A Union of Print and Mobile

A recent InsightExpress study suggests that mobile and print would make a great team. The company found that mobile users are also print junkies: “Based on our findings, it’s clear that brands and retailers should be incorporating mobile into their print strategies,” said Joy Liuzzo, vice president and director at InsightExpress.

Print and Mobile, sitting in a tree...

Liuzzo goes on to say that there’s more to this relationship than just a little QR coding. There are a number of ways to strengthen this bond, including article archiving or sharing and information gathering. The company specifically focused on QR codes and user engagement, finding that smartphone owners who use their mobiles for six or more daily activities were also reading or subscribing to print publications. These users are a hot target for advertisers as they have diverse tastes extending even beyond their reading mediums to any number of lifestyle routines (eating, shopping, etc.). The study found that these people were also more inclined to connect with companies via their mobile devices. “The biggest surprise to me was with the segment of smartphone owners that do six or more activities on their phone every day and their print media consumption,” said Ms. Liuzzo. “This group is both subscribing to, and reading more, print materials than any of the other groups (smartphone or regular phone owners).”

According to our friends over at Mobile Marketer, InsightExpress then delved into an investigation of this market’s varying reading behaviours and discovered that magazines came out on top in terms of user engagement. For example, tearing out articles or tracking down a product mentioned in an article or ad.

Turns out, traditional print media isn’t out of the game just yet. It just needs to get wiser and learn a thing or two from it’s new young partner. From here, who knows where this dynamic duo can go? What do you think? Are print and mobile a match made in heaven? Tweet us your comments to @plasticmobile.

We like a healthy yin and yang here at Plastic Mobile, so we wanted to follow up on our September blog post (slash mild rant) on the abuse and misuse of QR codes in marketing campaigns, with a look at how QR codes can be used effectively to bolster, and even lead, a good campaign.

In the previous post, we suggested three simple steps to approaching a QR code campaign that are both sensible and straightforward:

1. Review your objectives – why choose the path of the QR code?

2. Explore the possibilities – how will you present the QR codes?

3. Know your audience – who are you targeting?

These three points can help you get your strategy grounded so that you don’t make silly errors like the billboard campaign.

After establishing the groundwork, forecasting and then managing the outcome and analysis is just as important to consider and document. Our friends at Mashable.com picked up where we left off, developing five results-oriented “Steps for a Successful Code campaign.” They look at the burgeoning fad/phenom from the perspective of quality creating longevity and enhanced user experiences. Here are their five tips for success:

1. Define Your Purpose
2. Call on Your Customers
3. Design and Usability are Key
4. Measuring Scans
5. Social Metrics

With the above steps in mind, we look at the recent success of the Chili’s Grill & Bar QR code campaign in a quick scan vs. call to action review.

The popular North American restaurant chain launched their eighth annual Create-A-Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer fundraising initiative. According to Mobile Commerce Daily, who reported on the event, the campaign raised more than $5 million in support of kids receiving lifesaving care at St. Jude. Children’s Research Hospital. For the first time Chili’s used QR codes to increase donations while raising awareness of the campaign. The codes appeared on colouring sheets and table tents created specifically for the effort. The result was 291,000 scans.

Chili’s Grill & Bar identified that the new trend in mobile technology offered a unique way to engage restaurant guests in the fundraiser. It also gave the restaurant the opportunity to relate to their tech-savvy audience while giving St. Jude supporters another, easily accessible way to donate to the charity.

Ultimately, the marketing gurus at Chili’s headquarters were able to use mobile codes to review, define, explore, engage and measure their charitable campaign with a great deal of success. Hats off to you, Chili’s!

Last night my colleague and I are driving back from a digital marketing event when I spoted an enormous QR code covering half of a billboard on top of a building and I wonder….

On one hand it’s absolutely thrilling to see quick response codes becoming so readily adopted by mainstream marketers after having been locked up for decades in Toyota’s warehouses in Japan. It’s encouraging for us mobile marketing pioneers to encounter supporters of our cause as we pave the way for marketing managers to embrace the mobile space.

On the other hand I wonder who comes up with the idea of spending loads of money on developing a campaign, and buying the ad space only to put that QR code on top of a building where it can only be scanned by Inspector Gadget. I don’t just wonder, I mean I actually want to call the advertiser and ask ‘why?’, ‘what were you thinking?’ or ‘were you thinking? Or did you leave that up to the genius that decided that your marketing budget should be allocated to QR codes on billboards?’.

I don’t want to go on complaining about how QR codes are mis-integrated into marketing campaigns. Rather I think that the obvious evidence of the abuse and misuse of them can prompt everyone to just take a little step back to basics. Assuming-dangerous waters- that you (advertiser) understand what a ‘Quick Response’ code is and you’re not just compelled to use it because you think it looks cool:

First, review your objectives. Ask yourself why you want to use QR codes. Is it to engage customers? Is it to investigate consumer behavior? Are you driving customers to a specific action?

Second, explore the possibilities. Ask yourself how you’d like to implement them. Are you providing value-add info? Is there a survey or questionnaire involved? Are you giving incentives to take action?

Thirdly, know your customers. Who are you targeting? What do they need from you in order to respond appropriately. Consumers today are quite intelligent but even the intelligent need some explanation as to why there’s a strange looking square shaped black and white illustration on your print ad. Marketing basically boils down to communication and unless your target market learns the QR code language and can decipher the meaning and purpose by just looking at it, you aren’t communicating anything.