QR Code trends continue to gain momentum as smartphone owners grow across the globe, and smart marketers turn to engage marketing to reach mobile consumers.  Released last month, eMarketer’s latest statistics  showcase that on average, 19% of US respondents (1 in 5) have scanned a QR Code ahead of the 15% average in Europe. Interestingly, across both regions research continues to support print is the primary media placement for QR Code engagement.  Another indication of printing trend research (released by Nellymoser) reported that response rates are higher with QR Codes than direct mail.

Putting the numbers into perspective

Comparing these statistics with other marketing innovations that have come out of the recent years allows us to appreciate the implications of these studies: the table below shows the consumer adoption of Twitter in the US, as measured by eMarketer. In 2012, this amounted to 11.5% of the adult population and 14.4% of internet users.

But wait, it gets better. In 2012 research by Accenture on the effectiveness of consumer engagement triggers concluded that among 1,000 television viewers, 28% had interacted with a QR Code, vs. 18% with a Twitter hashtag. Similarly, during the 2012 London Olympics, we found that the proportion of individuals interacting with QR Codes was 36% higher than with Foursquare. Last but not least, our own research shows that the average engagement post scan to click was 62%.

Like social media in the early days, marketers who learn to harness the power of mobile engagement will have a significant head start in the market place -whether it’s QR Codes today, or combined with NFC or augmented reality tomorrow.

For expert advice on how to integrate mobile engagement tactics to your marketing campaigns, contact us or visit www.scanlife.com

You may also…

• Join the discussions on the “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement” LinkedIn group
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
• Download the ScanLife app and start scanning by going to http://getscanlife.com/ with the browser of your mobile app or searching for ‘ScanLife’ in your app store.

QR Codes are no longer news. But linking a physical item to digital content, such as a video or social media link, with a QR Code is only half the story. To maximize ROI of a mobile marketing campaign, businesses need to understand the whole customer journey from start to finish: where customers come from, how they interact with your content, and what happens next.

To help marketers solve this challenge, we recently added the click tracking feature to the ScanLife Mobile Engagement Platform.  Why is this important? Now when creating a QR Code mobile landing page with ScanLife, you can measure who clicks on what links and understand how your audience interacts with your content after the scan.

Today, we are adding the scan source identifier to our premium codes. For the first time, you will have a greater insight into what happens to your digital content. Is it scanned and consumed immediately? Or do they save to History first and access at a later moment? Or did they click when your product appeared on the live feed?

Would you like to know more? Or maybe you have ideas for other new features? If so, don’t hesitate to contact us.

For expert advice on mobile engagement…

• Please visit www.scanlife.com
• Join the discussions on the “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement” LinkedIn group
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
• Download the ScanLife app and start scanning by going to http://getscanlife.com/ with the browser of your mobile app or searching for ‘ScanLife’ in your app store.

6 Million.  That’s how many times a month people see something they like and open a ScanLife app to get more information.  Many times that content is truly awesome – it saves you money, it entertains, it informs.  

A few months ago we announced that our ScanLife app was beginning a major transformation to make it easier for you to discover this information. Now that journey continues as ScanLife for Android and iOS gives our millions of users an additional layer of information that is provided by YOU – the ScanLife community – to help you find and share the very best content from the world of barcode scanning.

Now when you scan something, whether it be a QR Code on an ad or a barcode from a product, you will see two new ways to take further action – like favorites and share.

At ScanLife, we are constantly developing new ways to personalize the mobile experience and make it as relevant as possible for the person scanning a QR Code.   We already have codes that change dynamically based on the operating system or the number of scans on a code, and now we are thrilled to announce our latest innovation which uses language detection.

Watch the video below to see it in action:

This dynamic QR Code action detects the language setting of the user’s device to deliver content that is unique to that language. There are two obvious scenarios for this kind of technology:

1. A marketer or publisher has content in 2-3 languages within a specific diverse country (like Canada or the US) and now they can run a single code that automatically delivers the right content.
2. A marketer is running a campaign across multiple countries (like Europe) and now the same code can deliver any number of experiences based on the native language of the user

Now ScanLife offers a simple way to connect to a diverse customer base with no additional programming:

• Choose from 12 different languages
• Offer up to 6 different experiences
• Based on settings from the device, regardless of location
• Works with any app around the world

If you’d like to learn more about Language Detection or to discuss other ways for smarter mobile engagement, please contact us at info@scanlife.com

It’s no secret that marketers have been slow to adjust and re-balance their media mix to reflect the increasingly mobile-centric world. According to a report from IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) marketers spend $1.59m per $1bn in revenue in Europe 2012 and $1.43m in North America. By 2015 this amount will increase to $1.76m in Europe and $1.98m in North America. This represents a year-on-year increase of 3.4% for Europe and 11.5% for North America, barely enough to keep up with the exponential adoption of smartphones.

In fact, marketers currently allocate less than 1% of their marketing budget to Mobile advertising. According to a study released by the MMA, titled “MXS: Mobile’s X% Solution” and conducted by marketing ROI specialist firm Marketing Evolution, the optimized level of spend in Mobile advertising for U.S. marketers is 7%, or about the same as the amount spent on online display and sponsorships in 2011.

