How To Develop Successful QR Code Marketing Campaigns

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Laura Marriott, chief executive officer (CEO) and acting board chairperson of NeoMedia Technologies, a global leader in mobile barcode scanning solutions. This piece originally appeared in Mashable. Named one of the industry’s Mobile Women to Watch 2010 by Mobile Marketer, a Top-50 U.S. Executive by Mobile Entertainment, and a Top 10 Women in Wireless by FierceMarkets, Marriott is highly regarded for her global voice and expertise in mobile marketing. In this contributed article, she describes how quick response (QR) codes can best be utilize for a dedicated marketing campaign, either on a standalone basis, or as part of a broader mobile marketing effort.

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Mobile barcodes are turning up everywhere – buses, magazines, television, bar coasters. According to recent research from comScore, 14 million U.S. mobile phone users scanned QR or barcodes in June alone, mostly via newspapers, magazines and product packaging, both at home and in-store. My company’s own data reveals that barcodes that offer access to a discount or coupon or that allow the consumer to learn more about a product or service are the most popular.

Given that mobile barcodes are finally cracking the mainstream, they have enormous potential to present brands with brilliant results. Here are five mobile barcode best practices to help ensure a successful campaign.

1. Be Everywhere

Mobile barcodes should be incorporated into all digital and traditional media so the consumer has 360-degree exposure to the mobile marketing campaign. This will also ensure that consumer experience, dialogue and interactivity are at the heart of the campaign and not simply an afterthought.

2. Drive Value and Make it Easy

Giveaways, discounts, free tickets and exclusive access will compel consumers to interact with and scan your code. If your code simply offers the customer a chance to view a TV advertisement or link to a website, it’s best to try again. Scanning a barcode should provide the consumer with a brand experience that is exclusive, dynamic and interactive.

Take into account where a mobile barcode is located on the ad. Consumers must be able to find it easily and scan it quickly. For outdoor ads, place the code at eye or arm-level. In a print ad, the barcode should not fall over a fold as this will hamper scanning. Be sure to leave some white space around the mobile barcode, and use a minimum of 1 x 1-inch print specification. For TV or cinema, the code should to remain onscreen long enough for the viewer to launch the scanning application and scan the code.

3. Keep it Simple

Branded or custom QR codes are certainly getting some buzz, but it’s also important to create a code everyone can recognize. Producing your code in simple black and white checkered format will increase the number of phones and code readers that can scan it. Also, ensure you use global, open standards (i.e. Datamatrix) to maximize universal customer reach and impact.

4. Build Customer Affinity

Remember that the consumer who has just scanned your code is on the move. She will be viewing the brand content on a mobile screen and, therefore, expects instant results. Make sure the barcode links through to a mobile-enabled site rather a PC-designed site. Remember that “dead links” (codes that go nowhere or deliver the wrong information) are the equivalent of a slammed door — the consumer will not try again.

Matthias Galica, the CEO of ShareSquare, provides tips for marketers and brands using QR codes, and specifically emphasizes testing a barcode for functionality across a variety of devices and scanner applications before launching. It’s important, especially because the consumers that scan codes are likely tech-savvy and vocal — the kind of consumers you want on your side.

5. Account for Objectives and Analytics

Boost sales, increase customer engagement, build brand loyalty, educate your audience. Whatever the campaign objective, be sure to define its goals before integrating a mobile barcode. Consider monitoring the campaign via a barcode management platform. Your business will be able to leverage the provider’s expertise, better assess your campaign effectiveness and evaluate its real-time success through analytics. 

Following these practices will help analyze mobile ad spending and increase the success and return on investment (ROI) of your future barcode campaigns.


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Drake University Fails To Make Grade With New D+ Advantage Campaign

As the higher education market has become more competitive and sophisticated over the past decade, both for-profit (e.g, Corinthian Colleges, DeVry University, University of Phoenix, etc.) and traditional non-profit universities have proactively created and executed integrated marketing communications campaigns designed to garner more students, faculty members, government funding, research grants, alumni support and donations, corporate partners, and enhanced local, regional, national, and global reputations in specific disciplines.

After all, higher education is big business, with billions and billions of dollars at stake each year, so it makes sense that today's generation of colleges and universities aggressively differentiate themselves using a broad range of tactics to achieve certain objectives. Most of the campaigns I've seen focus on typical criteria: the latest US News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek rankings, recent awards and research grants, diverse student bodies and faculties, athletic team prowess, cultural, social, and recreational opportunities, and a whole slew of other benefits and value adds. In addition, most of the campaigns are relatively conservative and predictable, but occasionally, I see real flashes of genius, creativity, and brilliance. Unfortunatey, this is not one of them.

