two sports talk radio stations, a very popular digital newspaper, and a bevy of prominent blog sites has not been an easy task.

So, Philly Sports Live took to the streets to find Philly sports fans.  And, there was no place better to find them than this weekend in South Philly with the Phillies hosting the hated Mets and the Flyers pummeling the cross-state rival Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We decided that the best way to become known was through guerilla marketing at Pattison and Broad,” said Frank Mazza, publisher of Philly Sports Live.  “We wanted to offer something hip, something cool, to Philly sports fans.  We wanted to offer them something that would enable them to get to our site immediately and quickly.”

That something was a silicone wrist band that enabled fans to immediately access the website while tailgating in the parking lots around the Wells Fargo Center and Citizen’s Bank Park.  Models hired by Philly Sports Live strolled through the parking lots and gave the wrist bands to the partying fans.

The wrist bands showed the Philly Sports Live logo plus a Custom QR Code that showed the most famous Philadelphia celebrity of all-time—Ben Franklin.  Franklin was also holding another favorite among Philadelphia sports fans—a beer.

The clever wrist bands were warmly received.  “We had people running up to us to get them,” said Mazza.  “After receiving them, nearly all of the people immediately scanned them with their smartphones and visited our website.  It was the Ben Franklin QR Code that really got their attention.”

Philly Sports Live is a sports website that has been reporting on Philadelphia sports for a little over a year.  It covers the Phillies, Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, Union, and local college, and high school sports.

Advanced Telecom Services is the mobile marketing company that designed the Ben Franklin Custom QR Code for Philly Sports Live.  In addition to Custom QR Codes, Advanced Telecom Services also provides text message marketing, mobile websites, and apps development for its advertising agency and media customers. Follow Bob Bentz on Google+ or on Twitter @BobBentz.

Get connected. Want to stay on top of the latest trends that are driving business for today's digital agencies? Attend the iMedia Agency Summit, May 20-23. Request your invitation today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It's been a 2D barcode kind of week, with my talk on QR codes on the Blasingame Show/Forbes.com, and parts one and two of my interview with Nicole Skogg, CEO of SpyderLink, on the "social barcodes" in this month's Glamour.

Now, there's this ambitious movie poster campaign from Fox SearchLight for the film Martha Marcy May Marlene, as captured in this YouTube video from Fox.

As a side note, this dark-looking film stars Elizabeth Olsen, the heretofore largely unknown younger sister of Mary-Kate & Ashley (no joke). There's a pretty funky website, too.

What's your take: Too much trouble to scan the posters - or the perfect way to make this print campaign interactive?

Read more about the initiative, here.

Building the Agency of Now « Threeminds

Love this voice-of-reason POV on the industry.

The Top 10 Marketing Sites For Social Media Marketing Trends | Fast Company

According to a recent survey by Effie and Mashable, 87% of marketers said social media was “important” or “very important” to achieving their biggest marketing goal this year. So we know social is a key marketing activity for many leading brands. So where are marketers getting their social media information? From this survey, it’s not primarily the traditional advertising publishers, although a few of them did make the list.

Report: Amazon To Use Two-Finger Touchscreen To Keep Table Competitive With The iPad | TechCrunch

The battle to grab market share from Apple, be it from the iPad or iPhone, is going to be an interesting story over the next couple of years, and should offer interesting insights into the power of a brand versus a low price competitor.

Milk Campaign Withdrawn Amid Charges of Sexism – NYTimes.com

Perhaps the most interesting comment is the last line. A seasoned ad exec surprised but the uproar speaks to how much has changed since 2005. That rate of change doesn’t happen in other media platforms.

Judge dismisses Winklevoss case against Facebook – latimes.com

Read the comments on this article. Another example of how the public can be a brand’s best spokesperson.

Sidestepping Apple: From Amazon to Condé Nast, Companies Rethink App Strategies | Wired.com

Even brands as powerful as Apple can only push their will on developers and partners so far. Eventually, they’ll just go somewhere else.

Microsoft Apologizes for Amy Winehouse Tweet

While I can see the protesters points, this is a pretty blurry line. Magazines have always written cover story articles about dead celebrities, and obviously they’re trying to sell magazines. Of all these examples of companies who combined tribute with commerce, the Amazon example is probably the most sincere, and seems to have ruffled the fewest feathers.

15 Creative QR Codes [PICS]

I’m still not convinced QR codes are ready for prime time just yet, but if you’re going to do them, these examples of creative looking QR code designs would be a great start. At least these make me want to use them.

Social Media Platform For Hotels Offers Web Site Visitors Incentives

There’s been a lot of talk of loyalty programs of recent, and the merger between that and social media is obvious. Hospitality businesses are well-suited candidates for this type of program, and this is one of the offerings in the hotel business.

How Blogging Can Get You More Social Fundraisers | Inspiring Generosity

I think this goes way deeper than just non-profits. Blogging can create perceived value and expertise for a brand, even if it’s primarily for search and inbound traffic.

Even Calvin Klein's trying QR codes on for size.

The fashion retailer - often dinged for racy billboards - has replaced three of its billboards in NYC and Los Angeles with giant QR codes with the headline "Get It Uncensored."

Snap a photo with your smart phone and you get an exclusive, 40-second commercial featuring models that can then be shared with friends via Facebook and Twitter.

Clearly this is a test - I'm not sure a standard-issue commercial is that compelling as a response deliverable to a QR code - TV can do that. But it points to some exciting possibilities for CK.

Indeed, in my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at highly interactive experiences that brands like Coca-Cola, Domino's and others are enabling through QR codes and other forms of 2D barcodes.

Still, Calvin Klein may just put them in fashion with a whole new wave of innovative brands.

Read more about CK's billboard QR codes here.