Marketers are always on the lookout for cool ideas. We love to seek out innovative ideas to add to our next marketing plan. I spend a fair amount of time seeking inspiration from outside the marketing realm on sites like Hackaday and Make, and I’ve compiled a list of six ideas that I think are really cool. Ok, some are a bit silly but still neat nonetheless.

Hopefully you find these ideas interesting or inspiring:

1. Question and Answer or Joke QR Codes.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Find out by scanning this QR code.

2. Branded QR codes

Up to 30% of a QR code’s imagery is purely for error correction. Why not add a logo in place of that 30%?

3. QR Code Food

A QR code doesn’t need to be printed on paper. How about making food that people can scan?

4. Twitter powered billboard

The Internet of Things is all the rage. Connecting machines to interact with the web (and the people who use it) is a really cool idea. How about a billboard that changes based upon the mood of the world?

5. Interactive billboards

The line is continuing to blur as artists, designers and programmers converge. The results are some pretty cool installations just waiting to be used for marketing purposes. How about this interactive billboard which digitally moves its’ audience?

6. Gamification

Ok, I’m not sure that gamification is even a real word (My spellcheck keeps trying to replace it with ramification). But, I predict by 2013 it will be in Webster’s. Simply put gamification is putting a game layer over top of activities in the real world. Imagine collecting XP points for completing tasks such as getting coffee or going to the gym. Check out an example of the Speed Camera Lottery.

Have you seen something cool on the interweb that has some application in marketing? Share it below in the comments.