QR codes – Quite Rubbish?

I’ve always been quite fascinated by QR codes since they first came out. The fact that this little image could be used to store all these different types of data and could actually ‘do’ things seemed really interesting from a marketing perspective.

Unfortunately there haven’t been many creative or innovative campaigns surrounding QR codes – certainly not that I’ve been aware of. Whether this is a function of user adoption or technology adoption I’m not sure, but the lack of great QR campaigns has led to suggestions they’re yesterday’s technology.

Paul Sutton (@thePaulSutton) recently wrote a blog post suggesting NFC (Near Field Communication – where you tap your NFC enabled device to a hotspot to get the info contained at that spot) could spell the death of the QR code due to the poor execution of QR campaigns. It’s hard to argue when you read the examples he gives and if you’ve ever experienced a poorly executed QR campaign first hand.

So I was really pleased to learn about Diesel’s latest campaign. This video explains it all.

What makes this campaign different is the linking of an offline social activity (shopping being social in the traditional meaning of the word), to your online social activity. The QR code as used by Diesel isn’t just there as a fancy way to release information, it performs a real marketing purpose. By using an individual’s social influence to spread posts about their product through their social graph, they’re giving you an easy way to do something you wouldn’t normally be able to do in real time.

No one is going to visit a brand’s website and tweet or share a link about a new pair of jeans whilst out shopping. But by using the QR code to both give you (the consumer) information on the product and by making it simple for you to share that information in real time, Diesel have added value.

This is what QR and all digital marketing campaigns should be doing. Adding value, and facilitating activities that you wouldn’t be able to do without technology. Not just giving you a fancy way to do something you were doing already.

Brands should keep that in mind.