The 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games officially wrapped up, and ScanLife was thrilled to be a part of this global event.  These Olympics marked the first time that mobile truly became part of the games in every way – social, commerce, location awareness, apps – and the ScanLife platform helped bring all of these experiences to life.

The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) used ScanLife to deploy over 50 QR Codes on Game-related signage, physical publications, e-tickets, and more.  ScanLife’s platform has been developed over the past five years to handle potential capacity of  8 million scans a day, and we already handle traffic from over 150 countries.

LOCOG saw 15 million Olympic app downloads and created a social network of over 5 million from around the globe. By using the ScanLife platform, they were able to see how people were engaging with their mobile content in real time with data like location, demographics, OS, country of scans, and top codes.

Heat map showing where traffic developed around the Olympic Stadium:

QR Codes delivered an easy and valuable way for visitors to view more information, get more social, and make purchases from virtually anything.  In fact, ScanLife generated 36% more connections than Foursquare check-ins during the games, according to published LOCOG numbers.

Check out the video below to see it all in action:

If you like what you see and want to get more charts, stats, and images, go to our Olympics webpage to download the case study!

It’s always encouraging to see reports showing strong growth in physical to mobile engagement, but what we have seen in the past few months is especially exciting.  That’s because not one, but four separate reports have been published recently that together paint a picture of how everything is now growing at the same pace.  Below are some of the highlights that show how both Smartphone users and marketers are bringing it all together.

Comscore – June 2012

In Comscore’s latest survey from April (published in June), nearly 20% of Smartphone users in America scanned a QR Code, up from 14% in May last year (a 43% increase).   More than two-thirds of Americans and Europeans who scan QR codes obtained information about a product, and the most popular source of scanning was product packaging (42%).   The most popular location for scanning was at home (57% of scanners).  Learn more.

Below charts from Economist:

Nielsen – May 2012

Nielsen looked at how Smartphones were used during the actual shopping experience, and they found that people relied most on their devices when more expensive purchases were being considered.  At electronics stores for example, the vast majority of Smartphone shoppers read reviews (73%), compare prices with other retail outlets (71%) and scan QR Codes to get more product details (57%).  Find out more.

Accenture – April 2012

1,000 U.S. consumers were asked whether they interacted with social media symbols while watching TV.  Amazingly, 20% engaged with Facebook, and more people scanned a QR Code than searched using a Twitter hashtag.  Most did so to get access to a deal or enter a sweepstakes.  Read more.

Econsultancy – June, 2012

Part of the reason people are scanning so much is because more and more codes are being published by marketers.  In fact, an Econsultancy survey released in June,  found that QR Codes are now the most used mobile tactic by marketers.  Agencies showed that they are more excited about apps with 54% saying their clients use them – compared to just 35% when the clients are asked.  Discover more.

To find out more about Mobile Engagement trends, discuss ideas and share best practices, check out the Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement Linkedin group. Or simply visit www.scanlife.com.

Taco Bell and MTV have teamed up to help promote this year’s MTV Video Music Awards with the help of ScanLife. The fast food chain has placed QR Codes on all of their “Big Box Remixed” packages and large cups. The codes deliver all kinds of VMA content to users including teasers, sneak peeks, artist interviews and performance footage.

Even better, the content changes on a weekly basis, so users can expect to receive a different experience for scanning throughout the six week campaign. The scan rates are already into the six-figure digits, and you can find out more about it from their website.  Don’t have an app?  You can even use our Scan and Send service by just snapping a photo of the QR Code and texting it to 43588.

They did a great job with explaining how it all works, so check it out, and head out to your nearest Taco Bell and join in on the fun!

Frito Lay just launched a brand new program to get people using their products in a whole new way – by scanning the bag!  All you need to do is pick up a current bag of Lay’s Original, Sunchips, or Tostito’s Scoops, open up the ScanLife app, and scan the UPC code right on the back of the package.

After you scan, you can learn more about “Our Promise” from Frito Lay which is “the belief that all can benefit from doing good.”  The barcode will show a video of how the potatoes are grown by local farmers to how the chips are made in an all natural ways.  It will also give you some great recipes to try at home.

