Good question. Let’s ask somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Somebody like Erik Goldhar and Ted Geatros at Toronto’s Qre8, a full service QR code strategy and execution agency.
How widespread is QR code use in Canada? Are phone carriers pre-installing scanner software here yet? What leads you to think widespread adoption is coming?
When we started QRe8.com in June of 2009 tracking down interesting and truly functional illustrative examples of QR Code applications was a bit of a challenge in Canada.
Consumer brands like Stella Artois pioneered some exciting but limited promotional tactics. Today, we have too many to chose from. Brands such as Ford, HBO, XM Satelite Radio, Air Canada, Facebook, Google, Blackberry, GMC, and many more have implemented campaigns using QR Codes.
At QRe8, we have several campaigns about to launch in 2010, including our very own real-estate industry specific marketing service, Clikbrix.com which integrates QR technology to link prospective buyers to agents and brokers.
So, QR adoption in Canada is no longer in its infancy—in fact we believe it’s now at the ‘toddler’ stage and growing fast. There are a lot of signs that support this. Read the rest of this entry »
In preparation for my new job as United Way of Winnipeg‘s Interactive & Social Media Engagement Manager, I’ve been reading a few of the current SoMe classics, including Brian Solis’Engage!
I’ve heard Brian reference “social objects” on his blog, and I’d already come to the conclusion that brands will be better understood in the social world by creating and spreading content of their own, as opposed to just listening and participating in existing conversations.
As part of my engagement strategy I’m going to produce simple videos that convey just how important and life-changing the programs United Way supports are to the people who use them. There are a thousand amazing stories out there, and I believe that if people just heard them, they’d be moved to donate—whether for intellectual or emotional reasons.
These stories, in social media marketing terms, are “social objects”—ideas around which people who care can congregate, comment, and share to their networks.
Here’s my conception of a social object creating “brandvocates”—fans advocating your organization’s work:
1] Content is published to the social web. 2] It sparks conversation, creating a perception of the brand in people’s minds. 3] People share the content & their newfound understanding of the brand that produced it.
And here’s a more structured version of Brian’s idea, showing the journey from content to conversation, to enhanced brand perception and brandvocacy:
Perhaps Brian will drop by and tell me if I’ve got the concept down!
Whether your goals are advertising, informing, galvanizing advocates or garnering Facebook ‘likes’, the QR code is ready to link up your audience to convenient, tailored, local, on-demand info, interactivity, and reasons to think you rule!
Artists
The crafty artist might link:
from your band’s gig poster to an mp3 of your best track, or a secret remix/accoustic jam
from your opening’s flyer to your portfolio
from your art’s title card to your online store
from your ad to your represenation
to tickets for your showto a behind-the-scenes video of your process or installation (visual artists), live show (bands), movie shoot (filmmakers)
to a trailer for your next film
to a map of your street art installations
from your poster to your eBay auction
from band t-shirts to your music on iTunes
from your band’s gig poster to your online t-shirt store, with 15% discount
from street art to your manifesto
from stickers to social critique
from show flyers to your work on Flickr
from posters to your Facebook fan page
Self-promotion/branding
The schmoozy future star might link:
from your business card to your Facebook profile
from your business card to your Twitter stream
from your business card to your Linkdin account
from your business card to your blog
to a video interview with you (talent show!)
from your avatar to your blog
from your power point to your preferred social profile
from your t-shirt to your blog’s RSS feed
Business advertising
The savvy business might link:
to a coupon for %10 off the first visit
to a contest
to a useful branded app
to your in-store card to allow payment at checkout
from a sign in your window to reviews of your establishment
to a video testimonial from a happy customer
from an ad to your 1-800 order hotline
to a Google map to your nearby locations
Products
The intriguing product might link:
to a coupon for a freebie/sample
to a video product demonstration
from product to a fabulous recipe, cooking demo, or glam serving photos
from ads to mobile shopping
to clues for a treasure hunt
to comparison shopping among major retailers
to a gallery of stars (or the not-so-famous) caught using your product in public
from your product to your customer service line
from properties/items ‘for sale’ sign to a sales agent
from product packaging to a mobile registration site
to read/write a review
to a mail-in rebate
to nutritional info, drug interactions, or material safety data sheet
to order refills online
link to a video of your product being destroyed in a hilarious manner
to a survey about your product (with a reward, natch)
to your inventory, so you, your staff or your customers knows what’s in stock
to a customer service or fan forum
Non-profits
The community-connected non-profit might link:
to a donation page
to an interactive map of your org’s work throughout your city
to an augmented reality view of your city’s issues
to sponsorship opportunities
to a video of a successful user of your org’s services saying thanks
from notable landmarks to informative videos of your city’s history
to mobile updates on disaster situations
to requests for supplies and volunteers
to a petition
to contact your government about an advocacy issue
Columbia Pictures will be releasing The Social Network, a flick about the rise of everything-changing Facebook, this October. The movie poster is now out, and Jesse “Michael Cera with more testosterone” Eisenberg will be playing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The likeness is pretty good, with the usual Hollywood cutening-up of the IRL protagonist.
Why is Jesse a great choice for the Zuck character?
