The Top QR Code Fails Of 2011

 
 
 
 
 
 
Most of you that know me and are familiar with CRE-sources know that I’m all about QR Codes. We generate and track the activity of QR Codes that are featured in the CRE-sources print edition as well as those that are featured on leasing signs, like Butters’ leasing signs, including the signs for Herald Plaza and Pompano Center of Commerce.

This past year was a big one for the QR code, not just with CRE-sources, but the mobile call-to-action surfaced in campaigns for The Home Depot, Taco Bell and other mainstream brands. In some cases, however, brands are adopting QR codes without thoroughly thinking through their application.

Looking back over 2011′s QR code campaigns, Mike McGuinness, VP of sales for QRblaster.com, identified five of the top QR Code fails of 2011. If you’re eager to hop on the QR Code trend, you might want to learn from these negative examples:

1. Red Bull
Red Bull ran a campaign featuring subway ads with QR Codes. Sounds like a great idea until you consider that most subways don’t offer mobile phone connectivity, making the codes inaccessible.
2. Continental
Continental also didn’t fully think through the user experience. The airline made a QR code for its in-flight magazine, linking air miles without having to log-on to online accounts. When passengers scanned the codes (during takeoff or landing), they were directed to a page with two buttons and a pop-up window that was mostly off screen, ensuring that passengers wouldn’t be able to click through.
3. The Washington Redskins
This fail, which actually took place in 2010, featured a QR code on the team’s Facebook Page. Unfortunately, you needed a proprietary scanner to actually activate the code.
4. Esquire magazine
Esquire was singled out for featuring a QR code on a recent cover (not this one) that was positioned where the mailing label goes. Oops.
5. Nirvana’s Nevermind 20th Anniversary Edition
The QR code used to promote the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s classic album looked cool (the yellow blob in the lower right corner in the image below), but proved very hard to scan, especially when featured on billboards.
With that said, there have also been some pretty savvy applications of QR Code out there.   (Of course, we think that having access to updated listing information at your fingertips in CRE-sources print edition, rendering the print product as never dated, as pretty dang savvy!)
One of the best – Victoria Secret’s “Sexier than Skin” campaign.  The clever marketers at VS have found a way to entice viewers to scan their QR code by using sex appeal in an all new way.
I can explain it to you, however, I feel in this case I will let the pictures do the talking for me.

Just plain clever.
Let me know what you think?  Would YOU have scanned it?

Source:  Mashable

 

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