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This 5-part post is a primer on QR Codes:
- Page 1: What are QR codes? What do they do?
- Page 2: How does QR codes work?
- Page 3: QR codes in action
- Page 4: Why QR codes are here to stay
- Page 5: Why do I need QR codes?
Page 1 of 5: What are QR codes? What do they do?
“Think of QR codes as a right mouse button to anything physical. Anything you want ‘more information about’ just click. So every movie poster, every advertisement shown on tv, every compact disc label in a retail store should have a QR code on it.”
–Dean Collins of Cognation (New York, London & Sydney)
QR codes look like this:
They come to us from Japan where they are very common and have been in use since 1994. QR is short for Quick Response (because the codes can be read quickly by a smart phone). They essentially hold information that dumps to your phone when you scan them. Scanning a code might take you to a mobile-friendly website. It might give you someone’s contact information. It might send you a text message with information.
QR Codes can…
- Display Text – for example, “20% off biz cards this Friday only – we’re at 1517 Pacific Av in Long Beach”
- Initiate Email Transaction – Scan the code to launch the mail program and open an email already addressed to you and with a pre-configured subject line.
- Start an SMS (send a text) – for example, your ad in the newspaper (for winter clothing) includes a code that, when scanned, sends the person a text message that says, “Free mittens if you tell our clerk you’ve never had so much fun shopping in your life.”
- Send to a web URL – Scanning the code takes the person to a web page designed specifically for the promotion. This is our favorite because it allows for analytics tracking of the ad’s success.
- Initiate Audio Stream – Scanning the code starts download an audio track. A sample of your new album? A radio-style spot recorded just for your QR customers?
- Initiate Video Stream – Any phone that allows video to be displayed can use QR codes to start a video playing.
This brief video shows how a code can be used on a business card:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEuX23iy2A4[/youtube]
BBC Click has an excellent, 3-minute overview that explains what these things are and how they work, but also answers the big question, “WHY?”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBja1blJ3GU[/youtube]
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