Last week I was driving through eastern Pennsylvania, on a long trip from Maryland to New York. I was somewhere between Allentown and Scranton when I pulled off to find something to eat. My driving companion was an audiobook I had just purchased and, ironically, it was Steven King’s latest thriller, 11.23.63. Like most of his books, this one was primarily set in a sleepy town in Maine. I hadn’t gotten to the part of the book that takes place in Dallas, Texas, during the fall of 1963. The town I was currently driving through was eerily similar to the picture King had painted in my head of the town in the story, Derry, Maine. To add to the irony, I pulled up behind an old 60’s style hearse, which sort of startled me. The hearse was painted in solid black with a big gold badge and a large QR code on the back window. The badge was for the name of a business, some sort of ghost hunters. Unfortunately, the QR code eluded me. Though I grabbed my phone and attempted a quick scan, the hearse pulled away too quickly as the light turned green.
I wish I had been able to scan that QR code but as a marketer, I was a bit impressed with the creativity of the owner of whatever business that was.
A ComScore study conducted last summer showed that 14 million Americans (or 6.2% of mobile device users) scanned a QR code in the month of June. These are certainly not huge numbers, but I concluded two things from this study. One, many people still don’t know what a QR code is, much less that they need an app on their phone to scan it. This makes them unique and different, and that’s not a bad thing for your marketing. Two, there is room for growth! At 6.2% user adoption, QR codes are still effective in marketing, so imagine what the results will look like when there is a 20 or 30% user adoption?
We hear from marketers who are still not sure about QR Codes. That’s because t ROI hasn’t been proven. But in our world, they are a relatively low cost, low risk add-on to any campaign. We have found effective ways to use QR codes in our high-impact print designs and they are a great.
The key to an effective QR code campaign is in the payoff. What’s in it for the end user who takes the time to scan your code? If you simply take them to your website, there isn’t much of a reward, is there? You should always direct them to a landing page that was specially designed for the campaign and matches the theme of the print piece. It has to be a special place the user can’t just get to by Google “ing” your company.
Subway recently did a great campaign where they sent coupons out in a mailer and included a QR code. When you scanned the QR code you were taken to a website that allowed you to play games for extra coupons. It was an effective way for Subway to bridge the gap between their print efforts and digital assets.
Another thing to consider is that you’re not boxed in by the basic black and white barcode
style. Surely there are graphic designers that have no interest in slapping an ugly QR code on top of a beautifully designed piece. Not to worry! QR codes have an amazing amount of flexibility. The entire code is not necessary for an effective scan. Furthermore, the color makes no difference. It’s one of those things you have to tinker with. Change the QR code slightly to match your design and keep testing as you proceed. Though they can be flexible, covering up the wrong spot, even just a few pixels, could render the code useless.
We encourage our clients to try QR codes, as long as there is a reason to do so. We don’t just use them for the novelty of it. Building an effective integrated campaign will include several digital and print components, so you need to find a way to bring them together. QR codes can help, along with other digital technologies like web keys and purls.
