Recently I developed a social augmented reality application that launched at Copa Amsterdam, an international soccer tournament for youth under 18 with about 30.000 visitors and that lasts 3 days.
My application requires people to scan a QR code to get started so I had my good friend at Woestwerk Media Design create a cool advertisement that got published on various places in various quantities.
That singe ad got published as:
- a full page in the booklet that all 30.000 visitors get.
40 pages full of text, photos and ads. Mine was pretty much on the last pages.
The QR code also had a short URL underneath it for those without QR readers - 14 posters, that I pasted throughout the stadium on eye-height where possible. Altogether it had fairly poor vibility.
The QR code also had a short URL underneath it for those without QR readers - A flyer on all the tables of the VIP section. There must have been about 400 visitors there.
The QR code also had a short URL underneath it for those without QR readers
Also, I printed 275 QR codes without any context at all, just a plain QR code printed on both sides of common white paper that I threw on the ground all over the place.
NO URL for those without QR readers.
Advertisement as published on poster/flyer/booklet
Context-less QR code
The typical Copa Amsterdam visitor is either a parent of a child between 6-14 or a mature youth soccer enthusiast, so I’d guess the amount of under 18 visitors about 20% which leaves 80% adults.
Also, visitors rarely sit down but walk around the stadium’s outer ring (the athletics track).
Ok, let’s move on to the results. Spoiler alert: The results are plain depressing!
Results of day 1.
This was in the evening so the amount of children / parents was low.
The weather was great.
- 6 People scanned the QR on the poster
- 2 People manually entered the URL
- 1 Person scanned the booklet.
- There was NO context-less QR code today.
These are the results of day 2 of the event.
Lot’s of parents and youth.
The weather was great.
- 12 People scanned the contextless QR code.
- 4 People manually entered the URL.
- 1 Person scanned the QR code in the booklet.
- 1 Person scanned the QR code on the VIP table flyer.
- 1 Person scanned the poster.
Conclusions:
Disclaimer: Obviously the ad itself is of great importance as it will either succeed or fail at enticing the viewer to scan the QR code. I believe the ad to be fairly interesting to the audience.
Based on the fact that 10 people scanned the QR codes on context-full ads while 6 people manually entered the 16 character url I would say that relatively few people have QR code readers.
Based on the fact that the no-context QR code was that much more effective than the others could prove that the lack of context generates interest.
Unless the context is of great interest to any audience imaginable, context tends to ruin the interest someone might have in the QR code.
Also my curiosity spikes when I encounter some random QR code pasted on a train seat.
Also it seems that littering has more value that paid advertisements.
Thank you for sharing this link in the comments to my blog. It is interesting how so many people’s interest was piqued by the context-less squares.
I guess there’s something to be said for curiosity.
I wonder if the venue may’ve served to provide context in a way? The context-less QR codes (and the people who scanned them) were at Copa Amsterdam and could reasonably be presumed to have a soccer theme.
I think I would be more inclined to scan a context-less QR code if I encountered it in a setting already of interest to me.
Of course, I’m one of those people without a QR-code reader so this is all just speculation for me. I rely on field testers to make sure my QR codes work.
Hi Menno, thanks for sharing your research by commenting on my post at http://www.5circles.com/qr-codes-not-hitting-the-spot. You make some interesting points about lack of context generating more use of QR codes. My Dutch is non-existent, so I had fun translating the ad.
But I’m guessing that what you were seeing was conversion rate in action. You received fewer responses from those who saw the ad because they didn’t need to learn more. Those who used the QR code without context were curious.
So it isn’t necessarily that the presentation without context was more effective for the purpose that many marketers would use QR codes.
Does that make sense to you?
–Mike
Hi Mike,
Yes, you are right.
That illustrates the trickiness of this bit of research. As the ad (the context) is so subjective, it’s hard to make statements on the effect of the QR code itself.
And one thing that I do think is interesting from the point of view of marketeers is that someone who is triggered by a contextless QR code will watch the content behind that QR code more intently / aware and thus delivering the message more effectively.