A Boat, a QR Code and a Landing Page

Last weekend, I went to the Ft. Lauderdale boat show. It’s just something we Floridians do. It’s one of the biggest boat shows in the country and there are thousands of boats and boat related vendors there exhibiting. You might think I saw boats at the boat show. But you would be wrong. What I saw were QR codes. QR codes here, there and everywhere. From the smallest exhibitor to the biggest yacht manufacturer, QR codes were being used in literature, on give-aways, on posters.

A QR code is sort of like a barcode. They look like this one found in a boat brochure:

There are a ton of uses for QR codes, but marketers are using them so smartphone users can scan the QR code to get more information. In the example above, the ‘call to action’ is to scan the QR code to see a video of the boat in action.

I think my jaw dropping moment was when I stepped foot on a beautiful French boat and there was a huge QR sticker on it’s hull. Alas, when I scanned it, it just took me to the boat manufacturer’s website. What a lost opportunity! How about a dedicated landing page about this boat at this particular boat show? How about a big call to action to get more information?

No dedicated landing page for the QR code=lost opportunity. I was on a mobile device, and the manufacturer’s website wasn’t exactly a mobile-friendly experience.

QR Codes aren’t new, although the adoption in the US hasn’t been as rapid as other markets like Asia and the UK. But the QR code revolution is coming to marketing, and it’s coming quickly. If I was on my toes that day, I would have taken pictures for you. It was amazing. I should have gone on a ‘spot the QR code spree’ with my camera. But it was early and I was still groggy. It was really something to behold. And it was super exciting. Because when I look at all those QR codes, what I really see are landing pages. Lots of them. Trackable, testable, QR code-specific landing pages.

For those of you who are new to the QR code concept, here’s a bit more background from Wikipedia:
Although initially used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR codes are now (as of 2011) used over a much wider range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product marketing and in-store product labeling. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users (via mobile tagging). Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or compose an e-mail or text message after scanning QR codes.
QR codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone’s browser.

In the USA, QR code usage is expanding. During the month of June 2011, according to one study, 14 million mobile users scanned a QR code or a barcode.

Originally posted on http://www.ioninteractive.com Please take a moment to check them out!

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