Understanding QR Codes [Signage & Graphics Summit 2011]

I just want to say thank you to the Signage and Graphics Summit for having me… I am from the Boston area, so, when they asked me to speak here, and I realized I would be in Tampa in February, I did not disagree!But more than the warm weather, and the beautiful resort, I’m excited about meeting many of you, seeing some people I know (David Murphy, Catherine Monson), and learning more about what you do.I really enjoyed Eric Qualman’s presentation… I am a huge fan of social media… You can find me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Linkedin… A few years ago, at conferences like these, speakers would ask people to shut their phones off,…. But now, we want your phones on! We want you tweeting what you hear to the rest of the world (hopefully good stuff )
Just a quick introduction… I work at interlinkONE, a marketing software company outside of Boston. We primarily provide our software to service providers – print, mail, fulfillment.Check us out at interlinkONE.comI’ve worked there for more than 11 years… originally, as a programmer! But now, most of my time is spent working with customers, or on our marketing efforts.Yes, my Last Name is Pinto. When I was in scchool, I hated it! I heard references to the car, the beans, the horse.But now that I’m older, I’ve embraced it! If you see me in the hallway, feel free to just yell “Pinto!”Now, just like I was not a fan of Pinto when I was younger, you as companies in the print industry probably don’t like seeing a chart like this one:
This is from the DMA (Direct Marketing Associaton’s Statistical Fact Book in 2010). And, it’s what we all know has happened… Volumes of print have gone down… But , marketers are still spending money….. Where?
Yes, more and more of our communication, our daily routines occur online…. Wehther on email, the web , social media sites….. And look at that big one there: mobile!
So…. Are devices like this the “nail in the coffin” for print as a whole?
Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about today… While print volumes may never be what they once were, they can still be an important part of marketing and educational processes. They can be integrated with mobile and the web. QR Codes are one way that that can be done.
So……. As we head into this preso, I promise that I’m not going to say that QR Codes will solve the world’s problems. I’m not going to say that putting a QR Code on yoru signs or other printed materials will increase rates by for 4,000% percent everytime.But I will hopefully show you things like QR Codes may provide benefits… it will mean embracing new channels and technology, but if we are willing to move with our customers and prospects, we will succeeed.
Alright, so first let’s talk about what exactly a QR Code is… It is a barcode, plain and simple.But creative people and businesses have found ways to expand how it can be used to make people’s lives easier.Let’s see how.
First, what does it stand for?Quick Response…
They are not new, per se… They’ve been around since 1994.Of course, they’ve recently been increasing in popularity in the US.In the automotive industry, shipping slips and receipts are encoded with QR Code containing customer data, shipper data, product number, quantity, and other data. The data is used for ordering and product scanning.
PalmiPhoneBlackberryLGNokiaMotorolaSamsungEtc
There are a number of FREE applications that allow you to scan QR Codes.They are different between phones.Discuss favorite ones for iPhone, Android, Blackberry.To get one, you simply need to go to your app store, download the app. You can even do it now , if you’d like..
Once you have the app, here’s how it works. You open the app, point the camera on your phone to the QR Code, it is detected, it is decoded, and you are directed to the web… It migth be a website, a video, a social media profile page.
Now, I know that one thing that people say when it comes to QR Codes is that they are not the prettiest things ever.Now, believe it or not, that’s what people once said about me… and now look at me Let’s look at some of the options that you have when it comes to the design process of QR Codes.
The more information your fitting in the more complex the QR Code gets.A simple code can be the short URL code. Maybe you tell them a secret on SHort URL's and using them in QR CodesThe complex is hold information about an event – title, date, time, end time so it requires more pixels to hold more data
How do you shorten a URL? There are tools such as Bit.Ly, ilnk.me.Some QR Code generators do it for you!
If you are a pet lover, you may be saying this is not deterioation, but beautification! So this offers benefits, if you’re the designer, the markter.. You can incorporate images into the design a bit.This is possible due to the Reed-Solomon error correction code written into the QR Code encoder. This allows up to 30% deterioration of a QR Code possible with it still being readable. That correction code is used on DVDs, CDs and more.Same principles apply… Printed pieces may get damaged slightly, somewhat dirty, a bit of wear and tear.
Alright, now for those of us in the Northeast, we will not have to look at one of these for the next few months. A snow shovel will probably be our best friend for a while.
Yes, you can also use that deterioration rate to place your logo inside the QR Code.The way this works normally is you create a QR Code, which is really just an image… Bring it into Photoshop, and then place the logo, and TEST!
The possibilities for QR Codes to help increase the impact and effectiveness of printed materials continues to increase.You have the ability to create QR Codes with different colors… IFrom our testing, darker colors have performed the best… Without a doubt, if you create one with color, test with different readers and phones.
Any Boston Celtics fans?When we win the NBA Championship this year, send me an email, and I’ll try to send you tshirt with this logo/QR Code on it.
If you’re a designer… you generate the QR Code.. It’s outputted as a300 dpi image (depending on who you use). Then, simply scale it to a different size with a program such as Adobe Illustrator, or another image-editing program.
Just from our own testing, when we take the QR Code less than an inch, we see troubles with the readers… For you, test…
