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An example of a two-dimensional, QR code which is capable of storing and transmitting information directly to your phone. Polo Ralph Lauren included a QR code on a US Open advertising campaign in August, 2008. If scanned by a cell phone, the code would link a user directly to a new mobile site. A sample of Polo Ralph Laurens mobile site as it appears on a phone after having scanned a QR code A QR code displayed on a camera-equipped mobile phone in Tokyo, where the codes are in wide use. A user snaps a picture of a coded billboard advertising the DVD release of horror film 28 Weeks Later. |
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Tourists walking around San Francisco last spring found a new
way to locate the best food in the city: small images that looked like bar codes,
adorning more than five hundred restaurants and businesses. When the codes are scanned
with a digital camera–enabled smartphone, they provide instant access to Citysearch
reviews and other Web-based content. But this is only the beginning of what these
codes can do, according to Jonathan Bulkeley, chief executive officer of Scanbuy,
the developer of the ScanLife bar codes that were plastered all over the City by
the Bay.
“You’ll be able to walk past fruit at the supermarket, scan an apple, and see when
it was picked and where it came from,” says Bulkeley. “While buying hair dye, you’ll
be able to scan the code on the signage and see instructions. You can create your
own code, put it on a T-shirt, and then let people scan your shirt and link directly
to your MySpace page.”
Asian consumers are already doing all of the above and more with two-dimensional
bar codes that come in many varieties. QR (or Quick Response) codes, which are the
standard in Japan, embed several hundred times more information than a traditional
bar code, and people can scan posters, print ads, and business cards to get additional
information about movies, products, concerts, music, and even one another. Rishad
Tobaccowala, chief executive of Denuo, a unit of advertising agency Publicis Groupe,
points out, “People have their phones with them all the time. They like using them,
and handsets like the Apple iPhone are getting people used to getting more with
their cell phones. They want instant access and a way to look up information while
they are out and about.”
The codes are appearing in newspapers and magazines and on billboards. In the States,
Polo Ralph Lauren is pioneering the use of this technology in the fashion field.
When people scan items that appear in ads—the US Open tennis tournament will kick
off an initiative that includes billboards, banners and print ads marked with codes—they
are connected to an e-commerce site where they can shop directly from their phones,
view the collections and even read this very article within RL Magazine.
The codes extend into personal advertising, too. Semacode is collaborating with
Facebook to allow users to send people they meet a link to their online profile
by having them scan a Semacoded “social card.”
There are plenty more options on the way, especially as both Apple and Google, with
its bar-coded Consumer Response Tag (CRT), come on board. Google is developing an
open-source code reader called ZXing (still in testing), and third-party developer
NeoMedia has already released a NeoReader for Apple’s iPhone 3G.
Interested in using the codes but count yourself among the 250-million-plus American
cell phone users who don’t own an iPhone? According to Tobaccowala, you won’t have
to wait long, because the “wow” factor will help spread demand for codes very quickly.
“People are communicating in voice and SMS,” or short message service, he says.
“They want a way to walk by a poster, take a photo of a code, and instantly get
a movie trailer, or be able to pass a concert poster and scan a code and go to the
Ticketmaster site. The industry is poised to get there, and it’s going to start
happening within the next six to twelve months.” Or, in the case of Polo, today.
Visit m.RalphLauren.com or text RLQR14 to 23000 from your mobile device to download
a QR reader to your phone. (standard rates apply)
Karen J. Bannan is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work
has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and PC Magazine,
among other publications.
Photography Credits:
4. Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images
5. Courtesy Semacode
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