Many of our customers use a QR Code to take people to this kind of content, but you can’t forget that 1/3 of our scans come from UPC codes, and it is already on millions of products so you don’t have to change a thing.  They are also doing a great job by sharing this new feature through their social networks, and it doesn’t hurt to have 2.1 million fans!

Don’t forget that you have to have the ScanLife app with any AF phone like iPhone 3GS and above, any Android, and most newer BlackBerry’s – pretty much this describes a majority of our users.  Just go to getscanlife.com from your device if you don’t have the app already.

Happy scanning – and snacking!!

ScanLife has just released it’s third edition of the Mobile Barcode Trend Report which looks at data and analysis from UPC and 2D barcode scanning aggregated across 30 countries around the world. This data includes scans from both the ScanLife app and other 3rd party apps.

Below is an infographic with some highlights from the report.  Download the complete PDF to see why people like Coca-Cola and George Bush!

Here are some of the newest 2D barcode campaign examples from March.

This Month’s Key Campaigns:

• The Home Depot – Martha Stewart Collection
• Bloomingdale’s – Scan to Win integrated promotion
• Banana Republic – Spring Collection video
• Bravo TV – “Late Night” video
• Miller Lite – SXSW Sweepstakes
• Georgio Armani – Unicef TAP Project

We often get asked if people are actually interested in this whole barcode scanning thing. Before we launched ScanLife in 2008, we wanted to know ourselves so we conducted a survey with over a 1,000 people. Results showed us that if we build it, they will come.

Three years later we now see millions of scans a month and over 20% of the Fortune 50 are using 2D codes in one way or another. But, people still want to know if the general public wants to use mobile barcodes. While we publish our quarterly Mobile Barcode Trend Report showing huge growth, we are thankful for other surveys which have been done recently to confirm these trends.

We wanted to keep a running list here of helpful reports on this topic. If you know of any others, please leave us a comment below, and we will add it to the official list.

QR Explosion: Retail and Tech Lead Among 2,300 Mobile Code Advertisers in 2011 [2.12]

18% of scanners make a purchase, and 50% of Smartphone users have scanned a code in the US [12.11]

Compete Smartphone Intelligence Survey

CMB Consumer Pulse – How Smartphones Are Changing the Retail Experience

MGH – 72 percent of smartphone users indicated that they would be likely to recall an ad with a QR code

Stores must reach out and touch more mobile users

Last month’s key examples include campaigns/projects from:

• Target (magazine ads linking to home design videos)
• Banana Republic (direct mail linking to exclusive video)
• Geico (direct mail linking to an insurance request)
• Panasonic (hangtags on products)
• Maxim Magazine (editorial and advertising)
• Metro Newspaper UK (linking to editorial content and promotions)

You can download the PDF here.

As we move into a new year, we wanted to reflect on a pretty amazing 2010, so we just released a year-end Mobile Barcode Trend Report . When we launched ScanLife in Beta in 2008, it was a time when “Droid” was just something from a sci-fi movie and camera phones were meant for throwaway snapshots.  To say things have changed is an understatement.

In 2010, ScanLife saw over 1600% growth in mobile barcode traffic.  That doubled in the fourth quarter alone!  A year ago, ScanLife couldn’t even read UPC codes, and now it is more than half our traffic offering content ranging from local prices to coupons to nutritional information.

Some other highlights from the report:

• The largest scan days of the year for us were the day after Thanksgiving (“Black Friday”) and Christmas Day (as people received gifts, many being new Smartphones)
• The top most used features for people scanning UPC codes are Coupons, Prices, and Nutritional Info.  This reflects previous learning that Food and Personal Care are the most scanned categories.
• There was a 13% increase in female to male traffic, and a 25% increase in the 25-54 age group.  This is likely indicative of how the technology is evolving, and going more mainstream.

We truly appreciate the support of all our users and customers, and can’t wait to make 2011 the year mobile barcodes go completely mainstream.

You can download the full report here.

Every month, we will upload a recap of the most recent new activity.  This will cover marketing campaigns, media usage, or other projects using ScanLife.

This month’s highlights include:

• Gap (direct mail and in-store)
• Oprah Magazine
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Restore the Gulf
• Verizon

You can download the PDF here.