Earlier this month we had the pleasure of announcing the redesign of “Mike’s Bloggity Blog”:http://blog.armadillostudios.ca/article/mike-s-bloggity-blog-redesign-qr-codes. It was an important time for Mike, in addition to the new redesign he was also sponsoring the opening night of the “Calgary Underground Film Festival”:http://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/2011/tucker-dale-vs-evil.

So in conjunction with the redesign, Armadillo Studios, also crafted up a special advert for Mike’s Bloggity Blog in the festival program. Which of course gave us the perfect opportunity to jump on the *QR Code Bandwaggon*.

Getting on Board With QR Codes

What Are QR Codes?

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of QR Codes, Cam Hoff from “Calgary’s Flipp Advertising”:http://flipp.ca, has a great primer on the whole “QR Codes concept”:http://flipp.ca/wwtk/post/14/ (It was also the impetus for us to take the plunge). So rather than trying to rehash that great introduction, we just wanted to talk about the experience and the reasoning behind it.

The QR Code (which are those funky black and white boxes appearing in the corner of many magazines, billboards and news paper adverts) works as an augmented link between traditional advertising and the internet. Anyone with a camera equipped smart phone and a simple QR code reader, can scan the code and be sent directly to a custom web link.

Considering the demographics for the festival (young urbanites) and the fact that most of the audience probably had a smart phone and a few minutes before each movie to kill, this seamed to be the perfect opportunity to test the market out. With the addition of the QR codes to the simple advert, we were hoping to expose some new readers to Mike’s take on the Canadian Entertainment Industry. So using the “QR code creator from bit.ly”:http://mashable.com/2010/10/13/bit-ly-qr-codes we created a basic code and inserted it into to the advert.

So, how did it work out? Overall the response was really solid.

For the festival’s span, Mike’s Bloggity Blog received on average a 4-5% boost in readership. Which we can only assume is a far stronger turn around than what is seen from traditional magazine advertising. Remember with a traditional media campaign there is now way to measure the metrics of someone remembering a certain web link and going home to enter it into their laptop or PC. Now with QR codes, you can look through your site analytics and trace the corresponding links.

So not only did it allow Mike to garner a few new followers and provide a distraction for many attendees at the festival, inserting the QR code allowed us a quantified measurement on his sponsorship and advertising investment.

For a first run at the QR Codes, it was a pretty good success.

Getting On Board With QR Codes

For companies and advertisers QR codes are the quickly becoming next biggest step in adverting. They are everywhere, popping up on every billboard and poster. And with good reason – they’re inexpensive to incorporate and they break through the remaining divide between traditional advertising and the digital realm.

So if you’re wondering if this is going to be a fad that you should jump on, just remember QR codes aren’t going anywhere.