QR Code Connected Advertising Content Defined

Great post below by our friends at QR Codes Anywhere

QR content is a massive new category of web media tailored for mobile tagging. 

Tappinn defines QR Content as any web content specifically delivered by scanning QR (Quick Response) Codes or any other form of 2D/1D mobile tagging. QR connected content is consumed by mobile web users in a brand new fashion from a variety of unique contexts, most importantly from pre-existing traditional media, making it a relevant new category in marketing moving forward. The mobile web pages directly connected to a QR code scan experience can offer value and efficiency to the consumer that was unheard of just 5 years ago. QR content is transforming static media into engaging mobile web content.

The mobile Web is growing at an astonishing rate, and as telecommunications networks and mobile devices get faster, they offer ridiculous new opportunities for brands to engage with mobile consumers using QR codes as physical hyperlinks. By scanning a QR code with the camera of a Web-enabled smartphone, consumers willingly initiate a conversation with brands like never before and in places never previously imagined.

Like a keyword search on the desktop Internet, the act of a consumer scanning a QR code is a tacit indication of interest and an active request for some sort of brand engagement. On the desktop Internet, advertising, with its annoying banners and popups, is almost always viewed as invasive, but with mobile QR code scans brands can respond to a consumer request with exclusive and unobtrusive Web content delivered instantly.

This massive concept has ignited a wave of mainstream advertising campaigns driven around brands propelling mobile users to action with QR codes. And it’s only the beginning.

To be effective with this new approach, however, marketers must carefully think through every step of their QR code strategy, from code design and placement, delivering a worthwhile user experience and measuring response. It's not enough to just print a code and see what happens. Among the questions to consider are: where will this interaction occur and what sort of value should the brand deliver? The Web content and user experience (UX) should augment the tagged advertisement and the consumer engagement on a mobile site should be tracked across media boundaries.

Examples of trackable interactions from QR code content include: signups, v-card download, shopping, app download, social followers, music/video downloads, comments and ratings. These interactions, with the individual precision of a torpedo, are different from previous Web engagements, which was more like throwing mud against a wall. They happen in the physical world between a publisher or brand and an individual consumer with a smartphone. 

Tappinn presents 12 QR connected mobile tagging torpedoes. Fast hitting QR connected value fired into the mobile galaxy. In no particular order and meant to be teamed for more power.

Shopping: product galleries and product pages related to the printed advertisement. Not as much a hard sell but more about browsing and sharing with easy links to find where to buy related products.

Signup: Contests and sweepstakes. Enticing mobile users to sign up for a chance to win. Mobile signups offer an opportunity to capture information about users. Events and store promotions can encourage signups where never before possible.

Conversation: Tips, voting and ratings. The allure of what other people are saying can be a primary driver to scan a QR code. Also, people love to share thoughts on an open forum. Voicing approval is important to people. Encourage sharing over social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Video: By far the most useful in early phases of mobile tagging. Consider the viewing environment and content first, and fire other torpedoes to augment. Exclusive and relevant wins. Direct video downloads to smart phones are in line to take over. (Keep file sizes and download times to a minimum, however.)

Contact info: vCard. Download personal contact information directly to the phone’s address book. Eliminate typing information into a phone by downloading immediately. Offer a landing page with other links. Don’t let the full intention of the code be a vCard, however. (Test to determine how well various devices populate data.)

Social: Scan to “like” and “follow” us. Pages should be easy to share. Print advertising has an untapped viral comment component when incorporating the mobile Web if the content can be easily shared. On the other hand, collecting followers by directing them to social profiles is also popular and is encouraged. Print with QR codes has an “social” identity.

App downloads. Brands that have invested in an app can use mobile tagging to send downloads. Link the code directly to the app store or a landing page with easy links to download.

Coupons. Display phone screen at checkout. Interjecting coupons via QR codes at the point of purchase has been the most popular practice so far. Exchanging e-mails for coupons should be the target. Apps that scan QR code are also starting to reward consumers with coupons for scanning. Double dip value. Need more apps to encourage QR scanning by offering their own incentive for active usage.

Audio. Sample, buy, download. Taylor Swift, Soulja Boy, P.Diddy and Lupe Fiasco have all used QR codes to let users to sample tracks from their mobile phones. Lots of room for new collaboration between music artists and fashion brands at the point of purchase. Mobile music downloads from traditional print media and products have yet to be exploited.

Commerce. “Scan to buy” music. Unique buying pages for users who scan codes exclusively with discounted pricing. Convenience is the ultimate driver of mobile commerce in the future .

How-to information. Intended to instruct. Mostly used for product guides and user manuals. Video guides can be utilized as well (such as with assembly instructions on boxes from Ikea). Also, QR codes can be used on warranty cards that house info on the mobile Web.

Find us. Google mapping. Brands use this as “find a retailer,” but small businesses can also use this and link to Google maps. This offers users instant directions to find locations where they can make a purchase. Google maps is an awesome tool to incorporate into QR-connected pages.

