Connecting at Web 2.0 expo NY and Web2openNy
I have questioned the effectiveness of business cards and personally believe that the ”green” movement needs to take a look at the business collateral distributed at conferences. I usally end up with a number of professional rather generic looking cards and culd seldom recall anything about the company or individual behind the card.
I still needed a simple way to pass my contact info along, this time I decided to repurpose a flyer I had recently designed to promote qrcodes, as a card to distriute @ Web 2open.. I wanted an inexpensive, efficient way to connect with leave a memrable impression.
I am really have taken to the potential of 2d barcodes 2d barcode reader allow mobile phones to “read’ several forms of 2d images.Within a year or two we will begin to see an increased use of these black and white graphics. There are many free options for generating the codes and a number of options for readers! Moreso they provide an affordable option to the business card. Snap and you’ve secured your contact! On the other all you have to do is generate the code and attach it to your badge, laptop and even, yes he business card!
2d bar codes uses, usability and adaptation
2D barcodes could be as small as an inch square. Printed on stickers or business cards, or large and printed on canopies, billboards and awnings where their image can be ‘read’ by mobile devices of passers by! Their scope has only just began to be tapped. I’ve gotten the customary model x is the best reader comment. There is so much more to implementation of 2d codes than which is the best reader.
Create Landing Pages- Simply to generate the code for this article and include it in marketing material I had to generate create the landing page. I created and published a post to get the correct url from which the code would be generated. Went to the 2d sense site and generated the code, then unpublished and left it in a draft state till closer to the printing of the marketing material.
In some cases the landing age has to complete a call to action- make a purchase, sell the product what ever the goal landing pages need to be readable and executable by mobile devices- Which inevitably led to the question of formatting the post. Since I am assuming that the majority would read this on wider screens and understanding that the reader is looking for answers I opted for an essay type lay out As time goes by a chunk or point format may prove better models!
Encode I chose to use 2dsense to encode. Their code is generated for web use, which means I then have to adapt the image for printing. Kaywa generates larger images but there is no organization system. Just over 3 weeks of use and I already have a number of codes. I can just see organizing and cataloging those codes could develop into a problem. On the other hand unless you are into picture puzzles revisiting your code library can be a task of futility and saving the information that was decoded defies the purpose of 2d code technology!
Expose {Share or Find}
We first printed 2d code in February simply to expose the demographic to it and introduce the concept. We used street distribution of 5000 fliers and ensured that was the only marketing we did for the next few weeks we had 3640 unique hits, 89000 hits in the next 4weeks, and many questions about the code, it’s use and access. The point is the codes still need to dispersed or exposed, at that time there was no way I knew of tracking the scans, that is tlil the 2d sense platform. They have effectively created a mobile delivery system where codes can be sent to subscriber of their software.
Marketing
The fact that I had a 24 hr marketing and sales assistant by simply placing a code on a banner or sticker or business card is great. But how would I know if its working, and where. While we respect privacy issues, every purchase at a boutique or pop up sales counter give the retailer an opportunity to gather some basic stats, that can be used in business planning. Then there are various readers, with the 2d sense platform the stats and tracking including geographic location of the scan are within the codes generated
Follow through That code become a bookmark how does the user organize it and return to it, the code itself needs to be tagged
blotcodea
Blotcoddeb
Blotcode c
wishful thinking will 2dsense logotags eventually evolve
Why various formats
Open source is great, It also means it is available to everyone! I put myself within the demographic I study. ” Regular” folks, I ride the buses, eat at the restaurants, and browse the aisle of stores and groceries. 80% of the Brooklyn population has a mobile phone. Almost every person sitting in a pew or bus has a phone on his or her person, some two. Add Portable devices and Games and that figure jumps to almost 95%, if you add Ipods and then you have direct access to almost 99.5% of the population. Remember Brooklyn is reportedly the third highest populated city in the US, on Labor Day alone over 3 million people take part in the Brooklyn carnival celebrations! Unfortunately the 2d sense reader is available solely for the Iphone at this point. For marketing and Product info the open format is great
As an entrepreneur there are times when access to a proprietary format especially with a company that can add checks and balances or layers of security is important.. If for example I wanted to generate coupons or tickets, or using it as an inventory control system, I may to generate these from a proprietary format. In that case may also want my reader’s software to be proprietary!
Visual appeal.- in the example above their are various code each pointing to a differnet page, which is the one I want the last is a simulation of the 2dsense newest format; logo tag. recently introduced at a discussion on 2d code technology with local entrepreneurs. Logo code use the logos which companies have invested heavily in framing them within tags that essentially create the same effect as 2d barcodes! Short of this, the artist in me has settled for Blotcodes
sample usage
Integration and adoption strategy.
Which comes first the chicken or the eggs! Do we push the readers and hope they have something to read or do companies invest in 2dcodes and hope the readers satisfy their need!
Ralph Lauren recent us open 2d code campaign may have generated buzz but many see it as an ill planned campaign. First of all to introduce the campaign without a link to reader downloads defied the purpose of the campaign. Then agin What exactly was the purpose of the campaign to generate sales – from the window of your flag ship store. The customer can simply go inside and make a direct purchase – on the streets of New York. Now take these ‘window displays to the US Open in the form of an installation, ad a plug in to directly the readers to phones or add a download and have the landing url given inviting reader to bookmark via the code they we start the M-commerce process. Given the M- commerce branding of the campaign I wonder whether an attempt to hide the fact that the technology is open..
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