The optimum share varies according to industry category, marketing goals and size of budget. For “high involvement” categories such as auto and finance, the proportion should skew a bit higher at 9%. Conversely, in “low involvement” categories like CPG and entertainment, the share would dip down to 5%. Campaigns aimed at building awareness would also have a smaller allocation for mobile (5%), while those geared toward boosting purchase intent and consideration would increase the share to 8%.

Are marketers missing an opportunity? So much focus is placed on media that delivers brand awareness, but what happens when that interest turns into consideration and your customer wants to take action?  We believe that mobile is the perfect platform to convert that interest from physical media into real action via digital.  Whether you want a Like or an email opt-in, or a purchase – mobile tactics like QR Codes can deliver big time!

For expert advice on QR Codes and mobile engagement, please visit www.scanlife.com or join the discussions on the “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement” LinkedIn group.

QR Codes are a simple yet very effective way to engage your audience and measure the impact of your marketing assets and ROI. And with its  explosive growth this past year, QR is showing no signs of slowing down.

Despite its massive growth, we’ve come across a new stat that even surprised us! According to research by Nellymoser, QR Codes beat out direct mail in driving response. Readers of national magazines in the US scan QR codes, Microsoft Tags, digital watermarks and other mobile action codes at an average rate of 6.4 percent. In comparison, the average response rate for direct mail is 4.4 percent, according to the Direct Marketing Association, and the average response rate for a catalog is 4.3 percent.

Other key findings include:

• Mobile users are actively engaged and view an average of 18.9 mobile pages.
• The total number of scannable codes has the strongest impact on response rates, with more codes raising visibility and interest to consumers.
• Codes promoted with the promise of a discount, coupon or chance to enter a sweepstakes have a higher response rate.
• Finally, magazines that repeat a program in multiple issues get higher response rates over time than those who run a campaign just once.

As awareness and adoption of QR Codes grows exponentially, in Europe and worldwide we expect the level of engagement to increase further. Marketers should act accordingly…

For expert advice on QR codes and mobile customer engagement, please visit www.scanlife.com or join the discussions on the “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement” LinkedIn group.

ComScore, a leading digital business analytics company recently released an overview of mobile commerce and QR code usage across the five largest European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) following the release of a similar study in the US three months ago.

The study showed that scanning QR codes among European smartphone users grew by 96 percent in the past year to 17.4 million users for the three month average period ending July 2012. This represents 14.1 percent of the total smartphone audience.

With 18.6 percent of the smartphone audience scanning QR codes, Germany ranked first in terms of consumer adoption of the technology. In Spain, QR code scanning increased by 9 percentage points to 16.0 percent, making it the fastest growing European market and the second biggest in terms of consumer adoption.

These results complement our own research (available here) based on data from millions of users from over 150 countries around the world. Nor do they come as a surprise, given that during the Olympics ScanLife QR Codes generated 36% more connections than Foursquare check-ins.

Product information was by far the most popular result of a QR code scan, with nearly 3 in 4 scans being directed to this result across all EU5 markets. Over 1 in 4 scans resulted in event information, making it the second most popular result across EU5. 19.4 percent of QR code scanners received coupons or offers, while 13.4 percent received application downloads. 12.1 percent of this audience also received charity/cause information in EU5.

For expert advice on mobile engagement technologies such as QR codes, please visit www.scanlife.com or join the discussions on the “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement” LinkedIn group.

Well, the big iPhone 5 announcement has been made and now millions debate if and when they will get the latest gadget from Apple.  At ScanLife, we are extremely excited for the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 for many obvious reasons.  Of all the new features, the one we are most thrilled about is Passbook.  We believe it’s the best thing that could happen for the mobile barcode industry because it will continue to expose this technology to millions of people around the world.

If you are not familiar with Passbook, here’s a quick recap from what we can tell:

• It has wallet-like features that store some of the most important items in our lives, including boarding passes, loyalty cards, coupons, event tickets, and more.
• Basically, anything that typically has a barcode could load into Passbook.  A Safari web page or an app can enable the Pass Kit Framework that would allow any device with iOS 6 to save redeemable information.
• For example, you could buy a ticket from American Airlines, and at the end of the transaction they could prompt iOS 6 users to save the boarding pass to Passbook.  Or, the Target app can send a coupon to Passbook and remind you when you are about to walk in their store using your location.
• In most cases, this information will be passed in the form of a barcode – the code formats available are QR Code, PDF-417, and Aztec – all code formats that are readable by the most common standards
• Passbook does NOT include a barcode scanner – so people will still need to download apps like ScanLife
• It will be available to anyone that has iOS 6 – extending beyond the iPhone 5

So what does this all really mean?  To us, it means that Apple has reaffirmed that the barcode is completely mainstream today as it’s simple to use for millions of people around the world.  Apple’s SVP Phil Schiller was quoted as saying, “Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today.” Barcodes are simple, they don’t require new hardware, and people are familiar with how they work.

