QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
September 20, 2011
By Tom Mountford | 5 Comments
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You may now be familiar with seeing QR (Quick Response) codes printed in magazines, on bus shelter posters and on product packaging. In short, if you own any sort of smartphone with a camera and one of the numerous free apps to scan and interpret a QR code then any printed material can essentially carry its own hyperlink to an online presence of some sort; rather like using a URL-shortening service to track certain types of visits to a domain a QR code can give a good indication of which printed materials are providing the most visits to a website. Brilliant, no problems so far – everyone doing print advertising aimed at a digital-native demographic should be finding clever ways use QR codes.
QR codes are great in print – where the consumer often has ample time to get their phone out of their pocket, locate and open the right app, let the camera focus on the QR image and press the shutter button to scan the code and be propelled to wherever the advertiser wishes to take them. I was idly scanning printed QR codes for eighteen months or more before I saw one used on television for the first time. Oddly, its debut appearance was on the closing graphic of a commercial for Waitrose which aired last December. Now, Waitrose doesn’t strike me as having digital-native early-adopters as their target demographic, but maybe I’m making a sweeping generalization there? The QR code was also only displayed for the final couple of seconds of the commercial, and without any direction for the viewer as to how (or why) it should be used. Despite the presence of the QR code, it was joined on the screen by a much larger regular human-readable URL, perhaps indicating the agency felt the QR was a bit of a long-shot? In standard definition broadcasts at least I’m also reasonably confident in saying it would have been of too low a resolution to scan and function correctly, especially as the distance between sofa and screen is that much greater than the usual proximity of a magazine to its reader. I haven’t seen a QR code on any commercials in this country since (if you’ve spotted an example, please do drop me a message).
There is a reason I haven’t simply forgotten that one peculiar use by Waitrose. Whilst QR codes on UK television have been sparse (or non-existent) they seem to have been gaining some momentum in the USA where Fox has been using them to direct viewers to mobile-enabled microsites for its programmes. Like other forms of proximity-based mobile marketing, QR codes will be largely useless without a call to action for the audience. Why should they scan the code – what will it do for them?
I was only able to find one credible example of QR codes being used successfully in a commercial by American retailer mightywallets.com whose mobile traffic increased to 26%. The baseline traffic to the site before the commercial aired isn’t mentioned, although a sister site which went un-advertised continued to gain 10% of traffic from mobile – so the hardened cynic in me would be more cautious and assume a 16% rise in traffic attributable to the QR code. Regardless of the results the QR filled half of the screen and had a clear a call to action at the end of their commercial – scan the code to buy the wallet.
You can read the full article and see the commercial here: http://www.reelseo.com/video-qr-codes/
Personally I’m skeptical whether QR codes on TV will take off here, after all British audiences wince when the closing credits of a programme get squashed to accommodate a trailer for the next item – let alone putting computer codes in ad breaks! It would also take a gutsy advertiser to give up perhaps ten seconds of airtime to screen a funky barcode that the majority of viewers would likely not understand the purpose of. That said, I’m always up for being proved wrong – and if one of our clients were up for experimenting we would gladly make it happen for them.
- Tom Mountford
Comments (5 Comments)
Re: QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
I’m also sceptical about use of QR codes in TV….10 seconds of airtime is quite a huge chunk of advert time, especially if there is not a clear call to action – some people won’t even know what a QR code is so that would be 10 seconds of wasted airtime potentially. I think it would have to be thought about very carefully prior to placing one in a ad, depending on your product and demographic/target audience.
Nickie Holford September 26, 2011 at 10:11 amRe: QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
Yes I totally agree – I think they can certainly work in print and are useful for tracking response to ads in newspapers and magazines (especially those aimed at people familiar with using QR). My main concern with using them on TV is as you point out, the duration they would be on screen – i.e. not long enough for people to find their phone and launch the app to scan with, and thus wasted airtime for the advertiser. We already have ample evidence supporting that regular URLs and even traditional direct-response phone numbers are already effective.
Some of our advertisers are also wishing to now include Facebook URLs on their commercials – an interesting development we are keeping our eye on.
Tom Mountford September 26, 2011 at 10:53 amRe: QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
Hi Tom
QR codes have been use sucessful on TV abroad.
Ian Dinmore October 10, 2011 at 12:31 pmThe use of a static lower strap line saying “scan here” in a 45 second advert for VW vans – the scan takes you to the normal VW website but the site has a unique url(for use by the QR code) so that VW know how many hits the site has had from their print and TV campaign – the TV capaign was incentivised as well. Waitrose (or JLP)have a digitally native agency and were sold a sop – the agency gave them the pitch with saying how long it takes to scan or how!
It’s not the sort of thing you are going to find in the SAGA magazine but you will find in lads mags, girlie mags, techy and photo mags. The real trick is to know your target audience and what you want to achieve from the campaign. We have prionted QR codes on our calendars for next yeat with each months QR taking you to a list of events on offers applicable that month – so more offers and incentives off peak and more information and event during high peak, which is what we want to achieve.
Regards
Ian
Re: QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
QR codes can work sucessfully in TV campaigns. A lower static strapline during a 30-45 second advert. We have been using QR codes now for over a year and while we link to our Fb; web or youtube site pages. We use a unique url for each QR code so we can track where QR codes will have the greatest impact (one of our objectives)we also use in specific printed publications and track these. We have used them on our 2012 calendar (available from our website at £5 each ..plug:-); but next year the plan is to have a unique url QR code on each month to take you to a list of events and offers in place during that month.
Ian Dinmore October 10, 2011 at 1:11 pmSo, during peak season the QR code will link to events and information, off peak months will link to incentivised and information pages. From the information gleaned from monitoring the unique url hits we can plan for more effective 2012/13 campaign
Re: QR Codes In TV Advertising – The Future, Or A Fad?
Ian – Yes, I think there needs to be considerable thought as to WHY a QR code needs to be implemented, as you point out – SAGA Magazine isn’t a likely contender! Relevance to the audience would always be the first thought in my mind.
I like your idea of using them as links to calendar listings, their purpose should indeed be to provide additional content to someone who has already seen and begun a response to whatever item contained the QR. All to often I have scanned the QR code on an advert, and have simply been directed to the same URL that was already present in the ad as human-readable text – great for the advertiser’s analytics, but rather pointless for me!
I think VW have got the right idea regarding placement, understanding the importance of not merely placing a QR in a commercial without explaining the purpose of it, and why it would be beneficial to take the time to scan it.
Tom Mountford October 10, 2011 at 2:48 pm