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Why Put A QR Code On A Banana?

QR Codes on bananas are not new but from now on every banana from Ecuador will have a QR Code sticker. The Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador does not have a large marketing budget so it is using the 24 million tons of bananas that the country exports every year to promote tourism (video below). [...]

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QR Code IQ Test

A QR Code is helping to identify future high flying university students in Israel. The best universities require a very high score in the nationally administered Psychometric Entrance Test (PET). Israel’s largest education company Kidum have developed a special course for students hoping to achieve the highest scores when taking the PET. In order [...]

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• QR Code posters have been used to advertise a film festival before, even as far back as 2010. They were also used in 2011 to enable a virtual film festival to take place anywhere in the world but Brooklyn Film Festival 2013 have come up with a new concept - 'FilmCodes' (video below). Compressed frames from a movie are used to create a barcode like image that can be scanned by the WiMO app. A successful scan resolves to a video showing the movie that it was compressed from. Melvyn Laily has a Movie Barcode Generator here if you want to try making one yourself. More...
• Gebr Heinemann have 230 travel and duty free shops at 54 international airports in 22 countries and have chosen Frankfurt Airport for their first QR Code shopping wall (images below). The 6 month trial displays 60 different fragrances, cosmetics, spirits and confectionery products. Each product has a QR Code which travellers can scan to get more information and if they wish place orders for the goods. The products are delivered to a pick-up point next to the QR Code wall in under 15 minutes at which time the passenger pays for the items. If the passenger has to leave before the goods are delivered the order is automatically cancelled. Other airport shopping walls in the last year include New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, Tesco's Virtual Grocery Store, LaGuardia and JFK airports. More...
• According to local newspaper The Citizen QR Codes are now being used to combat anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the City of Gloucester. The QR Code is linked directly to a form where people can report incidents of ASB and the code will be used on letters mailed to residents of the whole county. The originator of the project said: "I don't think anyone else in the country is using a QR Code in the same way we are, but I don't know why not". Well there is an answer to that question - it's because the form you are using (see screenshot below) will never be completed by anyone using a smartphone. Suggestion - before implementing a mobile form please read UX designer Robert Brauer's excellent "Removing Stumbling Blocks In Mobile Forms". More...
• The latest Scanbuy Trend Report reveals continued rapid growth of QR Code and UPC Code scans by mobile users. March 2013 was the highest month in the reports history surpassing 6.7 miliion scans. Interestingly 57% of scans came from the Android OS compared to 41% on Apple iOS devices. Also the United States ranks highest in volume of scans, followed by Spain, France and Brazil, respectively. More details of the report in the infographic below. More...
• A recent survey from Euromonitor International of the smartphone activities of 6,200 consumers in 15 countries shows hat the use of QR Codes while shopping is still relatively uncommon. Over 40% of respondents in developed countries have never scanned a QR Code for product information. China has the largest group of shoppers scanning QR Codes in store (20%) with Japan the lowest (under 1%). In the US the survey shows only around 4% of shoppers “often” or “almost always” scan QR Codes in stores (image below). I am surprised to see Japan (where the QR Code is ubiquitous) with the lowest percentage. Also the US data seems to contradict last years Empathica Consumer Insights Panel survey of more than 6,500 U.S. consumers (weighted to reflect the latest census distributions including age, income, region and gender) showing that 34% of consumers scan a QR Code in store. They are probably both wrong :) More...
• The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with an optical reader app that can be used to scan or extract text or data from images, documents, business cards, and QR Codes. Simply tap 'Optical Reader' on the Applications screen and aim the pointer at an image, document, or QR Code. If scanning text you can translate and view the definition of extracted words and for business cards you can make calls or send messages from the scanned contact information. More...
• According to ABI Research the number of NFC enabled devices will hit the half billion mark by the first half of 2014. The question is what will the NFC be doing? The obvious areas for NFC are in payment, retail, transport, health care and consumer electronics but where are the killer apps? There are remarkably few NFC apps of any kind at present and NFC feels very much like a technology waiting for useful applications to be discovered. Startupbootcamp Amsterdam is hoping to find them with its new thematic mentor-driven accelerator program: Near Field Communications & Contactless Interactions. The program is open to global applicants and they are looking for strong startup teams that demonstrate initiative regardless of nationality. More details on the Startupbootcamp website. More...
• Blue Note Grill of Durham, North Carolina have increased dessert sales in two months by 71% with a toilet paper QR Code campaign (image below). The restaurant partnered with New York guerrilla advertising company Star Toilet Paper to implement a QR Code coupon download printed on bathroom tissue within the restaurant. Restaurant owner Bill Whittington says it is effective and a great conversation piece too. Star Toilet Paper has a great business model using printed toilet paper as a media platform for ads, coupons and digital media downloads, the company is able to both increase its advertising clients’ profits and reduce the operating costs of public facing businesses by providing them with free toilet paper. More...
• There are some marketing gimmicks that transcend rational explanation. How about a perfume with a URL as its name and a blue QR Code bottle design in neon-yellow? Bond No. 9 HTTP://WWW.BONDNO9.COM is just that (image below) and will launch onlne in June at $250 for 100ml. The brand claim the "Once you have it in-hand and spray it on, you’ll generate lots of person-to-person QR of your own". Scanning the QR Code currently takes you directly to the Brand's desktop website with apparently no QR Code management. Without any sense or irony they refer to it as their "new tech-savvy fragrance". More...
• QR Codes on the ground are quite common, appearing in cobblestones in Portugal, in sawdust in Guatemala and even in Gangnam Style in Korea. Now in Takamatsu, a city located on the island of Shikoku in Japan, the town's water and sewer commission has put QR Codes on manhole covers (images below). The designs are the result of a competition for high school students run by the town's Convention and Visitors Bureau. The QR Codes resolve to a site with information on events and attractions in the city. More...