All ad postcards to get QR codes
Avant Card, Australia’s largest seller of advertising postcards, is planning to print QR codes on all of its inventory to better integrate the medium with digital channels.
By taking a photograph of the QR code with a smart phone, people will be led to advertiser content hosted on a mobile website.
But this will require consumers and advertisers to be educated on how to use QR codes, said Pat Mackle, MD of Avant Card.
“We want every postcard to contain a QR code. But need everyone with a smart phone to understand how the technology works,” she said. “We looked at using the technology years ago, but smart phones hadn’t taken off,” she added.
“What’s stopping marketers is the application. You need to have a mobile site and it has to be compatible with iPhones and iPads, and the content has to be right. You can’t just use QR codes to drive people to a website.”
Mackle is also thinking of developing an iPhone app that would enable people to send postcards to their friends for the cost of a postage stamp.
The postcard medium has been growing revenue by 12% for the past two years. Avant Card postcards are displayed in 1,620 venues nationwide, reaching 6m people each week.
Methinks Avant Card haven’t heard that QR codes are a dead technology (at least outside of Japan): http://www.businessinsider.com.....ode-2011-7
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QR Codes are not a dead technology seriocomic! Read the comments underneath the article you have linked your comment to & you will see a more level headed approach the wonders of QR Codes!
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i find it funny that seriocomic found the only negative QR Code article published on the net today. I get all the news articles google finds concerning QR Codes sent daily to my inbox. The use of QR Codes has grown 1600% in the USA in the last 6 months. I’ve been following QR Codes for a while now, and in fact bit the bullet and developed a QR Code and URL Shortener customer aquisition tracker web software built, which is having bugs smashed right now before we launch, but you can have a play, its live at http://lnkd.to/ or http://linkd2.com.au
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QR codes are a great way to link the paper world to your online existence. The greatest hindrance to their take-up has been Australia’s woeful 3G system, a lack of public education on their possibilities, and the lack of imagination shown here for their use.
Japan had a lead both as the originating market and because QR eaders were almost standard in phones over there, whereas most Western markets require the user to download an app.
In other markets they are finding traction now, enough that Microsoft is looking at their MS tags again, and Google is looking at ‘near-field’ systems.
So QR codes and their kind aren’t dead, but dormant. And ideas like this could be the kiss of life needed to kickstart their usage in Australia.
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riiiight… the deafening sound of late-to-market-with-obsolete-technology marketers is making me wince!
2 people to 34 = 1600% (I’m being facetious – but percentages mean nothing).
The general public have a) no idea what a QR code is, b) no idea what to do with them if they did.
The defending minority (and yes I have read the comments AND seen real-world metrics) of course will jump to justify their investment or their sales-pitches – but when advertising behemoths like Google see the light and move on to better solutions (NFC) then you’re left playing catch-up.
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NFC has its place, most small businesses won’t try it because of the cost of the stickers and programming. You cant dynamically display NFC on a TV screen and bump it, newspapers can’t display NFC to “learn more” about a product/service. Each type of technology has its place, but to go as far as saying its dead is a long way off the mark. I’d suggest you subscribe to QR Code news alerts before making any more comments, you will see exactly every news article regarding the technology as it happens, NFC isn’t the solution, it’s “a” solution that can work alongside QR Codes. Fact is QR Codes are cheap to produce, and most businesses are willing to try as there is not a massive risk. Last i heard, iPhone had largest market share with no NFC sensor in sight and no news if its in the new model.
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seriocomic why are you so smug in your knowledge – whats your real problem with QR? you seem to be slightly threatened, or trying to hide behind a screen of google… without transparency there is no respect
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Definitely should look into image recognition. Better alternative to QR codes.
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The idea of sending a real physical postcard has already been done….ByPost Postcard Maker is a free to download app on iPhone, you can send a real card anywhere in the globe for 99p.
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@Pat I agree – perhaps my tone is overtly smug, but having been working in and around media/marketing/technology for some time I see when every marketer is given a hammer – all they see is nails. In the aim of balance, i offer you this recent UK article where QR codes have been done well: http://econsultancy.com/us/blo.....f-qr-codes – and in this day and age of Google, there is no need to hide behind it – you need only to “Google” my handle. I still say that let the real numbers / adoption rates speak for themselves.
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fact is people had the same opinion of the internet in 1994 as what seriocomic has of QR codes, while I dare say it will be a passing trend of a few years until better technologies are developed further, the market penetration of smartphones has made QR codes an interesting solution even if it is only for a few years, just because google doesn’t actively support it, they still have their API, I know, i’m using it for my software, which means they haven’t completely given up on it, just like twitter removed several features of its service a few years ago, then just last month brought them back again. Big companies do make mistakes – not saying google has made a mistake, but you can never know for sure what the public will take up and what they won’t, and whether google will resume support for the technology. plenty of other big companies like ebay, telstra, and bunnings are using it in their campaigns presently.
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this article was published on the net today, google acquires qr code startup business http://www.zdnet.com/blog/goog.....unchd/3120 – guess google is still interested in QR Codes after all?
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