QR Code for the URL of the English Wikipedia Mobile main page. Note that the white border is part of the encoding.
You’ve probably seen them and never noticed them. They’re everywhere—in the corner of a magazine ad, on the side of a bus, on the business card you were just handed at a trade expo by a particularly amusing vendor. They have the power to direct consumers to everything from coupons to websites to special promotions, all with the click of a button. Yet, for most consumers, they appear to be little more than a printing error or some sort of artsy design. They’re QR codes and, if used properly, they can prove to be a tremendously powerful marketing tool.
Located with increasing frequency, advertisers are beginning to include QR or “quick response” codes in advertising, especially print and direct mail. These advanced bar codes appear to be a jumble of black and white blocks that form an almost artistic square mosaic tile pattern. Common in Japan where they were invented by the Denso-Wave Corporation back in 1994[1], the odd square blocks appear on everything from business cards, billboards, printed mail, magazine inserts, to the placards found on the sides of city buses. To use one of these, a consumer must have two things: a smart phone and a bar code reading application downloaded to their mobile device. Simply fire up the app, use the phone’s camera to scan the bar QR code, and the phone does the rest. In many cases, the phone’s browser launches and is immediately redirected to everything from a mobile coupon to a unique website.
The advantages to such a campaign are easy to see. Rather than relying on the consumer to text an easily-forgotten code to a phone number, the consumer simply has only to snap a picture with their mobile device and the code takes care of the rest. Christopher Nolan’s film “Inception” has used QR codes as part of a recent cross-promotion with Verizon Wireless. Located in the corner of a two page ad in the recent issue of Entertainment Weekly[2], the QR code directed consumers to a special mobile-optimized website that featured games, special downloads, and a show-finder that located the nearest available showings of the film. By simply clicking on a image at the bottom of a magazine ad, I was given an “enhanced experience” related to that ad—strengthening that impression in my mind more than if I’d just casually browsed through the content.
The true potential of QR codes is just beginning to be realized here in the United States. Imagine walking down the street when an ad for an insurance agent on the side of a bench catches your eye. SNAP! Now as a consumer you’re on the agent’s website and you didn’t have to type a single character of a web address. Or, you’re at a trade show and the vendor you’d like to see is currently fielding questions from three other individuals. Walk over the banner for the company and SNAP! Your Droid is now loading the web page of the company with a trade show promotion for those that snapped the QR code. Even closer to home, you’re taking the usual plethora of junk mail out of your box when a direct mail piece for a lawn care company catches your eye. SNAP! You’ve now just saved $50.00 off of the first visit because of the imbedded QR code. Lastly, you’re in New York City on business and see a billboard for a show you’d like to attend. SNAP! You’re directed to a secure online ordering site for tickets and yet the box office is 12 blocks away.
QR codes aren’t the end-all-be-all of advertising but they do represent a unique opportunity for marketers. These small codes can be used virtually anywhere advertising is placed. Consumers are able to download the required code readers such as “Scan Life” for free on most mobile app marketplaces. Additionally, smart phones are predicted to overtake feature phones in their share of the mobile market some time in 2011[3], meaning that more customers than ever before will be walking around with the capability to utilize these codes than ever before. Already used to great success in Japan, the technology has been slow to gain ground in the United States. Yet, an online retailer GoGreenItems.com recently used QR codes as part of a planned direct mail campaign. Within one week of deployment, three additional orders came in—by individuals who had only scanned the codes.[4] While not the type of results that cause advertisers to simply drop everything and jump on board, it does raise the question- how easy would it be to add QR codes to my existing advertising campaign? The age of the smart phone is here—and that includes all applications that go with it.
[1] http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/aboutqr-e.html
[2] Entertainment Weekly #1112, P. 47
[3]Smart Phones to Overtake Feature Phones by 2011, Nielsen Wire, March 2010
[4] “Mix Your Media”, DeliverMazine.com, July 2010