Wegmans Using Digimarc Barcodes on Store Brand Products

During the National Retail Federation’s 2015 Annual Convention and Expo, which took place Jan. 11–14 in New York, Digimarc Corp., a Beaverton, Ore.-based provider of digital watermarking and content identification solutions, said Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y., is its first retailer partner to use the Digimarc Barcode on store brand packaging. The Digimarc Barcode embeds the product’s UPC data invisibly into all sides of a product’s packaging, which means all package surfaces — not just the visible barcode — are scannable at checkout.

The two companies discussed their partnership with attendees and gave away samples of the first Digimarc-barcoded Wegmans products, including Wegmans Classic Entertainment crackers, Wegmans tomato paste and Wegmans diced tomatoes. The three products were available with the Digimarc Barcode packaging in all Wegmans stores as of the opening day of the show.

Digimarc also announced two new partnerships. One of them is with Louisville, Ky.-based Southern Graphics Inc. (SGS), a prepress supplier with printing and color science expertise.

“SGS is the perfect partner for us to launch our Barcode in the U.S. and abroad. As one of the largest prepress suppliers in the United States, they already work with the leading retailers and national brands to turn their design concepts into mass-produced packaging chosen by millions of consumers every day,” Sean Calhoon, vice president of product management at Digimarc, told Store Brands. “SGS eliminates the learning curve that might otherwise be needed inside a large corporation. As SGS is already doing their prepress, we can just say, ‘It’s easy. Give them a call, and they’ll do it all for you.’”

The second partnership Digimarc announced is with New York-based Shazam, a mobile app with more than 100 million active users that pioneered the use of audio recognition technology to identify music. The app has since grown into a way for users to interact with artists, TV shows, advertisements, cinema, radio and retail environments. The collaboration between Digimarc and Shazam will allow the app to recognize Digimarc Barcodes and IDs, and will provide Digimarc with a global base of established users.