Condé Nast-owned Brides magazine?s second Live Wedding promotion is throwing mobile into the mix as a way to reach more consumers, but it is make a surprising choice by leveraging the seemingly-disappearing Microsoft Tag.

The promotion will award a celebrity-style wedding to one lucky couple as well as support their favorite charity. Brides is promoting Live Wedding with a print ad that features a Microsoft Tag to connect readers to the mobile-friendly microsite.

?Mobile is extremely important in the promotion of Brides Live Wedding, as well as all of our promotions,? said Michelle Myers, vice president and publisher of Brides Magazine, New York.

?In year one, we saw tremendous success with some of our marketing extensions for the program in mobile ? across celebrity sites via mobile and incorporating the marketing elements in Brides Wedding Genius,? she said.

?As we embark on year two, we will continue to invest in marketing efforts across mobile to be where we can engage the audience and expand beyond traditional barriers and expand our marketing footprint.?

Live Wedding
In 18 days, Brides will reveal the top three couples, and consumers will be able to vote for their favorite couple through May. Consumers can sign up to be emailed when the three couples are revealed.

All of the wedding details, including the dress and décor, will be chosen by consumers, and the winning couple will be married at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, California. Consumers will be able to watch the couples? journey on YouTube starting in March, and the final couple?s wedding will be broadcast live on June 8.

The Live Wedding promotion is sponsored by JetBlue, Invitations by Dawn, St. Regis Monarch Beach, Simon G., Sally Hansen, Target, Jos. A Bank and Neutrogena.

The promotion?s microsite is accessible via desktop and mobile at http://brideslivewedding.com.

Brides Magazine is promoting Live Wedding with print ads in magazines such as Allure, Architectural Digest, Glamour, Allure, Bon Appetit, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker and Vogue. The ads feature a black and white Microsoft Tag that leads directly to the microsite.

Brides ran the Live Wedding promotion for the first time last year, but it was primarily built on desktop. This year the magazine decided to move to tablet and smartphone as well to interact with consumers at other touch points.

The magazine has been building up its mobile presence over the years with its Wedding Genius app that it is constantly updating and enhancing, per Ms. Myers. Brides also just launched a new mobile newsletter.

Microsoft Tag
It is interesting that Brides chose to use Microsoft Tag in its print ads as opposed to any other print-to-mobile activation technology such as QR codes, Spyder Link, digital watermarking or augmented reality. Microsoft Tag is a rare sight in magazines today.

This past August, Scanbuy actually acquired Microsoft Tag, and in two years Scanbuy will completely take over the technology (see story).

Allure has been one of the bigger users of Microsoft Tag, using it for its Free Stuff issue four years in a row (see story).

According to Ms. Myers, however, the technology was a wise choice for Brides.

?We wanted to provide an experience that easily translates across all of our platforms,? Ms. Myers said.

?With over five million in audience in our print vehicle, incorporating the tag easily enables the reader to get to the experience via their device seamlessly to interact with the program,? she said. ?We have seen tremendous success leveraging Microsoft Tags into many of our multi-platform programs.

?Microsoft Tag is one of the most recognizable mobile technology platforms available. Brides has been using this platform as a vehicle to integrate print and digital for the past few years and makes the adoption by our audience easier.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York