QR Codes, or 'I always wondered what those were'.

Have you seen one of these yet?


Maybe it was at the end of a magazine article or on a Realtor's sign. Maybe it was on a business card or brochure. If you have a smart phone with a camera, and a barcode reading app, these little squares can become interactive in a digital way. Even non-geeks may think this is pretty nifty.



QR (Quick Response) Codes, originally developed for parts tracking in manufacturing plants, can easily be encoded with web links, address book listings, or plain text. Once created, and included as part of a layout, they give people the opportunity to read the code with their phone and instantly access the associated content. That means they can jump to the web link, see and/or save the address book listing, or just read the text.

Here are the "Whys":

• First, we acknowledges that people have incredibly short attention spans, and are not likely to enter a web address manually or write down contact information to input later. A "snapshot" of the information overcomes this problem.
• Second, and quite importantly, these codes appeal to certain very distinct portions of your overall market. Adding this functionality to your campaign signals that your message is relevant to them, and will establish right away you're on their wavelength. Of course, the actual relevance is up to you to establish. More on that below.
• Third, on a large or small scale the QR Code itself can be incorporated into the media. (Click on photo below to view full size.)
  

Here are the "Hows":
The easiest way to generate QR Codes are the multitude of online sites available, both free and by subscription. Here are three I found in less than five minutes:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator
http://www.qrstuff.com

The process usually involves three steps; choose the type of information (web address, address book, text), enter the specifics, save the resulting image to your disk. Voila! The image is ready to place in any format you need. One happy feature about these images is that they are quite binary and have no diagonal lines, so even a tiny file (like 12 kb) will function properly. This is good news if small file size and quick loading are a priority.

The field of uses for these little codes is wide open, and any agency fluent in digital media (like our friends at Taproot Creative) can help you tailor benefits unique to your situation. A few caveats occur to me however:

• Be aware that people snapping a web link code may be skeptical if it looks cryptic. If your company name is included in the visible link (you see the address before choosing to go there) they will be reassured the destination is legit.
• A little tag line under the code saying "smartphone compatible" may help the uninitiated understand what they're looking at. Some phones come equipped with a barcode reader and the owners are unaware of its' existence. Help them learn!
• Be double sure the landing page (if that's what you encode) is smartphone friendly. Nothing says "loser" more clearly than sending a tech savvy customer to a non-functional site.

I hope you clever folks will bring us some interesting projects containing these codes. The USPS is so enamored of them they are offering mega-mailers a discount this summer for mailings displaying smartphone compatibility. Anything that will strengthen the links between the elements of your campaign, and do so at virtually no additional cost, is a winner!

In sum, let me just say: