Posts Tagged ‘mobile codes’

Originally posted on the Marcom Factory blog
We’re seeing a rising demand for QR codes coming from our customers. And rightly so, given the ever growing numbers of smartphone users, even in this country with overpriced mobile data plans. And since we offer automated solutions for PURLs (personalized URL’s) and QR that demand is quite logical. But that does not mean adding a QR code is always a good idea.

Late last week, one of our customers made an urgent request for a QR code to be added on a publication. The URL to be encoded was their public website. So after generating it, I checked whether it would scan easily and resolve quickly (that’s just one of the technical hurdles one can encounter with QR). It did, but to my demise, it took me to their standard homepage, not to a mobile optimized site.

So I recommended to redirect to another page, or at least to add information near the QR so that the user would at least know where the QR was taking him/her before scanning it. Today our account manager showed me the proof of the publication, with information that was related to a specific promotion, followed by the QR. My first thought was: ok, our customer understood what we meant and adapted his content accordingly. But unfortunately the QR would still direct me to their same general website.

What could I do except reiterate our first advice… And wisely enough, their marketing manager decided to leave out the QR code completely. Which, given the timeframe for the publication, was the right thing to do.

QR can definitely and effectively make a ‘bridge’ between print and mobile web, if used correctly. But just like with any new or existing medium or communication technique, think about what you want to achieve and make sure it contributes to a better user experience. Especially in these ‘always on-always connected’ times where failure to deliver can result in instant punishment with #fail hashtags on twitter or other social media sites.

If you want to read a good article about what works and what doesn’t with QR, check out this post by Eric Anderson published on iMedia

The anniversary edition of the Marketing day promises to be a great succes!

For starters : it is completely sold out! More than 1.200 marketing professionals will meet in Square Brussels for a intensive and interactive day.

www.marketingday.be

The theme is ‘Trust is contagious’ and we came up with an mobile marketing add-on that expands on that theme.

Starting from the registration data, we generated more than 1.200  2D barcodes through the Microsoft Tag API. And that crowd will discover mobile codes as soon as they open their personalized agenda.

Once the app available through http://gettag.mobi is loaded on their smartphone they’ll be able to scan each others codes to exchange vCards. The Artoos booth will feature other codes to allow them to discover how this technology can be used to direct consumers to landing pages & websites or to dial a predefined number.

Looking forward to the reports, to find out who gets the most ’scans’ for his vCard.

To try this at home, you can scan this code. It will direct you to our facebook Fanpage on climate neutral printing.

leads you to our facebook fanpage

I wrote a previous blog post on 2D mobile codes. It was my first take at the subject. It’s in Dutch and you can read it here. Maybe Google translate can even help you understand what I wrote  ;-). Since then, we’ve been researching possible applications and tools. In March, we’ll be doing a first large scale application for a major direct marketing event. (+1000 attendees)

One of the  main questions was : QR or Microsoft Tag?

QR is definitely a standard and the apps to scan these codes with your smartphone are multiplying. The Microsoft technology is still in Beta and there is no certainty about its future.

Still, we chose to work with tags for the event. Why? The main reason is user-related. Our tests show that time and time again the tags scan and resolve immediately. Getting your phone near the tag, even from an angle, is enough for it to be recognized. With QR it’s a different story. We tested a number of different code reader apps but could not come to a “winning combination”. Often we would succeed in scanning the code, but every time we found ourselves “fiddling around” to align the phone correctly.

That’s not the only advantage of tags though. The fact that you can edit  and update the content behind the tag after creating it is a neat feature. And in its present form, Microsoft tags come with an API for integration and with basic but usefull stats about which codes have been scanned and when. On a final note: if you’re ‘into’ Twitter : the team behind Microsoft Tag gives great support. You can follow them on http://twitter.com/microsofttag

To be continued in March… for the first results of our clickable print case. You can read about it here or on twitter

Misschien heb je ze ook al ergens gezien, die vreemde stippencollecties in een vierkant die je tegenkomt op sommige mailings of op een advertentie. Het zijn tweedimensionele codes die je kan ’scannen’ met je mobiele telefoon (als die tenminste over een camera en de juiste software beschikt).

Dit is een zgn. QR-code of ‘quick response’, aangemaakt op de site van Nokia. In die code stop je een URL, een tekst, een SMS of zelfs een volledig visitekaartje in vCard formaat.

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