QR codes for 2013

On the 12th day of QR codes!

It's the last day of our 12 day of QR code Christmas blog event. Continuing from our last blog post we will be focusing on effective uses of QR codes to give people ideas for their next QR code campaigns. Earlier we addressed using QR codes in business cards, newspaper advetisements, and banners. Here are some more suggestions to conclude our 12 days of QR codes.

-Product Packages

QR codes on product packages are a great way for customers to learn more about the product before and after they have made a purchase. Some products may be presented in a way that does not allow the customer to open before purchase. A QR code that links to more information or even a video of the product in use is a great way to improve the customer conversion rate! Here is an example of a QR code on the products packaging.


-Marketing Materials ie, Brochures & Posters ads (pic)

Use Artistic QR codes on advertisements to interact with customers. Artistic QR codes work well with printed advertisements because the colours match and it looks like the QR code belongs. Not to mention the QR code links to mobile-friendly webpages where customers can receive and take this information wherever they want. Here is an example of an artistic QR code created at QR artist in an advertisment.


-For Sale Signs

QR codes on 'For Sale Signs' are a great way for realtors to make the process of buying a house easier for customers. Consider a busy couple looking to purchase their first house and driving around on a weekend at night and see a house they like that is for sale. Insead of having to call the realtor to ask for more questions and to see the house which they may at first glance not be interested in anymore, they can scan the QR code. Scanning the QR code to see a video walk through of the house, more pictures, and detailed information can make the buying process of a house much easier.

-Tee-Shirts

This one may seem a little corny, it is but it works. Put a QR code on a tee-shirt to promote your company. We tried this while exhibiting at our most recent exhibition (SOHO SME expo in Vancouver). We put artistic QR codes on our tee shirts with the words "scan to win a Kindle" inside the QR code. It was a huge success and the majority of people that visited our booth scanned the QR code to enter the contest.

-Creative Uses

Be Creative! Use QR codes for anything you can think of. Here is one of our examples of using a QR code to help tourists find their way in a foreign city.

Do you have a great use for QR codes that we forgot to mention? Let us know in the comment section!

Happy Holidays,
Muprime Technology

Effective uses of QR codes for 2013

On the 11th day of QR codes... (Part 1)

We're on the second last day of QR codes! With 2012 seeing a big spike in QR code popularity, for the 11th day of QR codes we will be providing some great ideas on how to use QR codes effectively for the next year. This blog post will be a two part post and will be continued on the 12th and final day of our QR code Christmas event.

-Use Artistic QR codes at Exhibitions and Trade Shows

Giacomini using QR Artist's Exhibition Package

QR codes are great for trade shows and exhibitions. At these events your booth can get very busy at certain times compared to others. During the peak hours its hard to find time to talk to all the potential customers to give them more information. Putting a QR code on marketing materials will give these customers a great way to interact with your company while you are talking to someone else. Here is a picture of one of our customers using QR Artist's new exhibition package:

-Use artistic QR codes on Banner advertisements

QR codes are a great way to link customers from print media to online media. Having a QR code on a banner at a networking event or as an advertisement is a great way to give interested customers more information about your services.

-Business Cards

Business cards haven't changed much in the past years. But they should! Putting a QR code on a business card is a great way for people to access contact information much easier. It also shows that you are keeping up with changing technology and is a great conversational starter. Consider if you're exhibiting at a tradeshow and have a fish bowl in front of your booth for interested clients to put their business cards. At the end of the day you are going to have an immense amount of business cards to go through and type each e-mail address/phone number into your computer to organize your leads. With the QR code you are able to scan it and the contact information is immediately updated into your phone, thus improving the follow up process.

Newspaper articles and Advertisements

So you have put an ad in the newspaper? Great, but how are you tracking the results? Can you tell how many people are interested in the product? Are you reaching the right audience? By putting a QR code in a newspaper advertisement you can send users to view more information and entice them with coupons and exclusive deals. You are also able to track the results with tracking and analytics that is provided with QR Artist. Using QR codes on articles is great for increasing readership online and showing more pictures and videos that would not fit in regular newspapers.

This is just a start to get you motivated and give you some basic ideas to think about when implementing your next QR code campaign. We will be providing more ideas in our next posts!

Holiday QR Codes

On the 10th day of QR codes...

The 10th day of our 12 days of QR code blog event will be focusing on QR codes during the holidays. We will take a look at Christmas QR code examples including statistics during the holidays. To reiterate the 12 days of QR codes, we have been doing a different blog post every day for 12 days leading up to Christmas. We have been discussing trends, stats, demographics, and marketing tips... basically anything QR code related for users to make the most out of QR codes this Christmas.

