I’ve noticed that QR Codes are increasingly showing up in my grocery bags. In the last few weeks, I’ve found QR Codes on bananas, pineapples, strawberries, bags of lettuce and Moonpies.
Curious, I pulled out my iPhone and scanned the QR codes to see what would happen. As a mobile call-to-action, you would expect the resulting engagement to be mobile-optimized, wouldn’t you? After all, a QR is a mobile call-to-action, right? It’s not like consumers are scanning QR Codes with their laptop or on their home computer. Unfortunately, most of the QR codes led to engagements that could have been better.
In the spirit of the London Olympics, I’ve awarded medals for the best mobile engagement triggered by a QR Code, highlighting deductions where the engagement could be improved.
Bronze Medal goes to Frontera Pineapples!
The tag on the Frontera pineapple included a QR code and an invitation to ‘Connect to the Farm’. Scanning the QR Code takes you to a mobile website containing harvest information (showing how long it took to go from being picked to being in your bag), basic information about Frontera Produce, a page with links to Frontera’s social media presence and a link to pineapple recipes.
Second deduction: the page connecting to their social media presence should have simply included standard social media call-to-action icons (e.g. Facebook’s Like icon or Twitter’s Follow icon) or should have been eliminated in favor of putting the social media icons on the landing page. Further, the images shown are from the full social media websites instead of from their mobile websites. The last image goes to their non-mobile-friendly website (without a ‘full website’ handling warning).
Third deduction – the links on the recipes page simply opens non-mobile-optimized pages on Frontera’s main website.
Easy steps to improve: Use a more compelling and descriptive call-to-action, simplify the site by including social media icons on the landing page and mobilize a few recipes rather than redirect to their non-mobile-friendly website.
Silver Medal goes to Dole Bananas!
Right on the label, Dole sets the expectation that I’ll be able to enter the Nature’s Original Energy Bar Adventure Sweepstakes simply by Scanning the QR Code.
Scanning the QR Code leads to a decent mobile website, with mobile-friendly nutritional information and recipes pages, a link to a Madagascar game (for unobvious reasons) and a link for entering the Sweepstakes.
First deduction: Entering the sweepstakes isn’t so easy. You have to connect via Facebook and ‘Like’ Dole to enter. If you aren’t on Facebook, you can’t enter the competition.
Second deduction: Because of the way they built their Sweepstakes app, you are forced to use the ‘non-mobile-friendly’ version of Facebook to access the sweepstakes app and go through non-mobile-friendly Facebook sign-in and acceptance screens before finally getting to the mobile-friendly Adventure sweepstakes signup form.
Had they built their sweepstakes app to point instead to the mobile facebook page, you would see mobile-friendly pages -making the signup / acceptance process more mobile-friendly. [Note: If you are logged in to Facebook's mobile website, you don't see the login and acceptance screens. Presumably, most iPhone users access Facebook via the Facebook app and would be forced to login – or would abandon.]
Eventually, you get to a mobile –friendly page where you can enter the sweepstakes by enter your name, address, date of birth and email address. Once finished, you are prompted to share that you’ve entered on Facebook.
Why Silver? Dole set the bar higher than Frontera and delivered on a number of levels – Had they configured their Facebook plug-in differently, they might have taken Gold. That said, if the goal is to drive up Facebook ‘likes’ that could have been accomplished much more easily!
Gold medal to Moonpie!
Did you know they still made Moonpies? Well, they do. And there is a QR Code right on the wrapper encouraging you to find them on Facebook.
If you scan the QR Code, you get a very simple mobile page with an embedded Facebook plug-in where you can ‘like’ them.
Deductions: As with Dole, Moonpie uses the default Facebook Social Plug-in settings to force you to login via a non-mobile page instead of the mobile login screen. However, since there was no additional ‘App’ to authorize separately, the ‘Like’ button worked once logged in – and without being redirected to their Facebook page.
Nothing fancy, but it (mostly) works. Sometimes the best strategy is to do a solid job and let the competition land on their head…just like in the Olympics!
Failing to medal: California Giant Strawberries and Fresh Express Lettuce
California Giant Strawberries QR Code urges you to ‘Check us out today’. When you scan the QR code, you get what appears to be a pretty nice mobile website…only it isn’t.
The Pinterest ‘Pin’ link goes to their YouTube Channel – as does a subsequent link to ‘Share recipes’ with them. The 'Play It Again Sports' promotion links to a non-mobile-friendly promotions site powered by Wildfire - and not to the promotion mentioned. The 'Game Day Recipes’ (and a later set of recipe links) goes to the recipes section of Cal Giants non-mobile-friendly website.
Fresh Express Lettuce encourages you to scan the QR code to get delicious recipes and more. Unfortunately, scanning the QR code simply takes you to their full website. One scan led to a non-mobile-friendly QR promotion page. A subsequent scan simply redirected to their full website.
Marketers: Don't use QR Codes unless it triggers Mobile-Friendly Engagement!
Don’t stick a QR Code on everything just because you can. If the post-scan experience isn’t engaging, mobile-optimized and designed to encourage subsequent engagement, leave the QR Code off rather than risk disengaging consumers instead.
As with any marketing campaign, have a clear goal in mind and use QR Codes (along with other mobile and non-mobile calls-to-action) to help achieve your goal - whether it’s to drive Facebook ‘Likes’, gain Twitter followers, acquire email addresses, educate consumers or enhance your brand image.
[Side Note to Kelloggs: By the time I downloaded and installed the ‘SpideySense’ iPhone app and spent 5 minutes getting the Augmented Reality marker on the Rice Krispies box to do something, my kids were no longer interested in the 30 second movie clip. Did you know you can simply use a QR Code to launch a video on YouTube? It would’ve saved me a lot of effort.]
Comments below, email me at todd@mobile-perspectives.com or follow me @toddshingler on Twitter.
