Last fall when we attended CTIA in San Diego, we noticed everyone was raving about LBS – location-based-services. LBS was supposed to be a game changer, and with little coming out of it besides foursquare, twitter, and yelp, we have yet to see many things take off. This CTIA, the next buzzword seems to be 2D barcodes. Everyone wants to do 2D barcodes! (Check out this guest post for more background info on 2D barcodes)
3 years ago I lived in Japan and when I first moved there 2D barcodes were old hat. Pretend you are sitting on a train in Tokyo. All around you are advertisements, and in the corner there is a 2D barcode. Most Japanese handsets have some kind of 2D barcode reader preinstalled and all you have to do is scan the barcode and it provides some information related to the advertisement such as a phone number, web site, and email address. A simple interaction to provide basic information which the end user can do whatever they would like with it. Nothing further happens on a marketing level, advertising level, handset level, or carrier level. I like simple, simple works best.
There is nothing simple about what people were pushing at CTIA. 2D barcodes that launches apps, 2D barcodes that open websites, 2D barcodes that add contacts, 2D barcodes can do all sorts of things, but I’m not sure if I want them to. It is up to us, the marketers, to create the most interaction with the end user doing as little as possible. Am I really going to download a barcode scanner, scan the image, wait for the app to download, enter in all my information, and then get to watch a video? That’s about 5 too many steps. Our goal should be to make things as easy as possible, but it seems like we’re just complicating things more and more. There are no barcode clearninghouses in Japan, no further interaction, no carrier compliancy. There were no rules because 2D barcodes are used for simple interactions.
I’m sticking to my guns and saying simple interactions will defeat complicated marketing tools. I bet we can get more people to opt into a SMS club than we can get them to scan a barcode – any takers?
We used 2D codes for scavenger hunts up here in Canada. It was fun with instant trigger wins. BUT my jury is still out if I want to do it again.
I think AR/GPS is going to be more fun and kill off the need for outdoor bar codes. We are working with AR in our LBS apps.
Pepsi UK did do a good QR a Winner campaign. I liked it but it flopped. They are back using SMS. So SMS is still king in Europe. I think much of that is to do with data capture on opt in. BUT. Customers love SMS. I’ve been texting since 1999. I am still doing it. So there is affection for SMS.
I also find SMS is faster than fluffing with a code to scan. Someone put them on TV? I just can not see myself crouching down to scan an image flickering for 10 secs?
I am scanning supermarket bar codes now Check out TESCO Grocery. Its great for finding out how much money I will be short by at checkout. No US supermarket doing this yet to my knowledge.