Are QR Codes What's Next in Mobile?
posted by Kate Beaton 
on April 22, 2008 at 10:32 PM
filed under: Mobile
Kate Beaton
Client Services Executive : Boston
topics: Mobile, Brands, and Client Services and Relations
filed under: Mobile
The golden question in mobile: what’s the next big thing? Is it who can develop the coolest and most useful iPhone application? Is it something relating to Android? What about m-commerce and mobile banking? It’s clear that mobile marketing and technology is one of the new “in” things to do when it comes to planning marketing strategies, but it’s also a bit of a mystery. Because so many brands and agencies do not understand the complexities, and question the ROI, it’s often added into the marketing mix when there’s money left over after interactive budgets are spent. Or, it’s added to a larger campaign, as an upsell and often an afterthought. And all too often, brands and agencies add mobile in just to say, “we do mobile!”. So many agencies want to break through the ubiquitous SMS clutter, and do something “cool” and “cutting-edge” and something that’s never been done before. I have put some thought into what’s next in mobile marketing, and have a quite a few predictions; some ideas I think have legs more than others.
One concept that keeps coming up and that hasn’t quite found its place in the space is the use of QR Codes, those black & white images that look a lot like barcodes on a product scanned at checkout. Brands and technology vendors are trying and experimenting, but no one has been completely successful yet with bringing these 2D barcodes to the US market. Sure, Japan and Korea are scanning QR codes with their mobile phones already; but, because of the varying US carrier rules and regulations, and the void of one standard code that I am aware of yet that will translate cross-carrier and cross-device, we are a step or two behind (or a lot more), with just a few “betas” testing things out. Plus, the question of consumer adoption – “will people use this?” – is another big TBD. It will be interesting to see where all this plays out, but the power that I see behind this coming to market – if done correctly and carefully with common standards – is huge. It’s not about a mobile coupon that can be scanned at checkout for a discount off a burger or a pair of shoes; that’s not too cutting edge from my perspective. Where this concept of scanning a barcode becomes really interesting is when we dive into the idea of connecting the physical world with the digital world. These little codes can be the means to instantly link say a print ad, a newspaper ad, an OOH ad, or literally anything in the physical world, and once scanned provide additional information immediately, link to more info on the web, download content and even make an immediate purchase of an item. Now that’s pretty cool.
So I have my own reservations on whether or not QR codes will make the cut, and it comes full circle to the complexities of the carrier, device, and content provider relationship in the US. But, I think the outcome could be pretty awesome, and I look forward to watching it all unfold. Want to read more on QR codes? Here are a few links:
3 comments
And, the offers aren't going to be cheap penny savings on small things, but valuable savings to bring in good quality new customers with the goal in mind of retaining them. If it's worth doing it's worth doing right.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080510p2a00m0na021000c.html