A Blog About Actionable Marketing

20 Mar.,2023

 

Many are saying QR code are dying or even dead. Yes, QR codes got off to a bad start, but so did some other ideas;

 

WD-40

WD-40 has quite a remarkable story. In 1953, a fledgling company called Rocket Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and de-greasers for use in the aerospace industry, in a small lab in San Diego, California.

It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out. The original secret formula for WD-40®—which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try—is still in use today.

 

Nintendo

Nintendo is known as the gaming company that launched an era, but it certainly didn’t start out as a success. Nintendo’s first offering, the Famicom console, had to be recalled after only a few months. Atari’s failure in the mid-1980’s left the American video game market a mess, and the Nintendo NES barely sold when it was introduced in 1985. By the end of 1986, however, two little characters named Mario and Luigi had changed the history of American gaming forever and now look.. in July Pokemon Go raised Nintendo’s value by £6 bn in 2 days!

 

They are just two examples of many where something has not got off to a good start but has succeeded eventually.  How does this link to QR codes I hear you ask..  There has to be a purpose to using a QR code because if there isn’t users will simply not waste their time, so this is definitely a rule that cannot be broken., whether that is to potentially win something, to gain discount/exclusive offer, to gain information etc.

A good example of how to use a QR code is The National Lottery. They put QR codes on lottery tickets. After a draw you can simple scan the QR code on the ticket and it will say where you have matched the draw. Personally I think this is genius, it saves time and gives you an instant result. Not only that, it is easily usable whilst out and about.

Example of a QR code campaign being a success:

At splitter HQ we have a customer that uses the Pro Plan. They use the QR code feature in cities around Germany. They are on lampposts, fences and in shops. The QR codes are for monthly draws to win money, some QR codes direct users to free testers/free trials and others direct them to the businesses products.  On average each QR code has 3000 scans per month (Stats fro Splitter Analytics). They are hugely popular! In conclusion if you make it worthwhile, they will be a success.

 

Ideas for QR code Campaigns

  • Create a campaign whereby a user can win something, scatter the QR codes across a city/town/country
  • Use a QR code to direct users to weekly offers
  • Use a QR code for a user to see a exclusive offer

 

Most of all the QR code needs to offer the user something.

Originally posted 2016-10-10 11:55:29.