Christmas QR code examples:

Created at www.qrartist.net

-The first Christmas QR code example is to use a QR code on a Christmas card. If you're a musical person, have the QR code link to a sound clip of you singing a Christmas carol or even a spoken Merry Christmas greeting. This is great way to give your Christmas card a personal touch.

Created by http://www.atsqrcodes.com

-Christmas themed QR codes: QR Codes can even be made to represent Christmas. Using Christmas themed colours, texts, and pictures like these artistic QR code examples will get you in the holiday spirit.

- Black Friday! Okay Black Friday is more of a day made up by retailers but some think its the official start to the holiday shopping season. QR codes are starting to play a big part on Black Friday and this year in 2012 QR code scans on Black Friday increased 50% from the previous year. So if your in the retail business you should probably start thinking about using QR codes in the coming months.

Source: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/14295.html

Have you come up with some great ideas for using QR codes during the holidays that we forgot to mention? We would love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment below!

QR Codes Tips

On the 9th day of QR codes...

To kick off our 9th day of QR codes we will be discussing some Do's and Don'ts of QR code use. QR codes can be really effective but only when used properly. Here are some tips to keep in mind for your next marketing campaign.

Do's:
-Make sure the content that you send users is useful and interesting
-Make sure the page the QR code links to is mobile friendly. Non-mobile friendly landing pages sends a bad first impression to the user
-Place QR codes in areas that are safe and easy to scan
-Use artistic QR codes to attract and engage more customers
-Make sure QR code's are scannable before printing - and check again after printing before sending out 100+ unscannable QR codes
-Be Creative!

Dont's:
-Don't put your QR code in a place that has high traffic (People are unable to stop and pull out there phone if a lot of people are walking by)
-Don't put QR codes where their isn't access to internet or cell reception ie. avoid airplanes, subway stations, and basements in cement buildings with bad cell reception
-Don't place your QR code in area's that are unsafe to scan or phones are not permitted ie. fuel pumps, billboards, and the back of a bus
-Don't use a QR code online or in e-mails: Clicking on a link on your computer is much faster than pulling out your smartphone to scan ie. a QR code online isn't making it any easier for customers unless the e-mail is intended to be printed out for an event
-Make sure the QR code is the proper size so that it is scannable from the distance the users would be scanning from ie. a person can't get closer to a QR code on the other side of the railway tracks that is too small to scan.

To get started creating artistic QR codes go to www.qrartist.net today! Let us know how you have used QR codes in the past to energize your mobile marketing.

History of QR codes

On the 8th day of QR Codes...

The 8th day of our 12 days of QR codes will be focused towards the history of QR codes and will showcase some artistic QR code examples that have been created with QR Artist. QR codes have been gaining popularity world wide in the recent years. From advertisements, brochures, and newspapers to corn mazes, tombstones, and oreo's QR codes have been printed on everything and made out of everything. 2012 has been the year of the QR code as more people are learning how to properly use them for marketing as well as the general public is learning how to scan them. Nowadays everywhere you look there seems to be a QR code. Lets take a look at  how that came to be...

QR codes were originally invented in Japan for the automobile industry to track vehicles during the manufacturing process and was designed for the intention of components being scanned at high speed. Based off the original barcode that has been around for over 50 years that was invented for the purpose to automatically register items at a grocery store to speed up the process. The inventors of  the original barcode (Bernard Silver and Norma Woodland) took the original concept of morse code and came up with the idea to change the dots into lines to hold encoded information.

In 1994, the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave took the original barcode idea and created the QR (Quick Response) code that was essentially 2D. Instead of the original barcode that could only read in one direction the QR code could be read both horizontal and vertical. Thus the QR code could hold more information in the same amount of space.

Sources:
-http://www.qrcodesrealestate.us/the-history-of-qr-codes/
-Handbook of Augmented Reality by Borko Furht

Now to demonstrate how far original bar codes are come since their original invention in the 50's: We will be displaying some custom QR codes created with QR Artist: To create your own go to www.qrartist.net today!

ScanLife's statistics look promising for the future of QR codes

On the 7th day of Christmas...

The 7th day of QR codes will be focused on QR code trends and statistics from 2012. It's pretty apparent how the use of QR codes has sky rocketed in the 2012 year just by walking around outside. But the real question is by how much? Lets find out...

Just one of the many QR code scanning apps 'Scan' is "25 million downloads strong and is growing at an insatiable pace" according to scans founder Garrett Gee.

