Originally posted on
QR Codes In Advertising
http://QRcodes-in-advertising.blogspot.com
QR Codes in Advertising (Mobile Tagging)
QR codes have stormed traditional
advertising and it will never look the same, literally. Innovation surged this year in mobile marketing with huge breakthroughs coming in the QR code advertising sector. To put it mildly, QR codes are blowin' up! The opportunities to augment and track ‘old’ traditional print media with QR codes and deliver targeted mobile web content to smartphone users are ‘game changing’ for today’s professional advertiser. Successful
QR code advertising campaigns go beyond the
QR code and offer a unique mobile web experience tailored to the advertisement and media outlet. The early days of generating a QR code for a generic website and slapping it on your advertisement are over. Advertisers must now focus on strategy, design and context to get optimum results and deliver the value that will keep consumers scanning. Whether it’s for mobile shopping, commerce, mapping, apps,
mobile vCards, signups, music downloads, social, coupons or rewards, consumers are finding new reasons everyday to scan QR codes on advertisements with their mobile smartphones. Team this with the analytic software available that most
QR code management platforms offer and you have a powerful new dynamic evolving in the advertising world.
Today’s 5 fundamentals of using QR codes in Advertising
(1) This is MOBILE, dude. The #1 mistake made by
QR code advertisers is using generic desktop web pages as their ‘QR-connected’ landing page.Web content that’s tagged for a QR code must be mobile and properly formatted for ALL smartphone web browsers (Android, Apple, Blackberry, Windows, ect). Speed is everything so make sure to design content that can be displayed on a mobile device quickly after the scan. Remember, this is a completely different animal than desktop web design and fresh perspectives must be considered. Large buttons and easy "touch" navigation are critical to prompting action on the phone. Easy "contact" function can win with convenience alone. Keep the call, email, map and V-card buttons close by! QR codes are by for the best way to prompt users to action in the physical world. Anybody who says that QR Codes are ugly is right, it's this 'ugliness' that makes them eye catching, recognizable and engaging to mobile consumers!
(2) Mainstream QR code adoption in advertising is a numbers game, smartphone numbers. There has been an ongoing debate between tech nerds on Twitter about whether QR code usage will hit mainstream status in the U.S. To bet against this is like betting against smartphone growth altogether. The consumer demand for web-enabled smartphones is ridiculous right now with
Android boasting over 300,000 activations daily! These phones are all capable of scanning
QR codes quickly and surfing promotional mobile advertising for coupons and rewards within seconds. The number of NEW mobile web users will increase by over 100 MILLION devices in 2011 and advertisers who have been using QR codes as early as 2008 have seen scans increase by 400% over the past two years. The future is bright for
smartphones AND QR codes.
(3) If mobile CONTENT is king, CONTEXT is GOD.
The
Yankee Group has coined this as the ‘
anywhere’ era of web content because today’s content can be consumed anywhere from a
web-enabled mobile device. We already live in an on-demand digital culture where one-way advertising is mostly ignored but authentic, exclusive CONTENT is craved and searched for. QR codes offer advertisers the fastest and most recognizable outlet to deliver ‘context aware’ mobile content to the real world in an on-demand nature. The mobile advertising environment is a wild terrain with unlimited possibilities for marketers to deliver unique value to smartphone users. Advertisers must build and deliver
custom mobile websites and landing pages that make sense to their market and helps shoppers complete buying decisions. If it's a magazine ad, build a landing page considering the readers of THAT magazine and offer exclusives and rewards to only that particular group of readers. A QR code that leads directly to video on the same ad in multiple publications isn't very powerful but a custom landing page where users can scroll from a catalog of mobile media is much more effective.
QR codes that lead users straight to video are mostly ineffective and overused in general
(4) Stick with QR codes. Don’t be fooled by imposter (Proprietary) 2-D Codes. The 2-D barcode advertising world is complex due the closed,
indirect proprietary codes on the market. This has contributed to the early adoption problems that have faced the technology often confusing the end user. The QR code is the only open format (direct) code that anybody can generate for free. The data stored in the QR code is a universal (direct) link as opposed to data stored in proprietary codes which only makes sense to the particular app that’s decoding. Make sense? Not only that, there are over 100 different apps that read QR codes due to their openness as opposed to the closed proprietary market where codes can only be read with app specific to the code (ex. The only app that reads Microsoft Tag is
Microsoft Tag). This is why I believe that the
QR code makes the most sense for advertisers in the long run. App creators are starting to think differently about what apps to build QR code reading function into. Now, large retailers like Best Buy and social networks are building QR code scanning function into their apps. We’ve seen this movie before and OPEN wins.
(5) Use a QR code management platform. Generate QR codes and view analytic data from a QR code management platform. This is the best way to run efficient and influential QR code advertising campaigns. A typical QR code advertising campaign will utilize 100’s of unique QR codes to optimize analytic results. The advantage to this is having a complete platform making it simple to build, organize, deploy and track 100's of custom mobile landing pages and QR codes all under one platform. Advertising campaigns are robust in nature and mobile content needs to be targeted at publications, retailers, T.V. and the web with a variety of intentions in mind. There are several platforms on the web dedicated to
QR code advertising management but I have only found one that combines page building, code management and tracking all in one solution.
The Tappinn QR code advertising solution.
Mobile site and 'QR-connected' landing page building on Tappinn
-Upload images on pages and link them anywhere on the web
-Create links that will prompt the phone to call or email a specific contact
-Build mobile user submission forms (email, name, age, address, ect.) within pages to collect user info (enter to win or signup)
-Create links to social profiles and blogs
-Virtual address cards (vCards) that can be downloaded directly your phone with one touch
-Customize button and background colors for a unique combination
-Tappinn pages automatically include share links to FB, Twitter, email and "like" button
-Pages can be turned into QR codes to share
-Update and change page content in real time
-Alias URL's for targeted branding
QR Code management and tracking platform on Tappinn
-Name and categorize QR codes for every application
-QR codes are stored on the platform under the pages that they generated for.
-Easily generate QR codes use them immediately in your advertising.
-Unlimited QR code generation and scans are allowed for no additional cost
-View top hit codes and pages, recent scans and pages landed on from the dashboard
-Track everything (page views, landing code, scans, geo locations, devices) and run CSV reports instantly
The question to use QR codes in your advertising has been answered. Now it becomes a matter of HOW. Remember, think BEYOND the CODE.
