HarperCollins Publishers and QMcodes, a mobile marketing company, are linking the worlds of print and digital content through a mobile marketing campaign.

The initiative is being piloted with the releases "L.A. Candy" and "The Amanda Project," along with the paperback release of the best-seller, "Freakonomics." The product intends to leverage digital channels such as 2D bar codes, mobile sites, social networking features, mobile video and SMS to allow a direct connection between book publishers and on-the-go readers.

"Other than the fact that teens use the platform more than many others, we liked the viral component of mobile and the ease of sending it to a friend in a very simple way," said Diane Naughton, vice president of marketing at HarperCollins Children's Books, New York.

"The campaign has "watch it," "send it," and "read it" features all in a very compact site, but the viral component is the most attractive piece of all because we can put a lot of things on our Web site, but getting teens there as opposed to going where they already are is something we are trying to perfect," she said.

"The mobile platform addresses that head-on."

The promotion begins June 16 in the United States, Canada and Australia with "The Hills" television personality Lauren Conrad's book, "L.A. Candy."

Users can download the free application from http://m.harpercollins.com to their smartphone and scan the 2D bar code with the camera in their mobile phone.

The codes can be found on the back of book jackets and on other select marketing materials. They will link the user to a mobile site with exclusive content on the author and the book.

No matter where users are, they can read a Q&A with the author, share the new site with their friends via SMS and access a video featuring Ms. Conrad.

"QMcodes has an analytics dashboard, so for us it's all about measurable results," said Rachel Chou, vice president of online product development at HarperCollins. "We want to know if they're sharing it.

"With QMcodes we can track how well the campaign is taking on a viral element," she said.

HarperCollins admits that because teens use their mobile phones for all kinds of communication such as texting or social networking, it is important to offer them another way to share content with their friends.

Users can also get direct access to the site via their mobile device at http://lacandy.mobi.

HarperCollins plans to create individual mobile Web sites for each book in the pilot program, powered by QMcodes.

"Freakonomics," which goes on paperback sale Aug. 25, will have a code in this version that includes exclusive book-related content along with information on the fall publication of its follow-up title, ?Superfreakonomics."

"The Amanda Project" is an interactive series that is available as a printed book, complemented by an online adventure and will also incorporate codes to extend the reader's experience.

QMcodes sees the print versus digital discussion as unnecessary in that both channels complement each other.

"Mobile as a tool really makes any offline media interactive," said Antony McGregor Dey, CEO of QMcodes, Melbourne, Australia. "Mobile is the remote control to the world around you and allows you to engage with so many things.

"For marketing in general, mobile will change it completely," he said. "In the same way that the Internet changed marketing, mobile will change it again at a whole different level simply because it is hyper-personal and hyper-local."