The mobile tagging landscape is a wild terrain with unlimited possibilities for brands to offer unique value to smartphone users with QR codes. They must first build and deliver custom mobile websites and landing pages that make sense in their market and that helps shoppers complete a product search with a purchase. If it's a magazine ad, build a landing page that considers the readers of that particular magazine and offers exclusives and rewards to only that particular group of readers. Not only mobile, content and offerings are structured around location and medium. Quick transactions can occur in the mobile jungle with the consumer in command. They asked for it, now its time to hit 'em with some mobile tagging torpedoes of QR content!

To be published in the next IPA Bulletin by IDEAlliance. The Bulletin magazine is the voice of IDEAlliance, keeping its members abreast of business challenges and opportunities, assuring workflows are state-of-the-art, speeding information across the end-to-end digital media supply chain — from content creation through delivery, both digitally and in print.  

The App Factor Will Drive QR Code Scanning Into The Future

image via QRarts

(QR Codes Anywhere) While the mobile web continues to grow at a staggering rate, and web-enabled smartphone devices steadily speed up, the mobile tagging world is organically growing into a beast. From the outside, the segment looks splintered to many. Proprietary 2-D codes, 1D UPC codes, open QR codes, app readers, content offerings, direct vs. indirect, micro sites and analytics all dominate discussions amongst advertisers looking to incorporate mobile web content and offerings via mobile codes into their print. Everyone is looking for ONE standard 2-D code or ONE standard app for 2-D codes, but in a world of over a half million apps, is that even practical? People are scanning! The more apps scanning codes the better, this will only breed innovation. Here’s my take.

QR Code mobile apps can dramatically drive QR code scans and increase the code's connotative value by offering rewards and incentives to app users who scan codes, encouraging them to be more active with their scanning habits. This can increase the value of the code outside of the original ad offering. If this concept can be accepted enough it will help the entire industry. This is how multiple winners can emerge (code, apps, brand, user). You heard it here first! There is a real opportunity to add a NEW layer of value to the QR code scanning transaction that NOBODY in 2-D barcode land has exposed, YET….Leave it to the Captain of The QR Code Galaxy, yours truly.

To this day, out of all 2-D and QR code reader apps, NOT ONE is offering anything other than simple scanning function to drive user scans. By that I mean, QR code reader apps have a sole function to scan QR codes and track scan history, that’s about it. With the exception of certain sharing features, apps haven’t participated in the “scan value” much at all. Up to this point, everything has hinged on the advertiser to deliver. Some have succeeded, lots have failed.

Stickybits and Shopkick have introduced an early model that rewards users for scanning specific product 1D UPC codes. This is part of a larger location based shopping app. The promotions encourage scans by offering rewards via credits as currency (i.e. kick bucks) and notify users of new scan promotions, often offering special incentives to scan certain products.

The same model can naturally transfer over to the 2-D code world. The next “killer” app to scan QR codes in the future will be offering “killer” incentives to scan codes in the wild. Get it? Also, this will allow many co-existing scan apps and 2-D codes because of the mass niche universe we live in. Again, 500,000 apps we’re talking about. The QR code and content that’s behind the code will still carry the same weight but there will be an X factor driving the scan coming from a variety of different apps. Imagine receiving an email from a QR code reader app telling you the month’s different magazines to pick up and scan ads within to redeem app rewards, not to mention what the advertiser is actually offering. It’s this kind of collaboration that will fly. The success of levels and badges like Foursquare and Stickybits have incorporated should be an indicator to QR code readers that people like to be acknowledged for usage.  Incorporating these types of incentives into QR code scanning can only help everyone by adding another dimension of value to the QR code scanning experience with your mobile smartphone. 

The market may seem fractured to many but recently it has become crystal clear to me. I believe it’s meant to be fractured, for innovation purposes, it needs to be. I believe there WILL be multiple types of adopted mainstream 2-D barcodes and hundreds of apps that scan them, as well as other emerging technologies, to transmit physical to digital value via the mobile web and encourage advertising engagements. So why wouldn't we see an NFC (RFID) advertisement poster with image recognition, augmented reality, QR codes AND Microsoft TAG.. all on the SAME poster?? This space is going to be THAT huge! Due to its openness, the QR code itself will be universally recognized, but consumers WILL be able to decipher them from other proprietary 2-D codes, associating 3rd party value by the app they use to scan. The evolution of the QR code reader app will not only drive scanning dramatically by offering incentives and rewards, it will also drive overall mobile web usage as an everyday part of our lives. There are over 70 apps that scan QR codes but pretty much all of them lack identity, they lack a cool factor that delivers value on its own. After this, I’m sure a few can rise to the challenge.

TIME Magazine QR Code Billboard Advertisement

Pictures of TIME Magazine billboard advertising with QR Codes. Pictures taken in Times Square, NYC.

 

Advertisements For The Grammys Using QR Codes

 

The Grammys are using QR Codes to promote the 53rd annual music awards event on CBS. I have to say that I am really impressed with this QR code advertising campaign! Last week I posted, Music Needs QR Codes, but didn't have a great example. THIS is a great example!! Scanners can sample tagged music by participants and read user comments. Check out the video and pics below and the campaign site, Music is Life is Music. Enjoy! (QR Codes Anywhere)

QR Codes In Advertising, Today and Tomorrow

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.