ScanLife's Q2 2012 Barcode Report

Here are some statistics from ScanLife's most recent global barcode scanning report:
-ScanLife saw over 16M scans in Q2, and the highest scan month ever in June 2012
-Over 4M first time scanners in Q2 of 2012
-Largest single QR code campaign saw over 2 million scans

With a single glance to ScanLife's chart on the right QR codes have been on the rise  for some time now when comparing QR code scans in Q1 of 2009 to Q2 of 2012.

From ScanLife's trend infographic 

In our last post "Who's scanning QR codes" we learned that the most popular place to scan QR codes is at home. Therefore the most popular products scanned during the second quarter of 2012 at ScanLife were mainly products that could be purchased and brought home. The beverage Coke was one of products scanned the most during the quarter while other products that were close behind were video games, snack food, and books.







Sources:

-http://www.forbes.com/sites/alextaub/2012/12/06/qr-codes-are-dead-long-live-qr-codes-a-conversation-with-scans-founder-garrett-gee/

-http://www.scanlife.com/blog/2012/08/infographic-global-barcode-scanning-from-q2-2012/

Artistic QR code demonstration with QR Artist

On the 6th day of Christmas...

QR Code created at qrartist.net

The 6th day of our 12 days of QR codes event will be focusing on how to create and edit an artistic QR code using QR Artist. Today's artistic QR code that has been selected is focusing on the linear gradient and substitution effects. Remember when creating QR codes the scannability may be effected if light colours such as bright yellow and white are used in the foreground of the QR code. Avoiding these colours and making the logo and text sizes smaller will increase the scannability. With QR Artist there is a built in detector that determines if the QR code is scannable or not.

First select the content type for where the QR code will send the user. There are many possibilities for where the QR code will send the person scanning: website, send an SMS, e-mail address, contact card, and a calendar event. After selecting the content press the green 'generate' bar at the top right.








Now the QR code should just be black and white. Start adding effects to your customized QR code by going to the tab on the right hand side  "Add effects from the effect library" and select Linear Gradient. For the linear gradient try to select two colours that blend nicely together ie. Black and Orange may not look the greatest unless you are going for a Halloween theme. Using a darker colour to lighter colour is also a good idea to make the blend more beautiful.









Under the Shape effects category, select the break blog effect. At first it will change the whole QR code to the break blog effect. If you just want certain parts to have the break blog effect you can manage that. To make the break blog effect only work on some areas of the QR code change the blog as demonstrated below. In this example the 'individual blocks' was chosen.










Now continue adding more effects in a similar fashion as the effects demonstrated above. Select the finder substitution effect and select one of the images already provided by QR Artist in the image library. The last few effects to complete the QR code similar to the one showcased at the top right corner is to add in the shadow effects 'Inner shadow' and 'Drop Shadow' and the 'Round Corner' effect. There is also the option to add logos and texts. This can be an effective way to provide a call to action for the user by saying 'Scan for more info' or if you are having a contest via QR codes 'scan to win'. Please leave a comment if you have any questions on QR codes or if you want a certain QR code to be demonstrated next time!

Mobile Marketing Statistics and QR Codes

On the 5th day of Christmas...

The 5th day of our 12 days of QR codes event will be tailored towards mobile marketing statistics.  In the current year, smartphones sales have now passed PC's and laptop sales combined. Thus more and more people are accessing the internet via mobile phones. This is great for the QR code industry as it is a great way to direct users from print media ie. newspaper advertisements to online media where products and services can be directly bought.

According to a recent study by eMarketer, the amount of time that people are spending on their mobile phones either accessing the internet, playing games, music, and others has doubled in the past 2 years in the US. eMarketer also estimates that the "amount of time consumers spend using mobile devices, excluding talk time, will grow 51.9% to an average 82 minutes per day up from 34 minutes back in 2010".  The average time spent per day by US adults on mobile phones (not including talking) has increased from 22 minutes a day in 2009 to 82 minutes per day in 2012.

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/consumers-spending-time-mobile-growth-time-online-slows/

According to Business Insider (BI), 114 million Americans used Smartphones in the month of July in 2012 and there is at least 165 million active Android and Apple IOS devices currently in the US. BI also reports that two thirds of the handsets sold in the second quarter of 2012 were smartphones.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-smartphone-market-2012-9

The increasingly popular smartphones in the US is reflecting well on QR codes. QR codes are starting to appear everywhere and smartphones are a big reason why. To get started creating your own artistic QR code visit www.qrartist.net today! Please feel free to post a comment or question below we would like to hear your thoughts!

Who's scanning QR codes?

On the 4th day of Christmas...

