QR Codes Now the Most Used Mobile Channel for Engaging Customers

by david

It's no secret that QR Codes have come a long way over the last 12 months and that consumers are adopting them enthusiastically. In fact, this year for the first time ever, we are seeing campaigns that have generated over a million scans using the ScanLife platform. Reputable magazines, such as The Economist, have openly discussed QR and admit that "QR Codes have quietly slipped into the marketing mainstream". Now, according to the latest Econsultancy report (based on a survey of more than 650 US companies and agencies carried out in April and May 2012) "1 in 2 marketers are using QR codes to encourage their customers to interact with their brand",  up from just 8% a year ago. This positions QR Codes as the most used mobile channel for engaging customers, surpassing other mobile channels such as mobile applications (35%), mobile commerce (29%), mobile optimized emails (29%), SMS marketing (26%), location-based marketing (17%), MMS (7%) and NFC (2%).

At ScanLife, we see this trend as a great opportunity but also as the logical consequence of irreversible technology trends. What we mean is that marketers can no longer ignore the mobile space, just like it wouldn't make sense to ignore the digital space. Whatever the technology may be, (today with QR Codes, tomorrow with something else) marketers must come together to define the key success factors of mobile engagement, develop benchmarks and share best practices and case studies. If you'd like to be part of this adventure, please join the "Exchanging Smarter Ideas on Mobile Engagement" LinkedIn group.