Another awareness based use of QR-Codes, The Big Wild have placed QR-Codes on posters for users to scan with the intention of raising awareness for a petition to protect the Flathead River and Restigouche Watershed.
Boasting as the first environmental group to adopt QR-Codes, Darren Barefoot of The Big Wild hopes to generate interest with what some people class as a rarely used technology.
Once scanned, the QR-Code takes you to a webpage focused on the Flathead River Valley. For non-Canadians, the Flathead River Valley is a large swath of wilderness.
Billboards, magazines and posters certainly seem to be where QR-Codes are used most. For such a small advertorial space, a QR-Code can generate interest beyond the marketing message itself, which is a dream to anyone in the industry. What’s better, if you track your QR-Code scans you get quantifiable statistics which can say a thousand words.
Get a Reader
Want to see what the fuss is about? Get a QR-Code reader today and scan the experience.
Victor Keegan from The Guardian has recently posted an interesting article about his experience with QR-Codes. From his article, he goes on to talk about how he used a QR-Code reader to scan the barcode of products in his local Sainsbury’s.
He highlights ShopSavvy, an Android based application that allows you to scan and compare products using their barcode. Remember CompareEverywhere (AndroidScan)? Both winners of Google’s Android challenge.
Quote: “One of the reasons barcodes haven’t taken off in the UK is that, whereas in Japan the dominant operator in effect imposed a standard, here different companies are peddling their own in the forlorn hope of sweeping all competitors aside.” Source: Victor Keegan
Personally, I could not agree more; if there was one major mobile phone manufacturer using one barcode standard then Europe may well have adopted to QR-Codes by now. Could Nokia achieve this? They do have around a 60% market share in Europe. Where does that leave the US?
Personally, local supermarkets is not where I see the benefit of QR-Codes or barcode scanning. I see barcode scanning becoming very useful if you plan to make a big investment in say… an LCD television; you could walk into a large retailer, size up the item, check out its spec then scan and compare for a cheaper price elsewhere. Most people say buying on the internet is slightly cheaper. Barcode scanning software could well cement this fact.
When checking the Mobile Barcodes website referalls in Google Analytics, a particular referall caught my eye in the form of an online newspaper from Philadelphia, United States called Temple News.
Tempe News are clearly innovative and interested in bridging the gap between traditional and online and they, and of course we beleive the best way to plug this gap is via QR-Codes.
Well done to Temple News for the spotting the potential of QR-Codes and promoting their use within their newspapers website.
Personally, I thought QR-Codes would first become mainstream in the English speaking world (Asia are already all over mobile barcode technology) via newspapers. I think Google spotted this early when they developed their traditional advertising platform called Google Print Ads. Unfortunitely, Google has become subject to the economic climate like any other company and recently axed this marketing innitative.
QR-Code Video
Guess what, Temple News even went the extra mile and created an impressive video outlining how to make use of QR-Code technology and posted it on YouTube. Watch closely folks and you will be able to see the mention of Mobile Barcodes in the video as a useful resource for finding a QR-Code reader. Thanks for the mention Temple News and I hope QR-Codes work well for your newspaper.
