Are QR Codes for Real? —Sherburne

One company doing a fair amount of work in this area is QRe8 (pronounced create). They bill themselves as the world's first mobile experience agency…creating multimedia experiences that bridge offline media (that's us!) with the mobile Web.

LinkedIn has a 2D barcode group established called 2D Codes for Global Media that has 632 members as I write this. There is lots of good discussion about how people are using this—dare we call it—new media. In Europe and Asia, the use of QR codes is much more advanced than in the U.S. and Canada.

In fact, a colleague of mine recently spoke to three groups of printers, two in Canada and one in the United States. All were amazed at the technology, hadn't heard about it, and were anxious to learn more. Only one person from the three audiences took the initiative to point and click on the spot, but I am told that my colleague's talk drove a lot of traffic to the small booth that was selling QR software at one of the shows.

Some examples:

The German Yellow Pages are introducing QR codes. Right now, they are only using a single QR code that takes you to their mobile Website, but one could see the value of selling the QR code capability to Yellow Pages advertisers so folks can simply point and click to call the advertiser. Maybe that could breathe new life into paper-based Yellow Pages.

There is also discussion about QR codes saving the newspaper and magazine industries, to be sold as pay-per-click advertising, though I am not sure I would stake my reputation on either.

QR codes are an interesting addition to business cards and there are many examples of that in action around the globe.

QR codes are being used on clothing and even tattoos (hopefully the removable kind!). You can embed your contact information, link it to your Facebook profile, a YouTube video or anything else you can think of. Maybe this is a new kind of speed dating, who knows? There is even a YouTube video teaching you how to make a QR code scarf on a computerized knitting machine with your own personalized QR code.

Global ad firm Ogilvy includes QR codes as one of the 12 Tenets of DigiMarketing and is using them in billboards and signage for such customers as Northwest Airlines.

On the slightly more morbid side, tombstones in Japan are being adorned with QR codes.

More importantly, you can begin using QR codes in your own self-promotion and your clients' campaigns immediately. Do a little digging on the subject.

Join the LinkedIn group (it is open to everyone). Pull your creative group together to do some brainstorming on how you can incorporate QR codes into your business. Go talk to customers—they may be more informed on the subject than you are, or maybe they haven't heard about them yet.

Either way, you can get some interesting discussions going about how to creatively use QR codes in business—which will help yours to grow, as well. PI

—Cary Sherburne

About the Author
Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries. She was recognized as a 2009 Woman of Distinction and was awarded the 2009 Thomas McMillan Award for excellence in journalism. Sherburne has written six books, including "Digital Paths to Profit," published by NAPL; and, most recently, "No-Nonsense Innovation: Practical Strategies for Success," written with Bill Lowe, the Father of the IBM PC. She can be reached at Cary@Sherburne Associates.com.

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