QR Codes are Genius
A friend posted this message on Facebook the other day:
SERIOUSLY! What is the point of QR codes? They are difficult to scan, and they only ever have a URL. Why not just write the URL? Fad much?
And everyone seems to agree, QR codes are crap.
Technology journalists hate them
As my friend’s comment and the ensuing Facebook debate demonstrates, techies hate them. Just check out the huge number of articles posted on tech blogs to see what ‘people in the know’ think of QR codes, like this article on Antisocial Media’s F**k you Friday.
No-one scans them
They’re really difficult to use. Let’s pretend we were misguided enough to actually want to scan one:
- See QR code on advert
- Open camera app only to realise that it won’t scan (15 secs)
- Open App store and search for QR code scanner (15 secs)
- Download app. You’re probably in a busy area where lots of ads are placed, so the download will take a while (1min 30)
- Open app
- Mess around trying to align the code with the camera (15 secs)
- Scanner finally recognises code and opens browser window
- Browser loads very slowly as you’re still loitering in front of a billboard in the same busy area (30 secs)
- Regular website appears, or perhaps a promotional website designed for a computer, not a mobile
- You put your phone back in your pocket.
No wonder only 6% of people even use them and they’re all young men anyway (which makes me wonder why churches are putting them on their ads. Must be an American thing….)
They appear in ridiculous places
Not only are they difficult to use, but they appear in the most ridiculous of places. My three favourites examples are (1) the London underground, where there’s no network signial for most of the journey so you wouldn’t be able to visit the linked page anyway (2) on a Facebook advert where, rather than enduring the laborious process detailed above, I’d probably rather just click the link and (3) on the back of a moving bus.
On top of all that, they now even give you viruses.
An advertiser’s wet dream
Despite all this, QR codes seem to be appearing more and more frequently, spiralling out of control, like many internet fads, precisely because they’re crap (think Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black). But if you think about it, the mere fact of putting a QR code on you advert pretty much guarantees you attention. Apparently, 72% of smartphone users are likely to recall an ad with a QR code, even if most of them never actually scan the thing. Basically, they’re an advertiser’s wet dream and I think it works like this:
Techies spend more time looking at the ads just to rant about how rubbish QR codes are, so that’s a win for the advertiser. After all, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Non-techies think the company looks more ‘digital’ and ‘down with the kids’, plus it reminds them of their shiny new smartphone – we’re talking about the sort of people who work in marketing departments/advertising agencies and probably requested them on the advert in the first place, much to the disgust of the techies.
The techies tell the non-techies how rubbish QR codes are, so the non-techies end up spotting them when they’re out shopping and coo over them, perhaps even spending the extra 2mins 45 trying to scan them, thereby perpetuating the cycle.
So, as much as I hate to say it, you can’t deny that QR codes are kinda brilliant.
