Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Pepsi Roll Out Massive Proof That QR Codes Don't Work Outside Japan

Pepsi UK have been persuaded to roll out a massive QR code promotion on cans of toothrot, which should hopefully prove once and for all that slick marketing agency types should not be trusted, and QR codes are a waste of time outside of Japan. This is not news but I reckon this may be the biggest amount of money wasted proving it in the UK...

I ran into someone at an event a few weeks back who had a QR code attached to her name badge, and one on her business card - guessing the answer, I asked her why. She said I could quickly snap it with my phone to get her contact details... then did admit that actually, in her experience, they often came across with the wrong number and some other info missing. She was hot and I was borrowing the new N96 for the night which in theory has native barcode integration (Nokia have offered this in S60 for some time) so I decided to give it a go anyway. Three minutes later we concluded that the photo app didn't seem to be recognising the barcode at all (bad light? user error? who knows) and that just handing over a piece of card is not without its advantages.

The point being - only one major UK phone platform has native QR codes, and it isn't yet sufficiently mature to "just work" like the ubiquitous readers in Japan. Users won't type in a URL to download and install a dedicated app simply to avoid typing in a URL or number, so... those who in theory can do this actually can't, and the rest won't bother to try. Plus ça change...

9 Comments:

Blogger streetstylz said...

Download the NeoReader and start interacting with Pepsi QR codes.

3:29 am

 
Blogger raddedas said...

I understand many people have tried to make downlaodable QR code readers, my point was more that there are almost as many people writing the software as there are end users using it and therefore it is not suitable for a mass market campaign outside of Japan (where it is ubiquitous and works very nicely).

3:57 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bullying UK also uses QR technology as part of its award winning project Click, Create and Print www.bullying.co.uk/poster

2:10 pm

 
Blogger raddedas said...

Does bullying.co.uk release figures on the success of the QR campaigns? There's a big difference between winning awards for 'innovation' etc and generating real conversions...

9:48 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

no bullying.co.uk don't release figures. But they do go round hyping it up quite well.

In the UK they're trying to use QR Codes for everything.... even mobile dating!

Some innovations should just stay in Japan!

11:35 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What evidence is there that Pepsi's campaign is a "waste of money"? Have they released stats on how many people are connecting through codes printed on the drinks and reported costs vs. revenues? Could we have facts please?
I use I-nigma on a Nokia6120c and it works really well both on QR and DM. Reads codes in poor light and off-axis although some of the codes printed on business cards are too small for the phone's camera - autofocus cameras work better.

9:30 am

 
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