‘Track and Trace’ has brought an old friend back to life. So how can we use this new beginning?

As the world  drew-up a  battle plan against Covid-19, one of the most powerful tools would be to be able to track the pandemic using the ‘track and trace’ methodology. So the sleepy QR code was woken up to fight another day. So it is not just about the re-purposing of this useful bar code that is the news story, more importantly it has become centre stage… or ‘front of mind’ in marketing speech! Suddenly the little scrambled square is not for puzzlement any more because it has become an everyday social friend. One scan and it is done!.

Simple beginnings

The origin of the clever square created by Masahiro Hara 26 years ago in 1994 is fairly well known. A Toyota subsidiary, Denso Wave, developed the code in order to help in the manufacturing process, to aid in tracking vehicles and parts. It was designed to allow for fast decoding speeds, hence the name Quick Response code. The modern-day QR code consists of seven elements which in total creates a pixel pattern that looks similar to a crossword puzzle. Each element has a specific purpose that conveys certain information through the code such as the read direction, timing, url, error tolerance, meaning that the camera device can orient the QR image and read the data without having to carefully align with the target. 

How can we benefit from this digital key for our marketing?

Although QR codes popped up in marketing material fairly recently for connecting print based material to a link for a website, landing page, a Youtube video and all sorts of digital connections, having to load an app added a touch of resistance in this world of instant access. Now with almost all devices QR friendly, there is no reason not to adopt this useful connecting tool.

One of our blog posts overviews the world of Direct Marketing and the power of content can be seen in the Hill Robinson HarbourR news magazine, one of our ‘case histories’. With the ‘ambient noise level’ in digital marketing channels building steadily, direct mail pieces can have the best of both worlds, printed for a long shelf life with multiple readership and digital connectivity throughout the material. But, you might say, do I really want to put those ugly squares on my high quality piece of sales material. The answer is simple, make them look pretty!

”any color as long as it is black”.

Developed in 2014, FrameQR Codes were developed to allow for more creativity to the look of QR Codes. QR Code Generator offers a wide range of possibilities for this, including the colour, shape, type, your logo, and much more. So let your creativity run wild…or better still talk to our creative team who can generate powerful direct marketing material and build in the softer QR codes to drive traffic to whatever digital message you like!

Roy Roberts November 2020