QR codes software are being seen on products and in stores all over the world – but they’re also beginning to be used more and more in print media. Meredith Corp. have used QR Codes across a number of their publications, including Family Circle, Traditional Home and Better Homes and Gardens and they claim that of the people that snap onto their tags, 10-20% of those people view the advert or use it in some way.
Recent data from GfK MRI Starch demonstrated the increase of QR code software from January to August 2011 – they took a look at 72,000 adverts, and in August, 5% of those adverts contained the technology compared to 1.3% in January – showing us just how quickly advertising agencies are catching onto the QR code trend.
Print Media and QR Codes
But it seems that in print media, the interactivity of the codes is still taking a while to really resonate with consumers. Of the people that saw a code in an advert, 5% of them scanned the code – compared to 14% of people seeing an advert and then looking at the advertiser’s website, and 20% of people seeing an advert with a scent strip then trying the scent strip. These figures are much larger than the figures for QR code software scanning and so this does suggest consumers are not interacting with codes in the same way as with other advertising.
Learn QR Codes
As QR codes are still relatively new and also because consumers need to learn how to use them the uptake of scanning was slow in 2011. Some smartphones come with a qrcode scanner, whilst others don’t, requiring the consumer to download an application in order to scan the codes, but consumers need to know that they need to scan the QR code to use it before they can download an application to scan it – and if they don’t know that, they will be unable to use or interact with the code. the good news is that consumers since 2011 have really started scanning and there has been a surge in the amount of people scanning.
The Tide is Changing
Normal adverts that direct consumers to a website or that have a scent strip on them are probably more popular with consumers simply because they are familiar and consumers are used to seeing them. With time and with an increase in the number of QR codes across many different mediums, codes will be just as popular as other more traditional forms of communicating with consumers – they’ve already evolved in the short time they’ve been around, from black and white checkered designs to ‘designer’ codes that can incorporate brand logo and colours. With increased consumer awareness, the only way that qr code software campaigns can go is up.
