QR Cautions

I am assuming you are aware of Quick Response codes. They are those pixelated squares you see in a lot of places these days. Sometimes they are on products. Sometimes on store windows. Sometimes on business cards, vehicle wraps -- in short, almost anywhere you can post a graphic, you may find a QR code. For those of you who are not as familiar with them I will first explain what they are.

These squares of code are meant to be read by the scanning app or function on Smart Phones and iPhones. The scanner reads these in the same way they read bar codes. The main difference is that when a bar code is scanned, you are taken to product information. If I scan a bottle of ketchup, I will see information about the brand of ketchup I have scanned, including the number of ounces in the bottle, where I can purchase it and what I may expect to pay for it.

If I scan a QR code, my scan will take me to a specific web property of some sort, such as a company's website. I attended a festival last summer at which I saw a QR code on the temporary cardboard waste containers set up throughout the festival location. The QR code would take me to the site for the waste disposal company that had placed the containers. An auto dealer had an exhibit booth set up at the festival and near that booth there was a new car covered by a wrap advertising the dealer. Here and there on the wrap was a QR code leading to the dealer's website. At an arts festival, signs were set up beside each artist's booth and on that sign, along with the artist's name and medium was a QR code. If you scanned the code, you were taken to the arts festival's website and to more information about the particular artist you were viewing.

These are some of the many imaginative uses for QR codes. BUT - I am writing this blog entry to warn against using QR's on billboards. My first warning light came on when I was driving in a city and saw a billboard beside the road. The billboard had a large QR code on it with the invitation written beside it to "Scan This Code with Your Smart Phone". The problem was not that a smart phone can't scan and read the code from that distance. It wasn't far. The problem was that the billboard was about a hundred and fifty feet frrom an intersection with a traffic light.

Do you see any problem yet? Being the curious creatures that we are, and especially equipped with cool new technology like a multi-function smart phone, we are prone to want to use that  technology (think "texting while driving") to attempt to scan the offer on the billboard 1.) while driving, 2.) near an intersection controlled by a traffic light. I would have to take my eyes off the road long enough to get my phone focused on the QR code and for it to scan the code, and then read the results. All happening while the traffic light is changing to red. The kicker is that the QR code took you to the site of an auto collision company! Talk about generating business!

I have seen another billboard QR code placed on a two lane state route, on a curve at the outskirts of a city. This code led to a military recruitment site. If you survived long enough to enlist, maybe that was a sign of the courage the recruitment staff was looking for. Or eye-hand coordination. Or quick reflexes. Or collision avoidance skills.

There are also limits to the scanner's sensitivity, so placing one on a billboard that sits a quarter mile away from the road across a cow pasture might not even work.

Bottom line advice:  Don't use QR codes on billboards in most circumstances. At least not along roads. Keep your billboard message to the basics:  Attention, Interest and Branding. And do it safely. The goal is to gain customers, not to endanger people.