Portland Trail Blazers Deploy Digimarc Barcode to Elevate Fan Experiences through Engaging Mobile Content

BEAVERTON, Ore., April 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Digimarc Corp. (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that the Portland Trail Blazers have partnered with the company to introduce a first-of-its-kind FanScan feature for the National Basketball Association (NBA) team's official mobile app. Powered by the Digimarc Discover® Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK), the app lets pro basketball fans use their mobile devices to scan enhanced print media -- such as team posters, the BlazerDancers calendar and game programs -- and to 'listen' to audio played during the game to trigger access to digital content including exclusive videos, real-time game schedule information and behind-the-scenes photos.

The imperceptible Digimarc Barcode, part of the Digimarc Discover® platform, makes any media impression a gateway to rich, digital experiences without visibly altering the design aesthetics in print or the audio quality of the original media. With today's announcement, the Portland Trail Blazers become the first major professional sports franchise to improve the fan experience with Digimarc's technology. Now, Blazers fans can interact with FanScan-ready materials, which will deliver a mobile experience unmatched by any other professional or amateur sports team.

"The Blazers franchise prides itself on embracing new technology in creative ways to build a deeper relationship with our fans, who have increasingly high expectations," said Dewayne Hankins, senior vice president of brand strategy and digital, Portland Trail Blazers. "Digimarc is helping us bring exciting new experiences to the fans. Now their phone helps fans become even more involved with the team whether at the game or away from the arena."

"Fandom is such a personal experience. Mobile engagement is about continuing to build that relationship with your most important consumers," said Whitney Wagoner, director, Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "The Trail Blazers clearly have established themselves as innovators in the digital and fan engagement space. This partnership with Digimarc is another step to allow them to find out more about their customers, develop a deeper connection with their fans and provide value back to their loyal supporters."

The Digimarc Discover® Mobile SDK allows application developers to build and deploy best-in-class mobile apps that scan imperceptible Digimarc Barcodes in print, packaging, and audio, as well as traditional UPC barcodes and QR codes more efficiently and reliably than ever, to unlock information and experiences for consumers. Digimarc Discover is a key part of the company's Intuitive Computing Platform (ICP) that aims to make technology innately easy to use. ICP enables mobile devices such as smartphones and other computer interfaces to respond to the user's environment by acting as an extension of their eyes and ears, using the camera to look or the microphone to listen for digital signals everywhere and instantly identify almost anything. Learn more about Digimarc Discover® Mobile SDK at https://www.digimarc.com/application/mobilesdk.

"Using the Digimarc Discover Mobile SDK, the Trail Blazers bolstered their mobile app with a world of new functionality," said Larry Logan, chief marketing officer at Digimarc. "As the first professional sports team to embrace the technology, the Trail Blazers have a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate what is possible not only in a live game-time environment, but also how technology can delight fans at every touch point – at home, on the go, and in the arena. We're excited to be a key element of the Trail Blazers fan experience strategy and look forward to collaborating on expanded interactive initiatives."

About Digimarc
Digimarc Corp. (NASDAQ: DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is inventor of the Digimarc Discover® platform featuring the invisible Digimarc Barcode for automatically identifying and interacting with virtually any media. The platform enables industrial scanners, smartphones, tablets and other computer interfaces to reliably, efficiently and economically identify traditional barcoded items, along with many other media objects. Digimarc Barcodes are imperceptible to people and do all that visible barcodes do, but perform better. They can be applied to virtually all forms of media. These remarkable capabilities have allowed Digimarc and its business partners to supply a wide range of patented consumer engagement, media management and security solutions across multiple consumer and government industry sectors. Digimarc owns an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with patents in digital watermarking, content identification and management, media object discovery, and intuitive computing more generally. For more information and the latest news, please visit www.digimarc.com and follow on Twitter at @DigimarcCorp.

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SOURCE Digimarc Corp.

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