I have commented recently on the future of paper in the age of eBooks, smart phones, and tablets, and in my editorial in the February paper edition (yes, you can read it electronically here) I predict a bright future for both media.
But what about where the two meet? That would be in the form of QR codes, the boxy 2-D smudges (@mikeysan on Twitter has a more colorful description) printed in paper magazines or on billboards. When you photograph them with a smart phone equipped with the appropriate app, the app (in theory) directs your phone's browser to a website that provides more information on the product being advertised.
A recent study conducted by the marketing and analytics firm Nellymoser shows such tags becoming increasingly popular, at least among magazine advertisers, with the QR code having dominant market share, with Microsoft Tag a distant second.
ReadWriteEnterprise has some details on the study: “More than half of the codes or tags were used to link to a particular video, often created specifically for mobile viewing, like a behind-the-scenes look or a product demo. Another third of the tags were used for sign-ups for sweepstakes or opt-in mailing lists. Top brands using the tags included L'Oreal, Bose, Cuisinart, Revlon, Samsung, Delta faucets and Tag Heuer watches.”
What's not mentioned is how effective these tags are at generating responses and sales.
Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, is skeptical: “But all this really tells us is that advertisers would love to gather data about people who click QR codes. It tells us precisely nothing about whether anyone is actually clicking—err, photographing—them. Comscore released data indicating that '14 million people, or 6.2% of mobile users, scanned QR codes in the month of June.' Forrester says that about 5 percent of Americans use QR codes. And there is widespread confusion about how precisely these things are supposed to work, despite years of marketers telling us about them, even among tech-friendly groups like college students.”
Madrigal sees the codes as a bridge technology on the way to something like Google Image Search on steroids. You won't any longer need to photograph robot barf—if you want information on a new car advertised in a magazine, take a picture of the car. Adds Madrigal, “Your phone will act as a general-purpose connector between the real and digital worlds, just like it does now with geolocation.”
I agree. But for now though, says Madrigal, we are stuck with QR codes—the roller-skating horses of modern advertising.