• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 20, 2012

According to a new study by Scanbuy summarized by Marketing Charts, and the ScanLife Trend Report, there were more than 16 million mobile barcode scans in the second quarter of 2012 with more than 5.3 million scans in June, becoming the highest scan month ever. Among mobile barcode scanners, half were aged 35 or older in Q2, a 22% increase over the first quarter.

Those aged 35-44 have grown to a 24% share, from 20% in Q1, while the 45-54 set and 55+ bracket also represent a growing proportion of barcode scanners.

69% of mobile barcode scanners were male in Q2, and the gender breakdown has not moved significantly from Q1, when 68% were male. But, this is a step up from Q4 2011, when 63% were male, indicating that the trend continues to favor male usage of these barcodes.

Data from ScanLife’s “Mobile Barcode Trend Report Q2 2012″ indicates that the top 5 marketer campaigns that generated the most scans in the second quarter by content, were:

• Contest
• Loyalty program
• Social media
• App download
• Video

The industries that generated the most scans were:

• Toys
• Health and beauty
• Wireless
• QSR
• Beverage

 And, some additional findings:

• The single largest QR code campaign of Q2 generated 2,051,807 scans. By comparison, in Q2 2011, the largest campaign generated 30,016 scans.
• In Q2 2012, ScanLife saw 120 scans per minute, 5 times as many as in Q2 2011
• QR code scanning activity is lowest in the morning, highest from 4pm to peak at 7pm.
• The QR code scanner mix by platform breaks down as: Android (53%); iOS (43%); Symbian (2%); and Blackberry (2%).

Considering popular products scanned according to the ScanLife report, it’s CocaCola, Doritos, Hunger Games, and Altoids. And, Coke leads Pepsi by 67% to 33%

For more information, please visit ScanLife here, or the Marketing Chart summary here.