I did something decidedly analogue yesterday; I withdrew cash from a machine. I know, I know, I should have used my NFC enabled smartphone - or my chip & pin card. But it turns out most cab drivers prefer cash. On the screen was one of those ghastly animated adverts. Rather than selling me a mortgage or loan, it was advertising a fast food chain. The ad concluded by telling me to download the app - available on Android, iPhone, Symbian, and BlackBerry. I was about to snap a photo of the…
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Last month I gave an interview to the Metro newspaper about QR codes. Click for full size …
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No, I'm not talking about Masabi's innovative technology, but of this rather odd bit of advertising found on the back of a train ticket. There's no specific call to action - but there's not much space to play with. Let's give it a scan... sigh A non-mobile site. With an Adobe Flash plugin in the top right which won't work on any iPhones. Why on Earth do marketing companies insist on pointing phones to non-mobile sites. It really bemuses me. Stations rarely have good signal (too many people …
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At the start of 2012, I revealed how many scans TfL's QR campaign was getting. A lot of comments on Twitter & Google+ dismissed these results as a success. A typical response was: 70 scans a day? In a city of millions? Rubbish! This fails to address something that advertisers are conspicuously loathe to reveal - the true "response rate" of any advert is hard to calculate. How many phone calls, visits to a website, or SMS interactions are directly attributable to a regular poster? No one …
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Wandering through London today, I noticed that Southbank London has put QR codes on its posters. I've mentioned before the dangers of using Bit.ly as a QR code generator - as it allows us to peek at the codes' performance statistics. Here are the codes on the posters - click for bigger. As all the codes use Bit.ly so we can see how well they've performed - click on each one for the latest statistics. Not the most impressive of campaigns. Three strong points to note…
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When people ask me which QR generator to use, I usually suggest Google Charts. However, recently I've become dissatisfied with its limitations, so I've decided to write and release my own QR encoder. I'm still looking for a catchy name for it (suggestions welcomed) - so for now it's called "QR Generator PHP". It's available on GitHub or you can use it directly. So, how does it compare to Google Charts? FeatureNew QR EncoderGoogle Charts Image FormatsPNG, JPG, GIFPNG Maximum Image…
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I recently overheard two advertising executives discussing their latest QR campaign. I jotted down what they were saying... Dave! Dave! I've got a brilliant idea! What is it, Fred? Let's make a QR code... right... but make it really hard to scan! Brilliant idea, Fred! How? We can stick it on a Taxi, so that you have to wait until it stops at a traffic light before you can scan it! Ok, Fred, but I'm still concerned that the code will be too easy to scan. Aha! That's why we invert the…
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There was a lot of interest in my recent post about TfL's QR statistics. Today, I present to you three very different QR codes and their statistics. These are all taken from the Metro newspaper on Tuesday January 10th. Wowcher First up is "Wowcher", a big quarter page advert on page 28. Wowcher's statistics show a consistently good performance with QR codes. Between 30 - 80 scans per day, and 87 yesterday. Sparks Next is a QR code for "Sparks Marathon" tucked away on page 50. Sad to…
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Last year, I suggested that TfL should use QR codes to point to their excellent mobile countdown service. Looks like someone was listening! I spotted this poster at a tube station. Nestled in the corner is a QR code pointing at the mobile bus countdown service! This is a close-to-perfect use of QR. Points to a mobile site. Easy to scan code. Good call to action. As I suggested in my original post, TfL could customise the code, or print a separate one for each bus stop. …
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The TSA have come under fire for many things. Most recently, Fred Trotter has called them out for using a "dummy" QR code which leads to a page the TSA don't control. An astonishingly lax approach to QR use. Last year, I noticed this QR code as I passed through San Francisco Airport. The code goes to a TSA site (albeit non-mobile), which is odd, as the TSA do have a capable mobile site. What I find most curious is that the TSA are using the Goo.gl URL shortener. This is a bad idea for two…
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Terence Eden specialises in helping organisations craft amazing QR campaigns. Contact Terence for a consultation Wander around the London Underground and you're likely to see safety posters from the British Transport Police (BTP). This is the first one that I've seen with a QR code on it. It's a fairly good poster. A good call to action, a URL in case your phone can't read QR codes, and the code itself is well sized and has a high level of error correction. Scanning the code, however,…
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You know what I love about the streets of London? The pavements are so clean. Many is the time I crawl around on my hands and knees - rubbing my trousers into the walkways of my beloved city. Hardly anyone kicks me up the arse, either. You feel the same way too, don't you? What? You don't? But... but.... What else could explain the advertising industry's love of putting QR codes as close to the floor as possible? Be Careful What You Wish For Of course, if going too low is bad... …
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