No questions about it….any marketer will have to be in love with QR Codes and the way it works. In fact, I think QR Codes can save print advertising industry because it brings them closer to online advertising. I’ve been in contact with many marketers lately and we just can’t help noticing how some big brand names are beginning to pull the blinds open to online marketing and QR Codes now that the economy is in the slumps. The point is not in them jumping on the bandwagon but the point is that these companies are actually LOOKING INTO the POSSIBILITIES. Can QR Codes, these quaint little square boxes replace or, at the very least, alleviate some of the cost involved in print advertising?

For those who are not familiar with QR Codes, Japan’s been using these codes for the longest time and in recent years, it has spread to Europe. In countries like Australia and United States, it’s beginning to pick up. By scanning the QR Codes, mobile phone users, who have QR Code scanning software installed in their mobile phones, can log into mobile websites where interactive information is made instantly available. As an example, in Japan, if one wanted to know more about a pear, this person can scan the barcode and be led to a flood of information about the origins of the said fruit.

This reminds me about a system similar to the current 2D barcode that never quite took off. It was called the CueCat, something launched when the Web took on a larger role. Similarly, with CueCat users of a mobile scanner can obtain in-depth information from a website when they scan a barcode. The similarity is there but the difference is that now ANYONE with a web-based and QR Code scan software enabled phone can access such information. The number of such phones in the market today is beyond comprehension.

Marketing experts welcome this technology because instead of the conventional ‘take this’ marketing method, the QR Code works in the ‘let me have a look’ method. In short, it’s pulling instead of shoving. Nobody likes being shoved information anymore, these days.

As with other marketers out there, I feel that there’s SO MUCH potential in QR Codes and hopes that it invades the United States in a big way very soon. The interactivity that comes with using QR Codes is too exponential to ignore. Not only will QR Codes give advertisers the flexibility and interactivity that they so yearn using other forms of advertising, it is also changing the way consumers connect with brands that they love. And at the same time, people will find easier to share things with one another….imagine what this would mean to an advertiser.