A new comScore study on mobile QR (Quick Response) code scanning readable by smartphones, found that 14 million mobile users in the U.S., representing 6.2% of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR code on their mobile device. A mobile user that scanned a QR code was more likely to be male (60.5% of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4%) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1%). Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile "QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns... " A demographic analysis of those who scanned a QR code with their mobile phone in June revealed an audience that was more likely to be male, young to middle-age and upper income. More than half of all QR code scanners were between the ages of 18-34. Those between the age of 25-34 were twice as likely as the average mobile user to engage in this behavior, while 18-24 year olds were 36% more likely than average to scan. More than 1 of every 3 QR code scanners had a household income of at least $100,000, representing both the largest and most over-represented income segment among the scanning audience. Demographic Profile QR Code Scanning Audience (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+) Audience QR Code Audience (000) % of QR Code Audience Index (Code Scanners) Total Audience: Age 13+ 14,452 100.0% 100 Gender: Male 8,743 60.5% 125 Female 5,709 39.5% 76 Age: 13-17 1,076 7.4% 108 18-24 2,402 16.6% 136 25-34 5,317 36.8% 211 35-44 2,827 19.6% 117 45-54 1,798 12.4% 68 55-64 594 4.1% 28 65+ 437 3.0% 22 Income: <$25k 1,193 8.3% 54 $25k to <$50k 2,597 18.0% 79 $50k to <$75k 2,756 19.1% 96 $75k to <$100k 2,689 18.6% 125 $100k+ 5,217 36.1% 13 Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011 The most popular source of a scanned QR code was a printed magazine or newspaper, with nearly half scanning QR codes from this source. Product packaging was the source of QR code scanning for 35.3% of the audience, while 27.4% scanned a code from a website on a PC and 23.5% scanned codes from a poster/flyer/kiosk. Source of Scanned QR Code (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+) QR Code Audience (000) % of QR Code Audience (Mult. Sources) Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone 14,452 100.0% Printed magazine or newspaper 7,138 49.4% Product packaging 5,101 35.3% Website on PC 3,957 27.4% Poster or flyer or kiosk 3,393 23.5% Business card or brochure 1,940 13.4% Storefront 1,850 12.8% TV 1,693 11.7% Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011 Among mobile users who scanned a QR code on their mobile devices in June, 58.0% did so from their home, while 39.4% did so from a retail store and 24.5% did so from a grocery store. Location When Scanning QR Code (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+) QR Code Audience (000) % of QR Code Audience (Mult. Sources) Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone 14,452 100.0% At home 8,382 58.0% Retail store 5,688 39.4% Grocery store 3,546 24.5% At work 2,844 19.7% Outside or on public transit 1,827 12.6% Restaurant 1,095 7.6% Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011 For additional information from comScore, please visit here, or for additional insights into QR Code usage in Europe, please visit the comScore Data Mine here.