The Advantage of Action Codes
Marketers are starting to get good handle on the way action codes (mainly QR codes) are effectively used. To the less-informed, action codes are those small, funny-looking codes often found in magazine ads. Scan marketing allows users to “act at their moment of interest” using their mobile devices. A recent study gives insight into how this works.
In a 2011 study on action codes conducted by Nellymoser Inc., the top 100 U.S. magazines showed a 439% increase in the use of action codes from January to December. In January the ratio of advertising to editorial codes was about 7:1; in December the ratio grew to about 25:1.This dramatic increase in the use of these codes leaves a few questions un-answered, such as their effectiveness.
The Growth of Action Codes Across the Market
In this study, researchers scanned every code in these top 100 magazines. They included QR codes, Microsoft Tags, Spyderlynk Snap Tags, BEE Tags, Jag Tags, Digimarc watermarks and other codes. They used iPhones and Android phones to scan each one. In doing this, they activated and tracked every campaign following this method in 2011.
“In the beginning of the year, it was really very much an experiment,” says Roger Matus, Nellymoser Executive Vice President. “It seemed like somebody in the company had said, ‘Hey, we oughtta do mobile, and I heard about this thing. Let’s stick it on there.’”
Specifically, QR codes represented 61% of all codes in the first quarter of advertising in 2011. By the end of the fourth quarter, QR codes had gown to about 72% of the market share of action codes, with Microsoft representing about 25%. In addition, about two thirds of all scans were accompanied by information about what will happen if the user scans it.
Increase in Smarphones, Increase in QR Codes
When this concept was first introduced, marketers were worried about the number of smart phones on the market so they developed an SMS alternative. However this strategy has fallen off the radar recently with the huge increase in smart phone technology in our society.
Matus states that by the end of the year, they were able to ascertain what most of these codes were used for and their best practices:
- Demonstrations and brand management
- Building lists and capturing data
- Driving e-commerce, coupons, and store locators
- Increased social media awareness
The real goal behind action code marketing is driving people to find out more at their moment of interest. With the way society is fast-paced and single-minded today, the likelihood of someone going home and looking up the webpage they saw an advertisement for is low. Using mobile devices to scan codes that take users directly to pages grabs the user at that exact moment of intrigue when they are most receptive and most likely to purchase goods.
Taking Advantage of this New Strategy
Marketing companies would be wise to take advantage of this emerging strategy. As almost all phones will be switching into smartphones soon it is vital that marketers grab consumers at their most interested, when they are on their phones.
NellyMoser is a marketing and technology company that works with advertising and publishing agencies focusing mainly on mobile media. The primarily handle the back end of scan advertising tracking everything from user experience, to hosting and analytics.