Why QR Code Management is Key

by david

The mobile barcode space is moving very quickly, and it's exciting to see marketers and users embrace the technology.  Ads are popping up right and left with QR codes, many of them powered by ScanLife. But, with growth comes growing pains which we try to help our users  avoid.  One feature our system offers is the ability to change the code content whenever you want.  So if you have to print the code before your website is ready, you just log in, edit and everything is updated.  This also comes in handy if you happened to make a mistake on the content you entered. If you use other "non managed" or "direct" code generators, you cannot change what is embedded in that code.  So you have to be very sure it's right before you save it, and before you print it.

Unfortunately, one marketer discovered this issue the hard way.  We don't want to pick on anyone, but it's just a good example of what can go wrong.  The below Onstar ad ran on the back of Entertainment Weekly.  They used a direct code which has one major issue - it's missing a backslash after the http header.  Therefore, many code reading apps (including ScanLife) do not recognize this as an actual URL so the website cannot even be launched!

[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Code from Onstar Ad[/caption] This technology is really very simple, but things can go wrong.  We hope that examples like this will quickly become distant memories, as everyone becomes experts!