And that leads us to Exhibit A for collegiate marketing gone awry: Des Moines, Iowa-based Drake University's new "D+ Advantage" campaign. That's right: D+. As Brett Michael Dykes points out in this piece on Yahoo!'s The Upshot, "If you were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a higher education, would you want the end result to be known as a 'D+' education? Probably not." For the record, the tag line for the new campaign is not all that bad: "Your passion + our experience."

But the general problem with the campaign is in the execution. As we all know, and as numerous Drake faculty, students, and alumni pointed out, D+ is universally synonymous with sub-par academic performance. Adweek's Tim Nudd noted on his AdFreak blog that the campaign "seems to position Drake as a school whose standards barely exceed total failure."

Drake University officials defend the campaign as "intentionally edgy" and appropriate for the target audience. In a communiqué to students, faculty, and alumni, university leaders said, "The D+ was not designed to stand alone or represent a grade. Instead, it was designed to be paired with prose and draw attention to the distinctive advantages of the Drake experience. Our experience in the survey and in the field suggests that the kind of students whom we want to attract to Drake easily understand and appreciate the irony of the D+, and that it is having the intended effect of encouraging students to find out more about what makes Drake so special."

That very well may be, but when it comes to traditional branding and on-point marketing creativity, there's only one letter grade for Drake University that makes sense in this case: F.

Actually, the campaign could have packed the same punch if it was dubbed "The Drake Advantage" and was branded with a compelling, but alternative, visual presence.

The Power of Differentiation

To my dear readers, I sincerely apologize for the lengthy time lag between posts. With tremendous client work, extensive holiday travels and preparations, and year-end financial planning, the last month or so has been an absolutely whirlwind. I promise not to go so long in between entries the next time around. Now, on to the good stuff...

My PR colleague David Rodewald, who owns and operates a very successful tech PR firm (The David James Agency) here in Ventura County, wrote a very interesting piece last week on his blog regarding Steve Jobs and the executive's being named CEO of the Decade by Fortune. David maintains that Apple's success over the past 10 years can be attributed to "Jobs' use of disciplined messaging and communications to build the image of Apple." While I don't disagree with David, I'll go one step further. I firmly believe that Apple's resurgence in the past 10 years can be traced directly to the company's extraordinary innovation in product design and development -- and continuing to introduce radically-different, game-changing products which raise the bar for all other PC and consumer electronics manufacturers. In the end, Apple's new product offerings -- the iMac, iTunes, iPod, and, of course, the iPhone -- have always been far DIFFERENT than anything else on the market. That all of these products are elegantly designed, flawless in their operation, and ingrained now in the public consciousness and pop culture are just bonuses to the company and to end users (although also very important to sales and overall user acceptance, to be sure).

And that brings us to my main point. There is no question that Apple's PR efforts are second to none, and the company, with Jobs as the public face, creates a landslide of buzz and media coverage with each and every product announcement -- all with carefully-planned messaging which hits home with Apple fans. However, without clear differentiation, none of Apple's offerings, or any other product introduction for that matter, regardless of the type or industry, would ever resonate with consumers.


Let's boil it down: every company, product, and service requires clear differentiation to be successful. This is the set of attributes which distinguishes one offering from another, and upon which ALL purchasing decisions are based. These are also the characteristics which MUST be incorporated into any marketing program. Unfortunately, there are a ton of businesses out there that never quite figure this out, and that leaves their offerings in no man's land: where no one buys. In fact, in talking to small business owners on a regular basis, I find that many simply cannot articulate to me how their enterprise are inherently different from the competition, or how their products are better than competing offerings on the market. Are they different because of its price? Colors available? Higher performance? Longer lasting? Better features? More functionality? Never before seen? Greater expertise/experience? A combination of some or all of these? Frankly, many principals just don't know.

This a major issue. Why? Because any subsequent marketing effort will not have differentiation to emphasize and leverage. Therefore, the marketing activity just becomes a waste of money that never hits the mark with its target audience. It becomes white noise to which no one pays any attention. And that will kill a business.

So ask yourself this question: what makes my business, product, or service different than my competitors' offerings? And take some to answer honestly. Obtain feedback from peers, and then develop a list of key differentiators. After that, make sure to emphasize these points in all of your marketing and communications materials. You'll be glad you did.

In the end, without differentiation, you have nothing.