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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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 was tweeted an interesting link the other day - We Don't Make Demands. They have a set of posters for the "Occupy Movement" which incorporate QRpedia codes. These posters were designed by participants at the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. They are in the public domain. You are welcome to print them out and post them in your own location. See all the posters. I love this use of QRpedia - but I have two minor suggestions. QR codes work best with some whitespace around them,…
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I spend yesterday wandering around London and, as is my wont, spotted some QR codes which I think may interest readers of this blog. Tracey Emin The Hayward Gallery are having a Tracey Emin retrospective. At the start of the exhibition is this rather odd QR code. Why odd? Three main reasons. It leads directly to a 14MB MP3 file. The code is really quite small considering it's a low-lit gallery. Rather that being printed directly onto the wall, it appears to be a separate…
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An edited version of this paid-for post appeared at Moo.com on the 7th of June QR codes are awesome! I mean, you may think your moo mini-cards are pretty funky - but they're nothing without a QR code. Why do you hand your card over to someone? You want the recipient to plug your contact details into their address book, right? So you give them a bit of card and then you expect them to tap away on their phone, like a primitive ape, until they've saved your number. And hope they've saved it…
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In one of my previous "day jobs" I used to deal with bug reports for a major application. While there was the odd genuine problem or poorly designed bit of UI, the majority of the "bugs" were PEBCAK - aka people so unbelievably dense they couldn't work out that print button does nothing if you didn't have a printer attached to your machine... We're now seeing the same sort of problems in the QR space. Marketeers are using them without any really thought of how or if they work. It doesn't…
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Another year, another OpenTech. I found last year's OpenTech conference to be awe-inspiring. This year's was equally good. This is a quick rundown of the sessions I attended that I found particularly interesting. (more…) …
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QR codes are an awesome free resource for charities. Sadly, they are often misused. Charities can use them to drive SMS donations - here's a quick example of how this works. Sightsavers Sightsavers is an incredible charity, working hard to combat blindness in developing countries. I'm picking on them only because their poster caught my eye this morning. It's an effective poster with a strong call-to-action; "Text now". They've even included a QR code with it. Due to the proximity of the …
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I recently read Andrew Grill's post about being a QR Code Sceptic. I agree with some of his points about crap QR code adverts - I've blogged about many of them - but I believe the fundamental business case for QR codes is still strong. Many people on the blog and on Twitter have asked for case-studies proving how efficacious QR is. Case-Study comes from the Latin phrase casum stutitius which literally translates to lies told by marketing drones to get you to buy their product. We get the…
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How Popular Are QR Codes? One common complaint I hear is that QR codes are just too obscure. I don't think that's true. Aside from continual use in newspapers and magazines, they're all over the city. Here are a few examples that I snapped while walking around London. …
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Oh RBS! Is there anything you touch that doesn't turn to shit? You take our money, lose it, then pay it out to yourself. Still, at least your latest advert contains a QR code. Bet you haven't managed to screw that up. Oh... On the back page of the 25 February 2011 edition of the City AM newspaper, is this lovely specimen. Thankfully, City AM have placed their paper under CC BY NC. Let's take a zoom in on the code and the instructions that accompany it. You Know What's Coming Next,…
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