Anybody used QR codes in marketing? Doing some promo stuff at a conference and it was suggested at a networking meeting tonight.
Couple of things, is there a pre installed app on Apple for reading them – was some doubt from the apple owners in the room as goggles is shipped with android.
any tips about where to host/create/link them to?

Used them a bit but don’t find they get used a lot. They are only useful as you can add tracking stuff that isn’t as easy in human readable URL. You need to make sure the landing page is suitable for mobile of course. We’re going to try them in our printed mag to allow people to quickly get to our related you tube vids on their phones next

There are loads of websites out there that generate them. Can’t remember which we use, sorry, but I would try a couple and see what the output looks like.

Edit. On the apple app I don’t think you need one. I think you just take a pic of the code with your phone and it jumps to the browser. Might be wrong though

Anybody used QR codes in marketing?

Yes

is there a pre installed app on Apple for reading them

I’m led to believe not

any tips about where to host/create/link them to

Depends on your budget and usage needs. You need to think about usage tracking if it’s desired and also if the linked to URL is permanent or at some point you may want to change it. These are generally things you’ll need to pay for, though if your comfortable with Analytics and 301 redirects you can recreate them for free.

qr codes can be used for much more than just urls. Have a look at augmented reality for ideas

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/14543.html

Couple of things, is there a pre installed app on Apple for reading them – was some doubt from the apple owners in the room as goggles is shipped with android.
any tips about where to host/create/link them to?

There’s a whole bunch of apps that read and create QR Codes for iOS.
They can carry a large amount of info, not just URL’s; they were created by the Japanese in 1992 because a regular barcode couldn’t cope with Kanji. IIRC, a QR can carry over 4000 numeric characters.
There’s QRReader, QM Classic, Qrafter, i-nigma and Optiscan on iOS, probably more, and I *think* Redlaser can scan QR’s too.

We use QR codes all the time. I use this site to create them as they give you them in .eps format.

Rather than create a standard URL, use a google specific link then you can generate individual codes for, for example, different magazine adverts. That way you can see exactly where your hits are coming from. Some bumph about that here

Cheers guys – CountZero, I won’t bash apple but just want to know is anything there by default to read them? It does alienate people if they can’t “Just Make It Work” as apple like to say….

Sounds good possibly

I won’t bash apple but just want to know is anything there by default to read them?

Nope. Nothing pre-installed on a “boxfresh” iPhone will read them.

But I suspect anyone who actually knows what a QR code is will have installed Google Goggles, Neoreader or one of the other apps CZ lists.

I use Red Laser on an iphone to check the QR’s I’m generating

Yep I guess that rules out the have tech but have no idea how it works lot we are marketing to, though I suspect many of them would struggle with typing in a web address…

S’ok, I actually think Apple left it out, because there seems to be little demand for the utility, and they are generally of the opinion, that there are plenty of people who will create an app to do the job as well, if not better, and keep up with updates. It’s a facility I very rarely use myself, TBH, I usually just use Redlaser for books and CD’s, rarely QR’s.
I can’t see the point of a stocks app built into iOS, but it’s there, and I can’t get rid of it.

The use seems to go up and down, as I said the tracked marketing aspect was what I was looking at to measure the uptake from a conference. The warning about alienating the apple was from a fully bought in fanboi 🙂 his what phones do you have point was knocked back by the all android response.
targeting health so no real hope of an IT understanding there….

Yep I guess that rules out the have tech but have no idea how it works lot we are marketing

If they can work Google Goggles on Android then surely they can work it on iPhone?

Google Goggles in on Android when it comes, it’s the step of having to download something else that will inhibit people from using. I’m not talking the STW IT middle managers…….

I guess then that the question is what proportion of your target audience who are iOS users know how to download an app – if it’s sufficiently high, you just provide the name of one (and ideally an Android one too unless better still, it’s the same (eg goggles) near the QR code.

Could you provide a qr code link to a site where they could get the app?

Are there really people with smartphones that don’t know how to download a free app?

Are there really people with smartphones that don’t know how to download a free app?

Yes mostly in senior roles who still need their children to set up the DVD player…..
I do tech training and sales and sometimes it can get embarrassing when you suggest an online presentation and have to mail & talk through simple step by step instructions.
Not knocking apple but the “It Just Works” lot are shite when it doesn’t

Yes, definitely! The question is how many of those are your target market…

Smartphone Shipments To Top 1B For the First Time In 2013, But The Definition Of ‘Smartphone’ Is Slipping: Deloitte

Another area where Deloitte points out smartphone owners are not necessarily globally active is apps. It found that a full 16 percent of smartphone owners have never downloaded a single app. That number, interestingly, is even higher in developed markets, at 21 percent, and lower among urban professional smartphone owners in emerging markets, of which 13 percent have never downloaded an app. “It may be that the only apps this category of owners will ever use are those that come pre-loaded onto the device,” Deloitte writes.

Yep fraid there are plenty of then grum – they only own a smartphone as a status symbol or because some other exec has one – but they have no idea how to use it.

I do tech training and sales and sometimes it can get embarrassing when you suggest an online presentation and have to mail & talk through simple step by step instructions.

Mail? Surprised they don’t ask for a fax. 😀

I guess the question is: if they can’t even work their phone then will they even know what a QR code is? Or conversely, will everyone who knows what a QR code is be happy enough to install an app and scan one?

I’d go for QR code – plus human-readable addresses for the technologically challenged.

I’d go for QR code – plus human-readable addresses for the technologically challenged.

Maybe it’s time for a pre paid envelope…

I work for a large retailer, we provide QR codes alongside URLs, but really as it is in fashion, few customers really use them.

We would generally provide things that our customers could use inside our application, we don’t really expect people to download a third party app, that would probably show a load of competitors adverts.