The QR Code to Nowhere ?
Update 2021: This article was written in 2013. Since then the QR code has had a very unforeseen comeback.
Covid-19 has created a world that needs to function with as few physical touchpoints as possible. If you combine this with the fact that a staggering 92% of the UK population has a phone, the thought of introducing the QR code again into our everyday lives occurs naturally.
You are probably thinking, sure but I just use it for the NHS app, so it’s about to disappear again right ? Not quite. The QR code has made a comeback throughout many industries. You can find it in restaurants to check a digital menu, you can find it on products or around service experiences to leave reviews or as a CTA to install an application. The software and hardware is literally in our pockets and just a fingertip away to use. The QR code is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.
If you would like to incorporate QR codes into your digital strategy, then please get in touch.
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The QR (or Quick Response) code was invented in 1994 by a subsidiary of Toyota. Although standards of encoding have changed over the years, the format and concept are pretty much the same as they were nearly 20 years ago. The QR code’s popularity in consumer marketing coincided with improved cameras on mobile phones, enabling users to scan a code with their mobile phone and be redirected automatically to relevant content on the Internet. Basically, it was an easy way to get people from offline to online with no typing, searching or browsing.
And so suddenly they were everywhere…
On posters, packaging, newspapers and magazines, promotional material and gifts, exhibition displays, billboards, at events, on TV – sometimes even on the websites themselves! But was a 20 year old ‘cataloguing tool’ really going to change the way that brands drove online traffic?
It is my opinion that QR codes have just been deputising – filling a gap created by the improved phone camera and scanner technology. For all the creative ideas that designers have tried to work into them, they’re still fundamentally ugly, intrusive and obvious. And in addition, they are often deployed very badly which probably goes some way to explaining why in a recent poll, only 22% of respondents have scanned a QR code in the last 60 days. Consumers do not have the love for them that marketers seem to…
The writing is on the wall for QR codes, and there are already much better technologies that can achieve the same (and more) in both a subtle and engaging way. For instance, the Google Goggles app and SnapNow both use image recognition technology to allow you to take photos using your phone camera then use the images to search the Internet directly.
Similarly, Blippar claims to be the “first image-recognition phone app aimed at bringing to life real-world newspapers, magazines, products and posters with exciting augmented reality experiences and instantaneous content.”
In an age where the consumer has so much control over how they digest information, anything that encourages someone to ‘find out more’ needs to be much more subtle than a scannable 2D barcode. Any call to action needs to be part of a natural narrative or story, and image recognition is a positive step in that direction. It will be interesting to see how marketers and advertisers make best use of the technology as it continues to evolve.
