I’ve been in Boston the past week, and the way I get around town is what the locals call ‘the T’, but what I call the subway. Not much has changed since the last time I rode a subway several years ago, including those small advertisements for local businesses on the walls of the trains.
So far I’ve seen ads for a variety of schools, recruiters, comedy clubs, health insurance plans, and more. But what I haven’t seen are any QR codes on the ads. And I’ve been looking for them.
Ads in public transportation are the perfect place to employ a QR code. You’ve got a captive audience on the go. If they are interested in what your sign on the wall is promoting they can scan it, and take action right there on the spot. Or scan it, save it and take action later when they are at their desk. I think, at this point, to be doing any sort of offline advertising and not using a QR code is a missed opportunity. The person who scans is likely to be someone who is really interested, or at least really curious, about your product/service/offer. But it seems the rest of the marketing world doesn’t exactly agree.
So, I will keep on my hunt for QR codes on the T, and I’ll keep you posted on what I find. In the meantime, I take solace that somewhere out there marketers are doing great things with their QR codes. Mobile Marketer just released their Top 10 QR campaigns for Q2. Use it for some insipiration. And remember if you venture into QR code territory, you need a great, conversion focused landing experience to go along with it.
