BEAVERTON, OR--(Marketwired - Jan 7, 2015) - Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that Southern Graphics Inc. (SGS), a global leader in digital solutions that streamline the capture, management, execution, and distribution of graphics information for packaging and labels of top retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, has become a certified service provider for the Digimarc® Barcode. The Digimarc Barcode enables much faster checkout speeds and improved mobile shopper engagement.

Customers, many of which SGS has served for over 20 years, include large CPG companies, mass merchant retailers and the printers and converters that service them. The company serves hundreds of high-profile accounts and employs over 3,200 individuals worldwide. For SGS customers, incorporating Digimarc Barcode is now as simple as adding the option to their graphic service orders.

"We're always looking for innovative ways to help our customers present their brands to the market," said Michael Shannon, Senior Vice President, SGS. "Digimarc Barcode delivers significant performance and feature enhancements to retail packaging while providing the following benefits: low cost, no visible impact, and minimal business process overhead. Our processes and expertise dovetail nicely with the Digimarc platform and services to make it easy and economical for our customers to take advantage of this amazing new technology." 

For retailers and brands, the Digimarc Barcode represents the first opportunity in more than forty years to significantly increase the speed of scanning at checkout while simultaneously creating valuable mobile engagement options for consumers and brands at home, on the go and in the store.

"We're very fortunate to have the support of an industry leader with great expertise, a commitment to innovation, and the trust of their customers to support the growth of Digimarc Barcode adoption," said Bruce Davis, Digimarc Chairman and CEO. "SGS' long-term customers include many of the most admired CPG brands in the world. We will work together to ensure smooth integration of these extraordinary new benefits into their packaging." 

Digimarc Barcode allows SGS customers to encode existing barcode data invisibly and repeatedly over the surface of packages and labels, dramatically improving ease, reliability, and speed of scanning by point of sale (POS) scanners, smartphones, tablets and other devices equipped with Digimarc software. With the entire package scannable, POS systems can quickly identify the product regardless of how the cashier orients the item in relation to the reader, paving the way for shorter lines, better customer service and improved margins.

Digimarc Barcodes also enable SGS customers to engage with shoppers directly from packaging. This creates a wealth of new opportunities to enhance convenience and engagement for mobile-enabled shoppers. Using the free Digimarc Discover mobile application (iOS/Android) or any one of the increasing number of Digimarc-enabled mobile applications on their smartphones and tablets, shoppers can scan and save recipes and shopping lists as well as learn more about products and redeem special offers.

Learn more about Digimarc Barcode at http://www.digimarc.com/products/discover/barcode and Digimarc IDs at http://www.digimarc.com/products/discover/digimarc-id. Existing SGS customers can contact Michael Shannon at: 847.421.6000

About Digimarc
 Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading innovator and provider of consumer engagement, media management, and security solutions that create digital identities for all forms of media and many everyday objects. Digimarc's digital IDs are imperceptible to humans and enable computers, networks and devices like mobile phones to better "see, hear and understand" brand impressions and other objects of interest. Digimarc has built an extensive intellectual property portfolio with patents in digital watermarking, content identification and management, media and object discovery to enable ubiquitous computing and related technologies. Digimarc develops solutions, licenses its intellectual property, and provides development services to business partners across a range of industries. For more information and the latest news, please visit www.digimarc.com and follow us on Twitter @DigimarcCorp.

About Southern Graphics Inc.
Southern Graphics Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, together with its subsidiaries (including Southern Graphic Systems, LLC), is a global leader in the digital imaging industry. SGS offers design-to-print graphic services to the international consumer products packaging market primarily in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Financial strength and a comprehensive global service platform provide a distinct competitive advantage over the majority of companies in the industry.

SGS offers a full spectrum of innovative digital solutions that streamline the capture, management, execution, and distribution of graphics information. Brand development, enterprise workflow tools, creative design, adaptive design, 3D, prepress, image carriers and print support services are provided across all printing processes. SGS provides critical services that ensure customers are able to obtain or produce consistent, high quality packaging materials often on short turnaround times.

SGS strives to recruit the best-of-the-best innovators and risk-takers, who take pride in their contributions, rise to any challenge, endeavor to enhance the final product, are team players, and eagerly embrace new concepts and technologies. Strong global infrastructure provides opportunity to share worldwide learning, insights, and understanding in order to create unique solutions for all customers.