The unstoppable rise of QR codes continues!
qr QR Codes · 1 comment · 250 words · read ~514 times.
The unstoppable rise of QR codes continues!
Last week I picked up two of the London free-sheets. Both of them sporting scanable codes.
CITY A.M. uses the code to take you to its mobile friendly site. They recommend the i-nigma reader which you can get by texting "i-nigma" to 88010 (in the UK). 
Page 7 of thelondonpaper. Opodo uses a QR code to offer £20 off flights. Interestingly, they assume that people have knowledge of QR codes and don't provide any explanatory text or other call to action. You only find out what the QR leads to once you've snapped it.
It's interesting the different approaches each takes. Opodo even use their corporate colouring for the code rather than the easier to read black and white. Opodo's QR code translates to "http://promos.opodo.co.uk/wap/index.html" which is readable by every QR scanner. CITY A.M.'s code translates to "URL:mippin.com/companynews". While using "URL:" vs "http://" save three characters - making the code potentially easier to scan - only the i-nigma reader recognises it as a hyperlink. The N95's inbuilt reader and the QuickMark reader both see it as plain text and won't allow you to click straight through to the website. I wonder why Opodo didn't use
a url like "m.opodo.co.uk/promo"? It would have given them a shorter URL which would have scanned more easily.
Page 7 of thelondonpaper. Opodo uses a QR code to offer £20 off flights. Interestingly, they assume that people have knowledge of QR codes and don't provide any explanatory text or other call to action. You only find out what the QR leads to once you've snapped it.
It's interesting the different approaches each takes. Opodo even use their corporate colouring for the code rather than the easier to read black and white. Opodo's QR code translates to "http://promos.opodo.co.uk/wap/index.html" which is readable by every QR scanner. CITY A.M.'s code translates to "URL:mippin.com/companynews". While using "URL:" vs "http://" save three characters - making the code potentially easier to scan - only the i-nigma reader recognises it as a hyperlink. The N95's inbuilt reader and the QuickMark reader both see it as plain text and won't allow you to click straight through to the website. I wonder why Opodo didn't use
a url like "m.opodo.co.uk/promo"? It would have given them a shorter URL which would have scanned more easily.
I totally agree with you that using proprietary links like that goes against everything that QR codes are about - whats the point if you are restricting users to one type of reader.
I'm also surprised that marketers seem to be just using the url function of QR codes, why not use the other functions available across all readers.
In case marketers reading this dont know the other QR functions I've put together a 60 second "dummies overview" here at http://www.Cognation.net/QR
Cheers,
Dean