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Super Bowl Program QR Code Ads Fail

Unsurprisingly the 2012 Super Bowl Official Game Program included a few QR Codes in its 264 pages as nine advertisers decided to add one or two to their $100K+ single page ads (images below). I would have thought that when spending that amount of money some care and attention would have been given as to [...]

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The Future Looks Bright For QR Codes

Econsultancy’s Marketing Budgets report for 2012 based on discussions with companies and agencies shows some interesting data on the future of QR Codes. When asked “Which of the following mobile channels or technologies do you plan to invest in during 2012” 48% of companies said QR Codes. When asked “Which of the following mobile channels [...]

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• We have reported on QR Codes on chocolates, a QR Code constructed from wrapped chocolates and a QR Code made from unwrapped chocolates but a new Japanese video (below) shows how to make a chocolate QR Code from scratch. Made by melting black and white chocolate bars, setting them into slabs, dicing them up into squares and constructing the code piece by piece. The QR Code scans as text "I Love You!". This is not so surprising as we are close to Valentine's Day and making a QR Code this way is certainly a labor of love. More...
• Jeff Lorton co-founder of mobile marketing agency LynkSnap made a great comment to me today "QR Codes are the most relevant thing to happen to billboards since they put lights on them". He was telling me about an unsuccessful pitch to a well known company in the OOH arena and the failure (at the moment) of their senior management to understand mobile engagement. The ad that Jeff's team produced to accompany the pitch deserves to have a wider audience so with his permission it is reproduced below. More...
• The latest ScanLife Trend Report contains some interesting analysis of barcode scanning data pulled from the ScanLife Reporting Platform during Q4 2011. While it includes 1d codes (27%) as well as 2d codes (73%) the demographic data shows scanners are more likely to be Male (63%) Aged 25-34 (28%) and use an Android device (50%) (image below). For 2d code scans the Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) industry moved up five spots to #1 with the most scans via the ScanLife platform. You can download the full report here. More...
• The 46th Super Bowl on Sunday will have at least one QR Code commercial. Go Daddy has a 30 second ad featuring auto racing driver Danica Patrick and a new lineup of pop girl group Pussycat Dolls with an onscreen QR Code (image below). The code currently resolves to a mobile page showing a video of the same ad (if you are using a mobile device). Let's hope that this will be changed for something more imaginative before the ad is shown. More...
• Fans of two Turkish soccer teams show such intense rivalry that in the past when Karsiyaka play Göztepe there have been clashes with the police, fans have been arrested, police officers have been wounded and matches halted for half an hour. At yesterdays game Karisyaka fans unfurled a QR Code banner (image below) which scanned as text designed to insult Göztepe fans as much as possible and at the same time avoid immediate confiscation by officials. The offending text is shown below as a scanner screenshot rather than text, to avoid upsetting Google bot :) Karsiyaka won 1-0. More...
• Artist and designer Frank Haase (Open Air QR Code Art, QR Code Sculpture) has taken Patrick Donnelly's idea of a QR Code on the sole of your shoe one step further (pun intended!). Frank sent me a picture of his prototype and I have modified the contrast/brightness to better show the details (image below). Frank said "I made a lot of prints with water on my terrace, which is of granite and changes the colour enormously - dependent on if it's dry or wet. Sometimes I only got a half print, sometimes I got a quarter of it. But in some few cases they were good enough to be used by the i-nigma reader, sometimes also by kaywa. But I had problems with quickmark - all my tries to scan the shoe print with quickmark failed". More...
• An interesting study by Zmags based on a survey of 1,500 people who shop via PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones includes a surprising statistic of interest to brands using QR Codes. 87% of the consumers surveyed prefer to use websites and browser-based mobile sites for browsing and shopping, whereas only 4% prefer smartphone and tablet apps. This would suggest that brands should concentrate on improving the ROI of their mobile site rather than investing in apps offering no obvious advantage to consumers. Also it means that QR Codes resolving to the special offers on your eCommerce mobile site will be considerably more profitable than QR Codes resolving to your app download. You can download the full report here. More...
• During 2011 Nellymoser analyzed every page within the Top 100 magazines for 'mobile action codes' (all 2D barcodes, QR Codes, Microsoft Tags and Watermarks). Highlights from their research include - QR Codes were the most widely used codes accounting for 72% of all action codes with Microsoft Tag in second place with 25% (image below) - 54% of codes resolved to Video content - 30% fail to describe what happens after the scan. Lots more interesting information in the full report which you can download from here. More...
• Art or commerce? RESULTCO's Detroit Storefront Project which turns empty store windows into QR Coded shopping walls are definitely both. Using stunning graphics with a trompe l'oeil effect and laser printing these are the best virtual store fronts I have seen. The image below of Joe Louis's arm has 47 different watches each with its own QR Code and the second image below shows offerings from automotive-inspired watch brand Equipe. The QR Codes resolve to a secure WatchWear website where users can either make a purchase or email product information to themselves for review later. If you are in Detroit you can see these store fronts at 1520 and 1528 Woodward Avenue and according to RESULTCO there are more to follow. More...
• A 16 foot square QR code sticker has appeared on the Vineyard Boulevard exit sign on the H-1 freeway in Honolulu (image below). Apparently Hawaii Department of Transportation officials are upset at what they say is another act of vandalism linked to local clothing and video company UDOWN. According to a local newspaper a DOT spokesman said "Whoever gets stuck in traffic Monday morning as we take that thing down, they can thank the idiots who put it up there". In my view anyone stuck in traffic is more likely to blame the DOT for choosing Monday morning and not taking it down in the middle of Sunday night. More...