I've been fascinated by QR codes since the very beginning, a couple of years ago. And I've always asked myself the same questions: how many people have the QR reader software installed on his/her mobile phone? How many people really understand there is something they can do and access to through that barcode? Is it really worth and cost effective to launch an action with QR codes (outside of Japan, of course...)?

The disappointing thing is that I'm still looking for relevant answers to the questions above. I keep reading about QR actions but it's impossible to get any number on the spread of QR enabled phones nor on the results of QR campaigns. To give you an idea of the lack of information in the industry and among consumers, I think it's interesting to read an article Ralph Lauren has published on its online magazine. A fashion brand that explains its consumers a technology... let me say that this is a bit curious, unless you have realized nobody has interacted with your QR code...

You could re-write that article and simply replace QR Code with RSS only that RSS is probably a little bit further in its lifecycle. I guess the key enablers are the phone companies. If they push that the QR code reader app is preinstalled and web access enabled on every phone and advertisers keep pushing, especially towards the younger audiences then we have a winner. Inevitable but will take time.

Posted by: Frank at November 4, 2008 09:11 AM

This is an interesting question.

I think that the Australian market will be a good test case as QR adoption has recently been taken up by the largest telco (Telstra). Telstra launched a large scale consumer education programme aimed at increasing awareness of the technology.

As a result we are now seeing significant advertiser adoption also,. However, it is thought that less than 5% of phones currently suppport QR.

Interstingly it has been taken up by some high end brands,not just the youth end, notably Lexus.

I would hypothesise that if the carriers and the media continue the education peice, and advertsiers keep on including it on the pack/ad etc. then it will gain traction.

Posted by: steve at November 4, 2008 10:23 AM

To answer (partially) to your question: the QR reader comes preinstalled on new Nokia mobile phones, at least on the business-line "E" Series (but I suppose also on the fancy "N" series).
And also, nokia makes available a very smart and easy "Matrix Code Maker": http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/create.jsp?terms=accepted

Posted by: Eugenio at November 4, 2008 11:17 AM

Great Post! I work with digital agencies (specifically media) in New York and I would easily say 80% of them don't even know what a QR code is.

I agree that mobile companies need to take the lead on introducing QR technology. For advertisers like Pepsi, they should release a commerical clearly showing how the code works/benefits the user. Apple did this with the iPhone and mobile websurfing - look how big that is in North America now.

Posted by: Alex at November 4, 2008 03:03 PM

Great post. As for adoption, I think that soon someone will concept a campaign that requires a QR code, which has such appeal, that QR ready phone owners (iphone, G1) will download the app to their device.

Until that time, it's going to be a slow roll out.

Posted by: Morgan at November 4, 2008 06:18 PM

I saw an interesting slide about Polo's campaign.It explains the process step by step and you can obviously see the poor user experience:
http://tinyurl.com/6jnk2t

Also you can look at Vespa�s QR code based campaign in Toronto. Its looking much better than Polo's:
http://tinyurl.com/5lgnek

Posted by: Fethi Uluak at November 4, 2008 10:40 PM

Hi there,
I am most certainly biased as we are in this business. But what I can tell is this. QR Code campaigns beat out SMS already here in Switzerland and Germany. And with every campaign this gets stronger and stronger.
And like with the iPhone, it's not the telcos doing the spiel, it's small companies as ours which do the job.

Posted by: Roger at November 5, 2008 08:35 PM

I run a QR code website in the UK and the visitor numbers are doubling month on month. There is a lot of interest in the QR code readers section of the website at the moment so consumers are gaining an active interest in the technology.

Posted by: Ian - QRMe at November 6, 2008 01:30 AM

I think photo-recognition will leapfrog QR technology in western countries - these MMS-based solutions require no software download at all..

Posted by: St. Mark at November 6, 2008 09:34 PM

Hi Guys.

Interesting post :-) I'm working at a media agency in Copenhagen and here our mobile experts have looked at some interesting software which works without installing software on your phone (It uses picture recognitions):

See it here: http://www.snaptell.com./index.htm

and a case study: http://mmaglobal.com/modules/article/view.article.php/2048

I think this could be the technology which could really help revolutionize the market.

Posted by: Lars M. B. Anthonisen at November 10, 2008 12:30 PM

I have done some pretty extensive research on this for some of our clients and pitch work.

To answer the question of QR reader install-base in the US, it is sub-one percent.

That said, expect to see major growth as adoption of android devices increases. Google's open source reader comes pre-loaded on the G1 and has been already been incorporated into several popular apps.

Posted by: Dan Neumann at November 10, 2008 05:11 PM

Bullying UK also uses QR technology as part of its award winning project Click, Create and Print www.bullying.co.uk/poster

Posted by: John at November 11, 2008 02:17 PM