Yesterday, I noticed a telephone booth billboard for the Food Emporium, a local New York City supermarket chain, and the product being promoted was the supermarket’s private label balsamic vinegar, which is made in Modena, Italy. After reading the billboard, I thought what a missed marketing and sales opportunity, and here’s why. From a purely […]
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Kim Dushinski, founder of Mobile Marketing Profits and author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook, has decided to include my list of 2D barcode best practices in the handbook’s second edition, which is due out next year. In this practical handbook, Kim offers “easy-to-follow advice for firms that want to interact with mobile users, build stronger […]
Atomic Skis has this print ad running, which features a Microsoft Tag. Scan the Tag and it resolves to a video. With no other instructions than “Watch the video now on your phone” and a call to action that is not very enticing, I am hard pressed to know how many people will actually scan […]
ThirtyTwo, the snowboard outwear and advanced boot maker, is running a print advertisement, which features a ScanLife ezCode. Scan the code and it resolves to an interview with Joe Sexton, a rider for ThirtyTwo. In viewing this ad, there is little doubt that 2D was part of the creative design process and overall strategy from […]
Last week, a frequent and valued commenter of the blog wrote something that I totally agree with and believe is very much worth mentioning. People see, but they don’t see. With literally hundreds, if not thousands, of online and offline images and impressions (i.e., print advertisements, billboards, banner ads, TV commercials, logos, etc.) shown to […]
Ride Snowboards has launched a two-page magazine advertisement (below is just the left-hand page), which features a Microsoft Tag . Admittedly, I may be a bit older than the company’s target demographic, but I do not believe a younger person could easily read the descriptive text that accompanies the Tag (the three microscopic lines of […]
A couple of month’s ago, the New York City Department of Sanitation started to display QR codes on the sides of its sanitation trucks, and the story was much talked and Twittered about online (read article). Well, that did not last too long. Walking around the city the past few days, I have noticed that […]
Vans, the shoemaker, is running a two-page advertisement, which features a ScanLife generated QR code. Scan the code and a reader will be able to view an exclusive video of world class surfer Nathan Fletcher. The ad provides basic information about scanning the code with a smartphone and downloading the ScanLife reader app. For some […]
Verizon, in collaboration with ScanLife, has created a very useful and functional point of sale (POS) display, which is based on QR codes. The “Power Up Your Droid” place mat (shown above) features 12 different Droid apps, each of which can be downloaded to a smartphone by scanning the corresponding QR code. It doesn’t get […]
Last week, Ford ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times to promote the 2011 Edge, the company’s new crossover vehicle, as well as its new MyFord Touch on-board voice and touch command system, and featured in the ad were four Microsoft Tags. What’s so innovative about Ford’s use of Tags in this ad […]
Here’s something new…a non-profit charitable organization making use of a 2D barcode. The American Cancer Society is currently promoting its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, and the billboards used in the campaign display a QR code which, when scanned, resolves to a page that provides addition event information. While the billboard creative looks great […]
HBO is on a tear using branded QR codes, as I just spotted another one. This one is for the series Eastbound and Down. As seen in the images below, a branded QR code is displayed in the lower right hand corner of the billboard and, when scanned, the reader can view a trailer of […]
Recently, Gap launched a major campaign to promote its latest collection of blue jeans, and a component of this campaign is the use of ScanLife generated QR codes. The image below (top left) is an in-store billboard, which offers shoppers the ability to scan the code to see customer product reviews and styling ideas for […]
Coming to a supermarket near you…boxes of Kellogg’s Special K cereal, which feature a Microsoft Tag. On the back panel of the box, in the lower left hand corner, is a Tag which is accompanied by a block of copy that thoroughly explains the code. What’s different about this campaign is that it is co-branded […]
HBO recently launched a three-page magazine advertisement to promote its new series Boardwalk Empire. The ad features a branded QR code which resolves to a mobile page that offers an exclusive trailer of the series…yawn. Let’s talk about content, offer and call to action for a moment. It’s one thing for a consumer to stop […]
Nine West, the women’s fashion shoe company, launched this two-page advertisement in the New York Post last week to promote its Runway Relief campaign. Featured in the ad is a branded barcode which, when scanned, resolves to a behind-the-scenes video and enables the reader to purchase the limited edition boots that are being worn by […]
Recently, I wrote about FOX Broadcasting Company’s QR code campaign called FOX Codes, and now that I have seen printed pieces of the campaign I still question its design and execution. One of the three television programs that are featured in the campaign is Lone Star. Displayed in the lower left hand corner of this […]
A few weeks ago, I posted an article about a 2D magazine advertisement that Macy’s ran, and I wanted to briefly revisit this. Whether you read the article or not, essentially Macy’s placed a 2D barcode ad in a women’s fashion magazine, and the video that the code in the ad was supposed to resolve to […]
Last week, I noticed a QR code displayed on a ground level billboard that Newmark Knight Frank, a global real estate advisor, had installed in front of one of their New York City retail store properties. The QR code was set in the middle of the billboard and certainly large enough to notice, but there […]
Last month, FOX Broadcasting Company announced that they will be using QR codes, known as FOX Codes, to deliver promotional and added show content for FOX fall programming. The FOX codes will appear in outdoor signage, print, on-air and online and, when scanned, they will resolve to mobile websites, which provide insider content, videos, first-look […]