Maplin, the UK technology retailer, is experimenting with QR codes in its Tottenham Court Road store. It's a very mixed bag which deserves equal measures of praise and criticism. Here's a typical product display stand with QR code placed on it. There's no "call to action". Nothing to say what the code is, how I use it, or why I should scan it. Does it lead to a video demo? To a voucher? What? But, that's not the worst of it. Notice how small it is? There's lots of space which could be…
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To whoever is responsible for this QR code marketing monstrosity: go home. Seriously, pack up the tools of your trade, go home, pour yourself a stiff drink, and weep at what you have done. The Poster Here's a fun game for all the family! Play "spot the QR code" on this poster... Bzzzzzt! Time's up! Did ya see it? What? No! How could that be? Let's zoom in... There! Right beside the warnings of "mild peril" lurks the QR code. Tiny, overly dense, and with no call to action. Try…
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When you create a QR code which contains a URL, it is vital that the code is not only as small as possible, but also as user friendly as possible. I'm not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly - but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, they are invaluable. I want to take a look at a particularly interesting example from Nat West Bank. The Poster Despite having the QR too close to the ground (more of that in a later blog post) this seems like quite a good campaign. …
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It looks like the next big thing in Kindle-land is - depressingly - advertising subsidisation. the world's first ad-supported Kindle, going on sale within Target and Best Buy locations for $114. That represents a gentle $25 savings compared to the price of today's cheapest Kindle, but those 2500 pennies don't come free -- you'll be asked to endure "advertisements on the bottom of the device's home page and on its screen savers." Engadget Can It Work? On the strength of the current evidence…
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I'll preface this by saying that Wonga's lawyers are far better than mine. Wonga, the payday loan company, has found itself in a bit of hot water recently. They've had an Advertising Standards Authority adjudication against one of their adverts and they have raised the ire of Stella Creasy MP over their sponsorship of the Tube on New Years. Even London's mayor has said people should be aware of the extortionate rates of interest that they can charge and people should not enter into…
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Another day in London - another sighting of a QR code! This time, on a poster for high-brow art-house flick The Mechanic. Quite close to the bottom of the poster - so low, I had to kneel to scan it - is a QR code. Scan it and it takes you a mobile friendly trailer on YouTube. Issues It wouldn't be a Terence Eden blog post if I didn't criticise the approach taken by the advertisers. QR code is far too low down - who wants to stoop to scan (other than nerds like me)? No call to…
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I'm a big fan of Groupon - the money saving site - that's why I'm so disappointed with their latest campaign. A nice simple set of banners. Let's gloss over the missing apostrophe in this one though... Which leads to the Groupon mobile friendly site. Well formatted mobile site. Free text field for an email address and a drop down list of cities they support. There's no notion of what they'll do with the email address - which is very naughty - but the worst is yet to come. After filling…
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After the derisory efforts of Waitrose to properly utilise QR codes, it's disheartening to see Debenhams make a brand new mistake. At the bottom of tonight's Evening Standard is this advert from Debenhams. Debenhams QR Advert The QR code immediately caught my eye and - being the saddo that I am - I immediatley whipped out ZXing and scanned it in. Debenhams QR Code What goodies would it net me? A URL to visit their mobile site? Contact details for a Christmas order line? …
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What a joy for fans of 2D codes. London's freesheet "Metro" has adverts with two different styles of 2D codes on pages 14 and 15. In the left corner - John Lewis sporting a QR Code. In the right corner - the Donkey from Shrek going into battle with an MS Tag. FIGHT! QR Code This use of QR code leaves me a little conflicted. On the one hand, the code is too small and, either in resizing or printing, has become distorted. On the other hand, the code resolves to a great mobile site. …
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Nick Burcher has done a great job detailing Lacoste's new QR code campaign. Being the curmudgeon that I am, I want to point out a couple of rather glaring flaws in its execution. Contrast See if you can scan in the code on this image. The image links to Nick's site if you want the full resolution version. I tried several different phones and scanners and wasn't able to get the code to scan. This is because QR codes are designed to be black and white. As I've explained before, most QR…
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British Gas has announced its latest price rise to near universal dismay. So it seams a little odd that they're running a campaign based around how much you could save if you switch to them. Still, what concerns me in this Mobile Badvertising series is not the content, but the execution and usability. Let's see what happens when we click on it. Clicking the advert takes you to your phone's dial screen with British Gas's phone number ready to dial. (This goes via an ad network so they can…
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Sometimes a mobile advert is just so bad that you wonder what drugs the people who commissioned were on. Easy A is new film aimed squarely a the youth market. Perfect fodder for mobile advertising. Cute little advert, doesn't say what it will link to, but other than that, not bad. So let's click through and see what happens. Sweet! YouTube has an excellent mobile optimised site. The ability to share the video on Facebook and Twitter is sure to make this baby go viral. Right? Right? As t…
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