The release of this new framework, also opens new doors for advanced services that barcodes enable, such as mCommerce, mPayments, and mIdentity, and more. When Apple included Twitter in their native OS, they reported that new Twitter accounts increased by 25% per month!  Given the massive number of iOS users, we expect mobile barcode awareness to increase sharply in the coming months which will drive even greater innovation and adoption of the technology by brands, developers, and consumers alike.

Thank you Apple!  What do you all think?

Here at ScanLife, we are very excited because Wednesday the 29th will mark the beginning of a major evolution of our apps that will change how we all discover and share information from the world around us.  Every month, millions of people like you use ScanLife, and our other apps like BIDI in Spain, to connect with the physical world.  You do this because you are interested in discovering information from the things you see every day – a can of Coke, a magazine article, a coupon offer, a Facebook page.

These connections are happening every second of every day, so now we want to make it easier for you to access this information and to help you discover even more. It’s not just what product is in front of you right now, it’s about getting access to new and relevant information from anywhere.

On Wednesday, August 29th a new version of our Android app will be released which you can see for yourself if you scan this QR code…

The start of a new quarter is always a good time to take a step back and reflect on the latest developments in the industry. Today is no exception, as we’ve hand-picked the best and most innovative QR Code campaigns from the 2nd Quarter, 2012.  It’s fantastic to see examples from all over the globe, and from a variety of industries.  Kudos to these marketers for creating amazing customer experiences using this dynamic technology!

Company: Procter & Gamble
Industry: Consumer Goods

A clever blend of m-commerce, social media and fun: PGMobile used shopping trucks with QR Codes on the side to allow New Yorkers to purchase Procter & Gamble products for home delivery. The trucks locations were tweeted by @PGMobile and shoppers could tweet requests to bring the trucks right to their office or apartment block. Learn more about it here.

Company: Coca Cola
Industry: Beverage

To promote the popular EURO 2012 Tournament, Coca Cola used ScanLife powered QR Codes on millions of packages throughout Spain. The codes connected users to a mobile series of exclusive videos about the competition and drove downloads of the ‘SmileWorld’ app, Coke’s new mobile social network. Never before has a major brand used ScanLife on a scale quite like this! Find out more here.

Company: Emart
Industry: Retail

Emart, the Walmart of Korea, wanted to launch a lunch time promotion. They came up with the idea of a QR Code, in which its shadow rotates according to the time of the day – like a sundial. As a result, the QR Code only worked from 12pm to 1 pm. Once scanned, the code activated a promotion on Emart’s m-commerce website or in stores. Watch the video below for more:

Company: Americanino
Industry: Apparel

Americanino, a Chilean fashion brand created a pop-up QR Code event which ‘hypnotized’ young consumers and tried to get them to strip off in public. Those who were bold enough to do so were rewarded with a free Americanino outfit. Check out the video to learn more:

Company: Rockport
Industry: Footwear

Rockport used QR Codes during an outdoor event involving a box display with people hanging off the edges to show the new line of shoes. The displayed featured codes on the sides that took users to a mobile optimized landing page where they could learn more about the product. Users could then tap to buy the shoes on Rockport’s mobile site. But there’s more…

Company: Volkswagen
Industry: Automotive

Volkswagen recently launched a QR code campaign to promote its line of commercial vans – Crafter. The campaign featured a huge structure with a QR Code made with actual boxes of oranges. When people scanned it, they would be directed to a video of how those boxes would fit inside a Crafter. Thanks to this promotion, Crafter increased brand awareness by 224%  and sales by 70%. See the video below for more:

Company: Handy
Industry: Hospitality

Handy, a US-based seafood processor, enabled restaurant owners to enter a 6 digit lot number found on packaging into a trace register widget on the Handy website. They could then download a QR Code for adding to the restaurant menu. Customers would scan the code to follow the fish’s journey from catch to plate. Discover more here.

Company: Budweiser
Industry: Alcoholic Beverage

Global beer brand Budweiser unveiled its new mobile “Track Your Bud” marketing initiative. The campaign integrated QR Codes into producing packaging, allowing consumers to track their specific beer’s history back to one of the 12 American Budweiser breweries. Thirsty for more? Read here.

Company: Axe
Industry: Consumer Goods

As part of a new risqué campaign for Axe Body Spray, the most popular bars and discos in Puerto Rico were given virtual peepholes, i.e. QR Codes, which let men to peek into the girls bathroom. The codes resolved to a set of steamy videos and even even steamier clips if shared on Facebook. The results were pretty spectacular. “Peep” the video below for more:

Company: Turquoise Cottage
Industry: Hospitality / Entertainment

Knowing that patrons typically go out drinking for about five hours, Turquoise Cottage, a bar/restaurant in India, created the “Buddy Stamp” to keep the night both safe and fun. The stamp was comprised of a QR Code that users could scan at various times throughout the night. Now here’s the best part – consumers were delivered different content depending on the time of a scan. A wonderful example of dynamic marketing! Watch the video below for more:

Inspired? So are we. For more information on how to leverage mobile engagement, join our Linkedin group “Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement“, or check out our website, or simply contact us.