QR codes in the wild
Last night we had a big Christmas campus event. It was a lot of fun and tons of students and alumni were here. So I decided to take the opportunity to see how QR codes might fare in the wild, with no explanation or help from me.
I used a QR code generator to make several text-based QR codes. They were all just silly quotes from Christmas movies or other Christmas themed ideas. I taped them up around the student center with no instruction or explanation.I thought perhaps the fact that we are an Apple campus, where every student is issued an iPhone or an iPod touch would increase the likelihood of our students having a clue.
This wasn’t a perfect experiment. 
If I really wanted to get measurable results, I would have embedded a URL to open on their phone that I could track. And I might still do that at some point. But this was just testing the waters for future ideas.
I’d like to think I’m a fairly tech savvy person, but my own history with QR codes made me wary. I didn’t realize til last week that I could read QR codes with the google app on my phone.
So anyway, I was kind of hoping that if someone realized what it was, they would tweet about it. In the grand venn diagram of demographics, I figured those who knew what to do with a QR code and those who tweet would likely overlap.
Friend and recent alum Spencer G sent this to me last night via twitter- “I saw your QR codes! Sadly I had nothing to scan them with… No QR app on my phone right now.”
Now, Spencer is quintessentially my target audience. VERY tech savvy, young, engaged with our brand, so that was very telling to me. Then he later said, “Yeah, I saw some people pointing at them and talking about them… but I’m not sure they knew why or what to do.”
And that sums up what I was kind of anticipating. My thoughts are still tumbling around, and I haven’t given up on QR codes yet. They’re still up, and I have some plans to put more up. We’ll see- I’ll keep you updated!
Great post on testing the QR code waters. On some campuses, it is already a big thing and at others it is still uncharted territory. Great way to test the idea. I definitely think it would be worth it to try to get trackable and measurable results so that you can see if this is something worth using.
I know bit.ly has a QR code generator that you can use. They track click through results too, just like their URL shortening link tracking.
Ann,
I have been working with QR codes for about 2 years now. I think you can do a lot with tracking and analytics, but I also find that the stories that tend to stick out are the small number of people that go out of their way to tell you what a great experience they had.
I run 2 websites. 1. QrArts is my business, and QR1337 is where I explore then for art and social experiments for personal fulfillment. Good luck, and keep your enthusiasm and curiosity.
Best,
Patrick Donnelly