QR-advertising

Unexpected advertising methods that surprise, stir curiosity and incite the consumer, gained more and more popularity in the last years, dethroning the traditional TV commercials and billboards. However, all that today we call unconventional, may become at a certain time, just another traditional mean of communication. It seems that this is very well known by the companies eager to get the attention of their target, companies that already started to use QR Codes in order to hide behind them products’ stories and useful information ready to be discovered by curious consumer.

Matrix barcodes introduced by Toyota in 1994 for scanning pieces on the assembly line, have become an unconventional method of advertising that grew and already proved her efficiency. Below you can find some examples of advertising campaigns that used QR Codes for guaranteeing their success.

LEGO

In 2009 in Germany, LEGO and their provider store My Toys.de started a campaign for increasing sales using QR Codes. This project implied the building of some large, colorful, tridimensional QR Codes made from real LEGO bricks, codes that were directing the consumer directly to the Internet page of the LEGO product. The result of the campaign consisted in doubling the sales of the promoted products, increase of the number of website visitors with 49% and awards of the campaign at Cannes International Advertising Festival. Source: 2d-code

Calvin Klein

For promoting the Fall collection in 2010, Calvin Klein replaced some billboards in New York and Los Angeles with bright red QR Codes under the words: “Get It Uncensored”.  Passerby could use their smartphones to snap a picture, which would pull up an exclusive 40 seconds commercial featuring 5 models.

Source:http://weinvent.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/calvin-klein-a-inlocuit-top-modelele-cu-qr-codes/

The Hidden Sounds

Another campaign that won a Gold medal at Cannes International Advertising Festival, created by Leo Burnett, used QR Codes for promoting 14 indie bands, for Zoo Records. The Codes were assembled into the shapes of animals that live hidden in the city and posted all over the streets of Hong Kong. Scanning the codes in the animals allowed users to read more information about a band and hear their music. They could also purchase the songs directly as well as share them on social media. The campaign was considered a success by the volume of sharing on blogs and social networks and the fact that more than half of the 14 bands sold out their albums within the first week. Source: 2d-code

Orange

With the change of brand signature, Orange announced a new service of providing information to clients based on QR Codes technology. So, on smartphones’ label in addition to price and technical details one can find also QR Codes that redirect the buyer to a Orange webpage with available reviews about that product. Source: www.orange.ro

Antena 1

Recently, also Intact Media Group launched the campaign “Scan and Win” that uses QR Codes for providing information about contests, products and sales and also the registration for contests is possible using the mobile phones for scanning the code. Source: www. Antena1.ro