Commentary
Missed Opportunities: Good Code Hunting
- by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, August 16, 2011
"I don't think anyone else here is doing this," my wife complains, as I take another picture of a wall at the local mall. We are on a QR hunt, testing out on her the QR code prompts that have now
started to spring up like skin infestations on the …
Steve Smith is Editorial Director of Events for MediaPost
Great insight. Coca-Cola uses "occasions-based marketing" to plan their marketing; I think something like that can help businesses identify the best ways to get going with links that delivers real assistance, not just shiny tinsel.
At the Court in King of Prussia, there is a booth where one enters he/she gets their body type assessed by a technological wonder and then the computer outside tells you what is the best type of jeans would fit you best and where to buy them. This you wife may like better with some great stores....Neimans, Nordstrom, Hermes, Cartier, Ralph Lauren and other lovelies. As for shopping and where to find the best bargains, sometimes we just can't afford to save more money. ;)
We agree Steve, the user has to be rewarded for scanning and the content has to be relevant. Just linking to your main website with no reference to what the user scanned is a poor experince. At Link.Me http://link.me we work with book publishers to create what we call 'DVD extra's for books'.
When our codes are scanned they reveal bonus content related to a title such as interviews with the author, character back stories and so on. The real value is for the publisher though, once the user scans the code the Link.Me platform profiles the user and associates the content they are reading to their interests. This allows the publisher to build a database of their existing customers, this is something all brands using tags should be doing to create both value for the customer and long-term value for the brand.
QRcode is now being used for marketing in the mobile phone industry. Some mobile phones have QR Code scanners built in, and when they scan a QR Code they get back the information contained in the code.