Oregon resort offers barcode coupons to skiers

January 3, 2008

Mobile coupons for mobile people

Mt. Bachelor, one of the largest ski resorts in North America, and RocketBux Inc., a mobile software company, have teamed up to provide mobile phone barcode coupons to the Bend, OR-area resort’s customers.

This is the first application of optimized standard barcodes on phones used by the public, RockerBux claims.

“Our barcodes are optimized for different phone screen types, ranging from low-quality phones to the high-quality iPhone,” said Fred Boos, co-founder and chief innovator at RocketBux, Bend. “We also don't require any special software to be downloaded to the phone or any proprietary hardware at the retailer.”

With RocketBux technology, Mt. Bachelor has been able to send daily text alerts notifying resort customers of snow conditions.

Now, RocketBux has added mobile coupons in the form of a barcode for on-mountain deals. A barcode is displayed on the mobile phone screen and can then be scanned with standard image-type barcode wands that are already in use at Mt. Bachelor.

The first mobile barcode offers are being redeemed at Mt. Bachelor. Promotions for downtown Bend merchants will soon follow.

“In the retail environment, any retailer with an image-based barcode scanner can read our barcodes,” Mr. Boos said. “For example, all Target and Wal-Mart stores use image scanners.”

The barcode is simply the same that is seen on any coupon, only specially optimized for the phone screen for reliable scanning.

“The potential for commerce is endless in all sorts of verticals,” Mr. Boos said.

RocktBux is currently focusing on the recreation, consumer packaged goods and big-box retail sectors.

With the RocketBux Wallet product, consumers can have their coupons stored on the RocketBux platform and have them easily accessible. Also, expired coupons will be purged from the system.

To try a demo, consumers can text the word Carv and send it to the number 20123 on a Web-enabled mobile phone.