Quick response demanded

Once considered a gimmick in the print sector, QR codes are now serious business and are increasingly being embedded in billboard ads, retail graphics, signage, property boards, CD sleeves, T-shirts, magazines, anyplace in fact where additional information about a product, service or offer is required.

For those unfamiliar with such matters, a QR code is a two-dimensional (data matrix) bar code that can be decoded by camera-equipped mobile phones almost instantaneously. (The vast majority of smart phones come with a QR reader pre-installed, and for those that don’t, well, the appropriate app can be downloaded for free).
Originally developed in Japan, QR codes were initially used for tracking car parts in the automotive industry. Their move into the mainstream has been driven by the advancement of mobiles as QR codes provide the easiest route for mobile phone users to get onto the Web. This procedure is all very straight forward – a mobile phone user simply captures or scans the QR code using a QR reader application and is immediately redirected to any website, phone number, SMS text message or text description without having to type or search for the correct link. Seamless. In order to facilitate this, all that needs to happen is that the QR code itself has to be printed onto any surface, substrate or material where it can be clearly seen, so that it can be read by a mobile.

Unlike a traditional bar code – its skinny, vertically poised, older sister – a QR code holds far more information. QR codes for example are capable of encoding the same amount of data in approximately one-tenth of the space of a traditional bar code. This is in part due to the fact that QR codes use both vertical and horizontal lines. You can also scan QR codes from any position as the way they are printed ensures that they understand how to read multiple angle scans.

Marketing metrics have always been an imprecise science and the bane of marketing managers around the world, but QR codes have the ability to bring a preciseness that can be measured in real time. QR codes are totally trackable, so you can see who is responding, when and where, which means you can adjust current or future campaigns and strategies.

It’s not surprising therefore that brands are buying into this space. International fashion and lifestyle house Calvin Klein got itself noticed in a novel way last autumn with its first use of QR technology to create awareness for the launch of its new X jeans.

The company removed a select few of its risqué trademark billboard ads in New York and L.A replacing them with giant red and white QR codes that teasingly invited the public to ‘get it uncensored.’ Once scanned, this code unlocked a rather gritty, black and white, 40-second Jeans X commercial featuring Dutch model Lara Stone, a gaggle of bare male torsos and an outdoor basketball court. The ad could then be shared on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The company responsible for powering the backend of CK’s QR campaign is The Ace Group in New York. “The number of hits was staggering - very exciting numbers,” says The Ace Group VP sales and partner Val DiGiacinto.
These codes, which are the largest printed QR codes ever seen in the US, were initially put up for a week but the response was so good that they were kept up for a further week and a half. From billboards to phones to social networking sites, the campaign was a global phenomenon and says DiGiacinto, is still generating hits on the desktop.

This QR campaign has proved to be a real turning point in the way that Calvin Klein promotes itself. This spring for example, it has launched a global campaign across multiple digitally integrated platforms – on-line, mobile, print, and outdoor – for the ck one brand. This represents the largest digital initiative in the company’s history to date.
For The Ace Group the adoption of QR as a core business solution is a continuation of the company’s long running business ethos – in order to stay in business proactive, dramatic change is necessary.

“Agility,” says DiGiacinto “is a favourite word of ours. You have to be agile to make the changes required to stay in business. You have to do what’s natural and what feels good. Of course technology is very important, but people are more important still.”

Now a division of dg3, The Ace Group has been trading since the 1970s, starting out as a typographic studio and then in 1989 making the changes necessary to become a pre-press bureau. It became a pioneer of digital printing adding digital variable data in 1995 and subsequently digital large format capabilities.

Three and a half years ago, QR codes entered the company’s consciousness. Although widely popular in Japan, the company sold none in the US during the first year. “There was zero awareness,” says DiGiacinto. However, the powers that be at The Ace Group believed they had seen the future and set about building the correct infrastructure such as software development and bringing in skills and personnel to support this transformational evolution.

Recognition for its QR codes was ignited at the National Baseball Association (NBA) All Star’s Game last spring where a 100,000 strong crowd was invited to scan the QR code that was displayed on the 3,500 plus HDTVs around the stadium. Once a fan had scanned the code a coupon was sent to their phone inviting them to go and redeem a free collectable All Star’s badge held at the main retail point in the stadium. 10% of the crowd responded to the QR call in a six-hour period and all the free badges were redeemed. This was the NBA’s first foray into QR under the instigation of The Ace group and it demonstrated to the NBA how the public was more than happy to respond to mobile promotion.

Just as Ace had excited NBA about the possibility of QR codes, it did the same with the Philips-Van Heusen Corporation, parent company for Calvin Klein, and soon after began working with Calvin Klein and its advertising agency to create the fashion brand’s first QR campaign.

From a business perspective, says DiGiacinto, QR has helped The Ace Group interact with its customers in a different way. “It allows us to speak to a different level of personnel such as heads of marketing and vice presidents. We now talk to those that work at the top and this eventually filters down to procurement, the level we would traditionally target,” he says.

As well as reaching higher and deeper into organisations QR capability has ensured significant knock-on benefits throughout the company.

“We no longer talk about print. Our print – commercial, wide-format is a value added service. We target the senior level, the people who set the plans in place to steer business,” says DiGiacinto.

The Ace Group handles all aspects of a QR campaign in-house from codes to landing pages and metrics software. Often if it is handling a campaign, it’ll also get all the print work associated with it from small format variable data to magazine direct mail inserts, posters and building wraps if needs be. Clients like the one-stop shop approach and the company enjoys a high rate of repeat business.

The amount of digital print work the company does on the back of its QR work is significantly higher. “There is no way if we were selling our large-format print traditionally that we would get the amount of work that we now do. “Our revenue from print far exceeds the revenue we make from the QR codes. Once a branded code has been created it needs to go on all collateral,” says DiGiacinto. “QR marketing has breathed new life into printed artifacts. Print is moving faster, it is an integral and integrated part of our growing mobile life.”

Where the US goes, the UK follows and the past year has seen a number of well-known brands engage with this emerging concept.

Robin Adams UK sales and marketing consultant for the Alpha Graphics network of independently-owned print and marketing franchises believes that critical mass for QR codes in this country is likely to be 2014.

And while QR marketing has generally been lauded as a great opportunity and source of additional revenue for print companies, he believes the excitement surrounding it needs to be tempered by serious investment in training, new staff and/or co-operation with new media designers and the like.

“QR codes themselves aren’t really what matters,” says Adams. “They are just a doorway. The challenge is what happens when you get to that doorway? Consumers can be put off if a link doesn’t work or if information is not mobile optimised,” he says.

To help its 260 plus independent franchises which stretch across the UK, USA, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia, Alpha Graphics is currently establishing partnerships with Web designers and new media companies – putting the tools in place for its franchisees to take advantage of if they so wish.

Companies in the Alpha Graphics chain run their businesses independently, however, the message from the corporate owner is that QR marketing will in a short space of time become part and parcel of common global marketing parlance.

In just the way that The Ace Group reinvented its core business model to become a pioneering leader in this field, Adams believes this is exactly what printers large-format and otherwise must do to be contenders within this new interactive multi-dimensional landscape.

“Companies need to adapt to realities of marketing communications and must invest accordingly,” he says. “Those that look ahead and do this are providing themselves with a great platform from which to expand and grow in the future.”