Continuing our 12 days of QR code blog event we will be talking about QR code demographics.  Ever wonder who is scanning QR codes? When are they scanning? And where are they scanning? After doing some research we have come up with the following results to help you target the right customers for your next marketing campaign.

From scan life’s Q2 2012 report:

Although both genders are increasingly scanning QR codes. Males have outdone the females. In the second quarter of 2012, males made up a total of 69% vs. females 31% of people who scanned QR codes via the application 'scan'. Not by much, but the most popular target age group for scanning QR codes is 25-34 years old followed closely by 35-44. Therefore adults between the ages of 25-44 make up approximately half of all QR code scans.

From the second quarter from the year 2011 compared to the second quarter of 2012 the amount of scans per minute increase fivefold. Demonstrating that the QR code awareness is increasing. The majority of people scanning QR codes do so from their own household. In the second quarter of 2012 ScanLife saw that 65% of people scanned QR codes directly from their own home. A great way to target this demographic is to have QR codes in places that will be viewed at home ie. newspapers, direct mail, flyers/pamphlets, and products such as beer and food.

The most popular time of day for scanning QR codes is the evening/afternoon. For the majority this is outside of regular working hours meaning people are more likely to scan during their leisure time than while at work. Take this into consideration for your next marketing campaign and avoid putting QR codes where people will only see them for a few hours while they are busy during the day. Focus on areas where people are relaxing and have spare time to scan.

In the second quarter of 2012 the app 'scan' saw 4 million new people scan. This clearly demonstrates that QR codes are not a temporary trend but are here to stay! Remember these stats are just for one the one scanning application 'scan'. Take into account that there is many more applications out there!

Images and sources from: 

-http://www.scanlife.com/blog/2012/08/infographic-global-barcode-scanning-from-q2-2012/

-http://www.scanlife.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ScanLife-Trend-Report-Q2_2011_Final.pdf

Drive business with QR Codes at Trade Shows

On the third day of Christmas..

To kick off the third day of our QR Code Christmas blog and social media event we will be demonstrating how to effectively use QR codes at an exhibition. The cost of exhibiting at a trade show can really add up when you include booth fees, printing of the marketing materials, travel expenses and time. Artistic QR codes are the perfect solution as they are inexpensive, effective, and stands out from the competition. 

Whether you`re using QR codes on posters or brochures, properly introducing your QR code campaign is crucial. Make sure there is a call to action or an explanation of what value will be provided to the customer for scanning the QR code. A code standing by itself with no description is not nearly as effective as an artistic one with "scan for product details" directly in it. 

Ex. of QR code contest booth

Trade shows have many competing competitors promoting similar products in a similar way. Try standing out from the crowd and incorporate an interactive contest with the QR codes. Recently we assisted Giacomini in running a QR code contest at the CIPHEX trade show (picture from booth on right hand side). We put QR codes on posters and brochures that when scanned would give customers various prizes (ie. hat, jacket, candy) once they filled in their contact details and specific interests in the company. This step made the follow up process much easier and more targeted after the trade show. 

Make sure there is an application to help people scan. Not everyone has a smartphone although now-a-days it sure seems that way. Have an iPad, iPhone, or even a manual form for attendees to sign-up so everyone can be included in the contest to win prizes and learn more about the company and its products and services.

The last thing is to make sure the QR code links to a mobile page. QR Artist's Exhibition Package offers mobile-friendly landing pages to make it easy for users to navigate the mobile site. QR Artist's Exhibition Package provides everything that an exhibitor would need at a trade show from QR codes to mobile-friendly webpages. Included in the exhibition package is artistic QR codes, GPS scan tracking, mobile landing pages, and a real-time analytics dashboard.

To learn more about the QR Artist Exhibition Package click here or contact us today!

How to use QR Codes effectively for Marketing

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

We will be continuing the 12 days of QR code Christmas event with special tips on how to use QR codes effectively in a marketing campaign. QR codes are great, but they can be hit and miss if used improperly. Here we will do a walk through with tips and tricks for using qr codes in a marketing campaign:

Happy Holidays!

Firstly, don't cheap out on the QR code. A black and white QR code is as original as vanilla ice cream. There are so many other possible flavours out there that stand out from the rest. The same goes with QR codes. A black and white QR code is boring, cheap, and an eye sore on what could be a great poster. Upgrade your QR codes to artistic ones with logos, texts, colours and even effects. It's cheap and at QR Artist there is an introductory price for a limited time where artistic QR codes are only $2.99.

