What I’ve seen and hope to evangelise is the constant evolution and adoption of how people view the world through their mobile phones. No other medium can boast the kind of innovation that has been seen in mobile over the past couple of years.
One re-emerging visual code technology on mobile is that of Quick Response (QR) codes. Having been in the market for a few years, QR codes are fast-becoming the next step in advertising to the fast-paced upwardly mobile in different markets around the world. With just a click of your mobile camera, you can be directed to information on any product or company.
QR codes are two-dimensional image codes that can store alphanumeric information and data. With certain decoding software on camera phones, a quick scan on your mobile reads these codes and gives you access to the information they store. This easy method of information storage can be used to direct users to websites, text and various other forms of data. These codes also contain considerably more information than standard bar codes of the same size.
Light years ahead of the rest of the world, QR codes were invented in 1994 by Denso-Wave in Japan. Originally, these codes were used as a replacement for conventional bar code applications like vehicle tracking. However, with the rapid adoption of mobile phones with cameras, QR codes have become increasingly useful as a marketing medium. They also became an ISO standard in 2000.
QR coding, popularly referred to as ‘mobile tagging’, has seen tremendous success in Japan where such codes can be spotted on everything from billboards to buses, newspapers, business cards, T-shirts, coffee mugs and so on. You may even find them on dinner plates in restaurants where clicking them would give you the specials for the evening.
QR codes started to emerge in other parts of Asia in 2007. They were introduced in Singapore under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's mobile barcode initiative called ‘EzCode’. However, adoption was restricted due to the lack of mobile barcode readers that granted access to the information in these codes. India also began the adoption of QR coding during that period but was bound by the lack of infrastructure. Industry leaders have predicted that with the correct infrastructure and promotion, QR coding could be very useful and popular in the Indian market.
The greatest pickup of QR codes since Japan is being seen in the United States. Numerous cafes, comic shops and even museums have QR code stickers in the shop front which serve as menus or catalogues. Corporations have also jumped on to the QR code bandwagon; QR codes have become commonplace on business cards and other company communications like email signatures.
In June 2010, giant QR codes were flashed on the outside of the Thomson Reuters building as advertisements for services like 311, DOT and City of New York Parks. In July, Calvin Klein replaced three of their traditionally racy billboards (two in New York and one in Los Angeles) with a giant QR code under the tagline “Get it uncensored” for the Calvin Klein X campaign.
QR coding takes a more proactive step into interactive and in-depth marketing. This echoes the views of marketing industry leaders that the key to success on mobile is to incorporate mobile into the existing marketing mix. The real strength of mobile lies in it being used together with the traditional marketing channels rather than as a solitary medium. QR codes integrate the two, leading users into the more dynamic mobile channel from relatively static print ads and billboards.
As QR codes spread back to Asia from their success in the States and with better regional infrastructure, we will continue to see the mobile medium growing in leaps and bounds. This truly is the age of mobile.
