I knew before I went on holiday to Japan that my husband is concerningly excited about QR codes but I was impressed to see just how much more excited he could get with every turn in the shopping malls as more and more QR codes appeared round every corner.
He is a creative/designer, mainly for print and is massively excited at the potential that QR codes can add to any advertising and marketing campaigns. Now having seen these QR codes in action, whether be on leaflets, carrier bags or billboards, I can’t help myself to join in the excitement.
For those of you who don’t know, QR codes (Quick Response Codes) are two dimensional barcodes which can hold more data than the usual barcode and can be read by many mainstream cameras on phones, like the iPhone, providing particular reader software is installed. Here is an example of what a QR code that links to the iCrossing website looks like.
QR codes can be used to hold a variety of information, including hyperlinks and can prompt web pages to load as a result of taking a photo of the QR code. When used in conjunction with offline marketing material these QR codes can provide quick access to online material on the same subject.
Japan is using QR codes everywhere on their print material to send traffic to their online domains, whether it is for further information or via promotions. At the Muji clothing store, they were using a QR code for discount offers, sending traffic to their online store whilst visitors are browsing their high street stores, owning both your physical and virtual self at that very same moment in time.
There is no doubt that QR codes will blur the lines between on and offline marketing material, crossing the usual boundaries of a non-synergised cross platform marketing campaign. A change which I welcome and believe is long overdue in many businesses.
The increasing widespread of QR codes on marketing materials will have an impact on future marketing campaigns. On and offline material will require closer collaboration, which is still rare in even the largest of organisations today. The points below are my thoughts on what the impacts will be.
The Benefits:
• It will help to track the success of offline campaigns by tracking QR code traffic online
• Print costs will be driven down by being able to provide further information offline and a simple route to access it
• Transition between print and online information is immediate, easy and seamless
• Further information can be accessed on the spot reducing the time for people to move on and forget about the marketing
• Lower dropout rate during the search for further information phase
The effect on site traffic:
• Brand searches will see a slight decrease as visits prompted by offline material will turn into direct site traffic
• Site traffic will increase
• Increased traffic to site from mobile devises
Areas for attention:
• Sites performance on mobile devices
• Mobile search
Here are a few ideas how key verticals could apply QR codes to their print material to increase site traffic, conversions and revenue:
• Insurance Companies could send people directly to a quote page
• Hotels Companies could send people to Google Map identifying property locations
• Travel Companies can send people to the Google Map locations of destination imagery
• Retail clients can send traffic to product pages and the point of sale
• Finance clients can send traffic to the current interest rate pages to provide real time quotes/information, impossible to do in print
I would recommended any company to start to use QR code on their offline marketing material and support the activity online with relevant content on site. Google has the capability of reading QR code data and would be able to use the information as part of their ranking methodology when they feel is time and worthwhile.
Expand your online marketing campaigns offline and get direct links from print material, increasing your online traffic, sales and revenue.
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October 26th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I was going to ask if you guys know how to write QR codes, eg what coding is needed etc.
Then I found this site:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
Might be handy for anyone else interested in creating their own.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
“Travel Companies can send people to the Google Map locations of destination imagery”
The Rough Guide have done this for a new photo guide book called Earthbound, thought it was pretty cool. I’m guessing the only problem with QR codes is you need a half decent phone, unlike mine…
October 26th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I agree with your points of the potential benefits.
I’ve started using a lot of QR codes recently on my Android phone, not to the scale of what you saw out there though!
I’ve read a review about a particular mobile app while using my PC, then scanned the QR code to take me directly to the market place to download/install it on my phone. I’ve also seen it used for forum IDs (containing phone, email, address, twitter id etc)
Apparently I can make a QR code of my contact details (or any phone contact) but I haven’t gone that far yet!
@Adam - Cheers, might try that site. If you’ve got a QR/barcode reader app on your phone, you can also use that to create them for similar things.
Maybe wider adoption will come as the adoption rate of smart phones increase and big brand is brave enough to promote it here?
October 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
@Randip - app on my phone! Lucky if it makes calls!
Talking about contact details - makes sense to add this to company business cards.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Liz just showed me a free iPhone app which you can use to scan the QR codes. You can scan them off your computer screen too.
October 26th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Hi Liz - Thank you for the great post. Opinions like yours assure us that our company QRe8 is offering a service that will have a demand in the North American marketplace.
I wrote a blog post today - 9 Reasons Your Company Should QR Codes In Your Marketing Campaigns. Please find the post here - http://bit.ly/1RZFwS
The QRe8.com website and QRe8 QR Code Campaign Management System is scheduled to launch this week - in the meantime you can check out our Facebook Page - http://facebook.com/qrcodes
Thanks again,
Erik
October 27th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Thanks for this, Liz.
As the company who develops most QRcode readers in Japan (until this day), and a fairly frequent visitor, it is still exciting to see people’s reactions to QRcode ubiquity in Japan.
We brought the QRcode revolution also to non-Japanese markets with our i-nigma offering - check it out! - http://www.i-nigma.com
October 27th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
This is pretty interesting - just tried out with Quick Mark Lite, having never heard of QR before.
Makes me wonder to what extent the idea will catch on in the West though - Oriental culture has an ingrained reliance upon the pictorial imagination (see Kanji characters in Japanese - derived, obviously from pre-existing Chinese), and fuses together the idea of pictures with words or ideas, reading and interpreting images as words.
In the West we are generally more suspicious of the picture as signifier or idea and prone to see it as a highfalutin gimmick - look at the furore over the 2012 logo.
Then again, I suspect we will all become more pictorial in our thinking, and at an increasing rate, over the coming years.