Hopefully those previous slides give you a good understanding of some of the options you have in creating QR Codes, and whjat’s needed for people to use them. Now we will go through some examples… Most of them are fairly recent, and may involve products that you have heard them.
This QR Code was on the side of a building at a mall in Maryland. It was a Deal a Day promotion.For 15 days, people would scan the QR Code and be sent to a new deal online. From there, they could bring their phone into the store, and redeem their discount. This one is obviously huge.
QR Codes can also be used for interacting with day-to-day consumers. This is an example of a butcher shop in our area. It’s delicous!!! And you know what, that means it’s popular….
Here’s how they’ve used QR Codes… on their cash register… People scan this QR Code, and they are sent to a landign page that lets them subscribe for their newsletter.Also, there are other QR Codes that give people something to do while they’re waiting for their order.
We are seeing a huge interest in qr Codes when it comes to real estate.Here’s a picture of how one is being used on a rider.Also, flyers, mailers, newsletters, other signs…
QR Codes are also appearing in a lot of print advertisements in magazines.
Qr Codes on signs outside of stores… to attract interest, perhaps to promote deals, and more.
QR Codes were used inside Madison Square Garden.At this dinosaur exhibit.
Qr Codes were used on gift cards to promote Tron.
Directed people to a trailer of the movie.
QR Codes used by a printer to make their open house more fun, exciting.. If people scanned the code o nthis sign, it took them to a landing page. There was logic on the page to randomly display a picture of a rockstar… kinda fun.(of course, when the men scanned a code and saw Courtney Love, and the ladies scanned a code and saw Elton John, their reactions were priceless!)
But I want to show you one thing they did…. They tied that into print.After scanning the code, and seeing it online on their phone, people could then grab a printed fulfillment of that rockstar.Yes, people are going to the web and their phones to access content. But they still will react to something tangible that they can hold.
The myStarbucksiPhone application has a slew of features that make it easier to remember your friend’s favorite drinks and to locate nearby Starbucks stores. More interesting is a test of a Starbucks card, which will allow people in select West Coast stores to pay for coffee using a bar code on a phone’s screen. This has broad implications for mobile commerce. Starbucks are testing payment by iPhone in sixteen selected stores in Silicon Valley and Seattle. The iPhone app displays a QR Code that can be used just like a Starbucks Card to make purchases.
Atlantis, Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas is using QR Codes on advertising posters in its current marketing campaign. The QR Code resolves to http://www.atlantis.com/qr/ and user agent detection directs mobile devices to a video on YouTube for mobile.This is a great example where print and the web work together.. Print can provide dramatic, beautiful, compelling images from another land, a resort, whatever it is… But then connect with the web, and you connect people to videos, and more details.. Helping to convince and convert.
In Japan, McDonalds is adding QR codes that link up with nutritional information. Many other restaurants and even food products in stores are also doing this. QR Codes on menus, posters and more…
1.5 million items were purchased on eBay this holiday season directly via the phones, on their iPhone App.
This one shows the creativity, and the mainstream news..Made of balloons!!
The campaign objective was to build awareness of the Letterbox Deals brand with Sydney households by giving away Dell notebook computers. The consumers in these households had the opportunity to enter a competition (see above) via 2 options:Website orQR code.What does it mean when 60% of entrants downloaded a QR Reader, and were therefore new to using QR Codes. It means that not having a reader pre-installed on the device is not such a big barrier. (misconception #1)What about 25% of competition entries were from scanning QR codes even though the entrant was at home because the piece was mailed to them and could use their home computer to enter. It means that the QR code as a call to action option, together with the impulse and convenience of using their mobile device was compelling enough to stop them going to their PC. (misconception #2)High % occurred within people’s homes (as tracked by Insqribe platform)
Explain PURLS and QR’s = QRPURLsWhy Upload a List?This feature can save you a great deal of time when you need to generate QR Codes for website URLs in bulk. Example 1: Personalized URLsLet's say that you have an Excel file that contains a list of mailing addresses and personalized URLs. You can simply upload your list, and our solution will generate a QR Code for each Personalized URL in your file.
Creating QR Codes and marketing campaigns takes a bit of an investment – time, print costs, and more. Our reporting system shows how much it costs in the end to deliver leads through your QR Code campaigns.QR Codes can be a very important channel in your marketing efforts. With interlinkONE’silinkONE Version 8 marketing software you can measure the success of your multi-channel campaigns:Did the QR Code perform better on the postcard or the flyer?How many people typed in their personalized URL? How many used the QR Code?How many viewed your newsletter via your Twitter post? How many viewed it via the QR Code?Was the email more effective than the direct mail piece that had a QR Code?
Now, it is easy to create codes… But there’s something you need to keep in mind… I want to chat about the importance of pointing people to sites that work on phones.And, I like to think about this drink ---eggnog!I love it, but the more I drink , well, the less that I can fit me into my clothes.When someone scans a QR Code, they most likely are doing so on a phone that only has a few inches of screen space.
Thus, we want to make an effort to point people to mobile-optimized sites. IFlyMobi.comFlash = bad!!Your corporate website: probably doesn’t fit!!TEST!!

Understanding QR Codes [Signage & Graphics Summit 2011]

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Understanding QR Codes [Signage & Graphics Summit 2011]

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