Pasty nerd skin
Unruly hair
Gentle, geeky demeanour
But Zuckerbergian though Jesse may be, his cuteness exceeds that of the CEO in the following ways:
More animated, punkier hair
A steelier gaze, complimented by chiseled cheekbones and a square, manly jaw
A broader, flatter nose—a nose with just a little more presence, you know?—and a more angular, more defiant chin
I will grant there are a few factors that might make Mark Zuckerberg a better boyfriend:
Untold billions
World-changing mastermind abilities
But unfortunately:
“Mark Zuckerberg girlfriend” is a top search on Google, so the competition will be fierce
Potential evil genius
Anyways, I’m highly anticipating this film, but wonder if my fondness for Mr. Eisenberg is going to colour my feelings towards Zuck, which are ambivalent at best. This may have been strategic on Columbia’s part.
I’ve seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person, and he’s disarmingly nice for someone that basically rules the world. We’ll see if the film paints a multidimensional picture, and if MZ comes out a sympathetic character. If we can get past the cuteness.
If you’re reading this from Japan, you’re going to roll your eyes at me being Betty Rubble and living in Bedrock over here, but I’m getting intrigued by QR codes and am praying for their widespread adoption in Canada sometime soon.
Print advertising—magazines, direct mail, transit—has always engendered a sinking feeling of futility in my conversion-sensitive stomach. Creative teams bust their balls to conceive and execute an idea meant to motivate an audience to do something, but the disconnect between seeing an ad and acting on it is just hopelessly huge in these attention-starved times. I am just not going to go home and type in a URL I saw on a billboard. I don’t remember it and I don’t care about it anymore by the time I’ve got the leisure to look it up.
Groovy little portals to the future
Enter the QR code, a simple bar code readable by any phone with a camera & a scanner App. Spy a code on a flyer, tv show, magazine or poster & with a quick wave of your cell, you’re whisked to a mobile site providing the instant opportunity to:
Make a donation to a cause
Buy tickets to an event
Watch a movie trailer, documentary clip, or interview
Like a Facebook page
Enter a contest
Get a map
Download an app
Read current information about a person, place or thing
Wow, hey? No more barriers to conversion. Act now while you’re in the mood! The best example I read, and I’m pretty sure this is fantasy island stuff except in Jetsonsesque Japan, was the ability to stand around a movie store scanning boxes and watching movie trailers. I’m not sure there’ll be movie stores by the time this technology is widespread in North America, but you get the picture. Literally, ha.
QR Code 101: the Basics
Here are some neato things I’ve learned about QR codes.
QR codes link real world objects (anything that can be printed on or scotch-taped to or broadcast) to online destinations
A link from the real world to the internet is called a hardlink, which sounds cool
The practice of using these things is called mobile tagging
In Japan, phones come with scanner Apps. That’s kind of the holdup in North America
Your phone can read a code off a computer, tv screen, or LCD/LED billboard, along with printed codes
Designers: the white space around a code is part of the code. Don’t be croppin’ it
While the code reading experience is nifty, and marketers’ll be able to capitalize on sheer novelty for a while, the mobile experience the person is taken to is 80% of the interaction. You must not suck here. You must not make someone drag out there phone to get “more”, and give them less (ie, your not-even-a-mobile-site-totally-normal-website. That would be bad).
At the very least have your website streamlined for mobile by a cool interactive agency. With 23,000,000 mobile phones in Canada, this is gonna become an issue shortly anyway.
Not having encountered QR codes in Winnipeg, I couldn’t imagine why such a groovy, futuristic technology that finally, finally married the internet to real life wasn’t super enormous, so I asked cool Toronto QR agency QRe8 what’s going on. I hope to have an interview with them up shortly.
Spammers have figured out a not-illegal way to exploit Facebook ‘likes’, according to Dan Tynan. Dan thinks this makes for a bleak situation for the future of ‘likes’, but there’s a simple interface change that would not only provide the chance to announce the presence of or entirely quarantine spam, but would also make ‘likes’ more social by permitting commentary.
That’d do it, eh? I can report it as spam, which would delete it instantly in my fantasy interface, or I could just comment on my suspicions, helping warn other users away from spreading the sleazy link.
Social-wise, it’s always bugged me that I can’t comment on this particular Facebook action—I may have something to say without ‘liking’ something. I get that they’re trying to funnel you towards liking, but greed has opened a spam hole. Plug it with increased interactivity, Facebook!
The nextMEDIA conference is a place where filmmakers and tv producers can hook up with new media partners looking to collaborate on transmedia projects. Stories can now be told as multiplatform productions that provide multiple entry points into a narrative, thanks to the explosion of digital media. Think the original analogue story extensions, like comic books and action figures, except digital, portable, and shareable. Think fan fic, games, and apps.
New media producers are great at figuring out the best kind of story to tell with different media. What part of the tale should be delivered and expanded upon by mobile phone? What secret goodies can we share with fans via QR codes? What did that sentence even mean?
Tactica’s done some amazing transmedia work with filmmakers, tv producers and educators like the National Screen Institute, and award-winning work for CBC. A recent CBC The Nature of Things convergent interactive piece, One Ocean, is up for a Wildscreen Festival ARKive New Media Award.
If you run into Kevin at the conference, be sure to say hi, and if you’re involved in storytelling and want to extend the experience to something a little more digitally immersive, get in touch.
Good question. Let’s ask somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Somebody like Erik Goldhar and Ted Geatros at Toronto’s Qre8, a full service QR code strategy and execution agency.![1] Content is published to the social web. 2] It sparks conversation, which leaves a perception of the brand in people's minds. 3] People share the content & their newfound understanding of the brand that produced it.](http://ericaglasier.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/SocialObject-Brandvocate.jpg "SocialObject-Brandvocate")
