At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft unveiled a new beta product called Tag. It's a simple technology on the surface, but it holds enormous potential for creative use at retail.

Tag is an extension of the company's existing High Capacity Color Barcode (HCCB) technology, packaged for extreme ease of use and simple integration with mobile devices. Each Tag consists of a 5x10 grid of triangles, each of which can be in one of four colors. This allows a tag to hold 13 bytes of data, more than enough to store a URL or a phone number.

After installing the Tag client application, a user simply captures an image of a Tag with the mobile phone. Depending on how the Tag is configured, snapping that picture might cause a Web page to load, a video to play, a document to download or a call to a number to be placed.

The use of two-dimensional barcodes to integrate the real world with the online one is not entirely new; tech magazines like Network World have long published a 2D code in each issue, inviting readers to scan it with their phones for bonus content. QR codes, a specific breed of 2D barcodes, are wildly popular in Japan but have not taken hold elsewhere.

But what Tag aims to do is make the whole process a no-brainer for all parties, first by making the Tags easy to generate and visually attractive, then by making native scanning apps for as many handhelds as possible.

Here are five ways retailers can put Tag to work today:

After installing the Microsoft Tag software on your mobile phone, capture this Tag to read the mobile version of Retail Customer Experience.

QR barcodes are popular in Japan, but have not taken hold elsewhere. Here is a giant QR code in Tokyo that sends mobile phone users to a specialized search engine.

Deliver product information pages, in the aisle

The simplest application for Microsoft Tag at retail will probably be the most useful one in the long run — linking real-world products to online resources. The system correlates a single Tag with a single URL, so putting "hyperlinks" on products is as simple as labeling them.

Dr. Scott Testa, professor of marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, gives an example from the cereal aisle: imagine a box of cereal, with the colorful Microsoft Tag prominently on the front of the box. Scanning the tag takes you to a promotional Web page that lets your child watch a brief cartoon featuring characters from the cereal box, keeping him occupied for a few moments. When the video ends, a coupon appears in your inbox for a discount on the cereal.

Tags can also take shoppers to detailed nutritional info, in the case of food items, or detailed product specs and comparison tools, in the case of complex items like consumer electronics. In this latter instance, the shopper's cell phone is effectively turned into an assisted selling kiosk.

Send offers and information to people driving by

Like QR codes, Tag codes can be printed at virtually any size, which opens the door for some far-reaching applications.

For instance, a Tag could be made very large and placed on an outdoor sign, making it phone-readable from someone driving by in a car. Some phones can be prompted to reply with GPS information, too, making location-aware marketing a possibility: a driver captures the Tag on a retail store billboard, and in return he gets directions to the store and a coupon for his purchase.

Tie promotional content to in-store purchases

Suppose you had two shirts in your hand, and you couldn't decide which one to buy. All other things being equal, if one of them offered you a free ringtone or MP3 for scanning the label, wouldn't you likely lean toward that choice?

David Bruno thinks so. He's the director of product marketing for Escalate Retail, which demonstrated Tag-related retail at this year's NRF show. "I think there are lots of creative brand-building content delivery ideas for the Tags' destinations," he said.

Even if the freebie offered is something as mundane as a wallpaper or ringtone, it represents a novel way to extend the brand further into the shopper's psyche — and literally, into his pocket.

Test the effectiveness of your advertising

The online world, with its click-tracking and cookies and statistics, has trained advertisers to expect accountability for the dollars they spend. Whether it is for in-store POP or co-op print, Tags nestled into advertisements can give brands hard numbers on how many times their messages are being received.

The same principle extends to stores themselves and the marketing they do with outside audiences. Circulars, mailers, newspaper and magazine ads — all can be made strictly accountable with the addition of a Tag.

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Send shoppers on a scavenger hunt

For most retailers, keeping shoppers in the store longer is both an art and a science. Judicious use of Tag can raise the level of both elements.

Brian Ardinger of Nanonation suggests using the technology to send shoppers on a promotional scavenger hunt. This can be as high-tech or low-tech and the retailer desires. Perhaps it begins with a printed hand-out at the front of the store, listing ten items that will have Tags nearby; "collect" all ten and get a discount on your order, a discount that is greater if you buy the products in question.

Or, Tags can be daisy-chained to create a more game-like atmosphere. Scan the first Tag at the customer service desk; that tag takes you to a Flickr pool which shows the next item or location to find. Once there, you're shown the next target, and so on.