Next, you want to make sure your QR code is scannable before printing off thousands of posters or marketing materials. Check with multiple scanning applications and mobile devices to ensure optimal success.  Also make sure the landing page that your QR code goes to is mobile friendly. First impressions are everything and if the first thing a customer sees in a non-mobile friendly site that is an inconvenience to navigate, the chances are they won't scan again. If you don't have the capabilities for a mobile friendly page try sending your QR code to your Facebook account to drive your online presence. Coming soon to QR Artist will be the possibility to put your content on a mobile page.

The last tip is what will make or break your QR code campaign. Provide a call to action for the user. Don't just slap a QR code on anything and hope people will scan it. Provide an incentive to scan by providing value. Tell the user where they will be sent by scanning the QR code ie. scan for X% of our new product, or scan to see the top 10 gift ideas for kids.

These are just the basic necessities for a great QR code marketing campaign. Incorporating creative ideas with QR codes is a great way to attract more customers online. Try out QR Artist today to create your own Artistic QR code in minutes at www.qrartist.net!

12 Days of QR Codes

It’s early December and people are starting to get into the holiday spirit with decorations, baking, festivities, and more. Here at Muprime we decided to join in on the fun. For the next 12 days of Christmas, we will be offering helpful tips, stats, and interesting facts about QR codes and mobile marketing to help you during the holiday season. Whether you’re an avid user of artistic QR codes or you’re new to the concept, we will be providing content that will interest everyone.  But stay tuned, we will be offering special offers throughout Muprime’s 12 days of QR Codes that you won’t want to miss!

On the 1^st day of Christmas:

Victoria Secret QR Code

To kick off our 12 days of QR Codes Blog and Social Media event we will talk about some of the most interesting and creative uses of QR codes from the previous year. The first one that comes to mind is Victoria’s Secret's 'sexy' use of QR codes. It provides a unique ‘call to action’ encouraging people to scan to see more. 

Other examples that have started to gain popularity in the year of 2012 have been artistic QR codes. Many marketers have moved away from the boring, ugly, and cliché black and white QR codes and have started using artistic personalized QR codes. Here are some of the more interesting Artistic QR codes in action from the previous year: 

Pac Man style QR Code by Patrick Donnelly

This Pac Man QR code really demonstrates the endless possibilities for QR codes. Designed to look like a game this QR code is scannable and will most certainly attracts someone's attention versus the normally black and white ones. Because QR codes have a higher tolerance in readability they are able to be edited in a way that won't affect its scannability. QR Artist is a great site to easily make artistic QR codes yourself, visit qrartist.net to create artistic QR codes.

Oreo QR Code via RedPepper

This QR code here was actually created entirely out of Oreos. The light golden Oreos combine with the original black Oreos contrast to make a scannable QR code. Very Creative! 

This last piece of art was created with QR Artist and used in our recent trade show (SOHO SME Expo) for an interactive tee-shirt contest to give away prizes. The trade show was a success due to the attractive and engaging use of QR codes. 

Stay tuned for the rest of our 12 days of QR codes as we celebrate the holiday season QR code style!

Sources of Images:
http://mashable.com/2011/07/23/creative-qr-codes/
http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/15-creative-crazy-cool-qr-code-designs/
http://www.oman-collective-intelligence.com/2011/09/qr-codes-go-sexy.html
http://qrartist.net

This is how exhibitions should be done!

Giacomini used our QR Artist Exhibition Package as a lead generation tool for the CIPHEX trade show in Vancouver. The objective of the project was to attract more visitors, generate leads and increase brand awareness more effectively. The QR Artist Exhibition Package includes: artistically branded QR codes with corresponding mobile webpages, and real time analytics and reports.

Process:

Benefits:

1.Save time by having all relevant information displayed in one dashboard

2. Interact more effectively with customers (i.e. remembering your brand name at the end of the show)

3. Access and store contact information in real time (no lost business cards) and ready to send reports to any relevant department (i.e. corporate office in Italy)

4. Filter leads by relevant interests (find out most popular products directly from customers)

5. Compare trade shows’ performances to track the progress and success.

QR code used at the exhibit

Main Points/Summary:

• Scanning QR codes was very easy and simple for the public
• Learning process was fun, engaging, and memorable
• Average time to educate, scan, and enter information was less than 2 minutes
• The specific product interest of a customer was captured in real time
• Follow-up process after trade show was much more efficient
• Based on the number of scans, it was obvious which products were most popular
• Strong leads were differentiated from weak leads (Newsletter sign-up and option to select interests)

           Are you exhibiting at a trade show in the near future? Please contact us today for 

           more information to get started with our QR Artist Exhibition Package.