Trend: QR Codes Go Global

Spreading 2D barcode technology set to enrich the mobile experience.

Trend Description
QR codes (quick response codes) are graphics that can be scanned with mobile phones to hyperlink to digital content – they’re already heavily used in Japan and Korea, where the majority of phones are fitted with the requisite code scanners. In fact, 41.7% of Japanese say they regularly engage with QR code advertising. Outside of Asia, however, the adoption of QR and similar codes has traditionally been patchy, especially in the US and Europe. This is not because the technology has failed, but because cellphones in general were not advanced enough, and the user base was inadequate.

Now, however, barcode technology is slowly starting to permeate Western markets. A growing number of phones in Europe and the US now have QR software installed as standard (or via web downloads), and a range of companies (mainly in Finland, France, the UK and Switzerland) are starting to use QR codes. Swiss newspapers Le Matin Bleu and 20 Minuten recently printed codes to promote their online newspaper, and the European Central Bank is using QR codes to inform customers about daily rates. Google has recently announced that QR codes can be included in their Google Print Ads program.

Cases

Tracklets (US)

Brothers Of Invention, LLC, a New York-based Creative Technology Agency, are promoting “tracklets”, a QR-code based system for iPhone music lovers. Via the tracklet software users can create iPhone-readable QR codes that link to their favorite album on the iTunes Music Store. They can then print out “tracklet-flyers” and let friends scan them, listen to the songs, and even buy the tunes if they like them.

To scan the codes users will need an iMatrix Reader installed on their iPhone. While the installation currently requires an unlocked iPhone, Brothers of Invention are hoping a “legal” application will hit the market soon as a result of Apple’s newly released open source software development kit (SDK).

Facebook “Add to Friends” QR Code (US)

A new Facebook application has just been launched called Add to Friends Shirt which creates a shirt that lets people get in touch with your Facebook persona via a QR code. In the application the Facebook user clicks on “Make a shirt for me”. The QR code for the url of the user’s mobile Facebook page is generated on the fly and then reproduced on a Zazzle page where they can order a variety of shirts with the QR code printed on the back.

England’s Umbro Strip (UK)

The recently-launched new away strip for the English soccer team incorporates a QR code in its design. By photographing the code with their mobile phone fans can gain access to a website with uniqe content dedicated to England and the strip’s manufacturer Umbro. This is the first time QR codes have been used on a football shirt.

Tokyo Super Sweets (Japan)

This year Tokyo Super Sweets offered 200 limited sets of “Ariga-choco” (a clever blending of the words for “thank you” and “chocolate”). The “thank you” comes from the receiver, who after scanning the QR code on the package with his mobile phone, can choose from over a hundred pre-written “thank you” messages to be sent to the giver’s mobile phone.

Trend Impact

As QR-enabled phones and applications become more prolific and sophisticated, so the sight of barcodes on posters, flyers, ads, magazines and newspapers should become increasingly common in the West, ushering in a new era of one-touch marketing and even greater technology-lifestyle integration. Whether they will become assimilated into society as much as in Japan is another matter.

The concept of mobile barcoding has now been around for a while, and different code formats have come and gone. The latest re-incarnation of the QR code is known as the Moseycode, which can hold much more information than any of its predecessors. When photographing a Moseycode, mobile phones reveal information such as 3D pictures and locations, and even enable users to add their own media to the repository/portal they’ve accessed. The Moseycode barcoding system is specifically developed for Google’s Android system, so it will be a while before it hits the market, although it seems that the West may finally be starting to catch up with Japan in terms of code-reading technology.

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