Tag: qr code technology

Visulead has just unveiled its brand new technology to fade out the appearance of the standard 2d barcode.

Though marketers have fallen in love with QR codes because of their cost efficiency and the fact that consumers can use them very easily through a regular smartphone, ad and graphic designers have struggled with these black and white squares that aren’t all that appealing to the eye.

A startup company has just released its latest technology to help overcome that issue.

Visulead, a startup based in Israel, has now produced a technology that can “fade” the look of typical QR codes in order to make them more visually likeable in printed marketing materials. The hope is that it will help to grow their popularity even further, and to encourage more people to use them.

This technology from Visulead is still evolving so that nearly invisible QR codes will be more attractive with time.

The standard black and white squares can currently be seen on virtually everything, ranging from product packages to billboards and poster ads. However, these QR codes stand out as blocky and can often not be well suited to the ad that they accompany.

With the new technology from Visulead, the typical appearance of the QR codes can fade out by up to 70 percent. This is the second generation of its design, which is patent pending at the moment. However, the evolution hasn’t stopped there, as the third generation is expected to be released within the next few months. That even newer technology, says the startup, will fade the barcodes even more, until they look like very little more than a box that can be scanned.

The CEO and co-founder of Visulead, Nevo Alva, explained that “We think of our product as the ultimate marriage of QR code and image recognition technologies; essentially, an invisible QR code.” The latest version of the nearly invisible barcode is meant to be used by marketers and advertisers. However, it is still possible for individuals to head to the company’s website and create their own.

The free QR codes do come with an intermediary short landing page before the user is directed to the actual destination of the scan. Small businesses choosing this option can opt to have that middle step removed for a per-code fee.

German Maestro revealed its latest support for retailers through in-store mobile marketing.

German Maestro, a company that specializes in audio technology such as speakers and headphones, unveiled its latest consumer experience enhancement at CES, when it announced its latest program for helping to educate customers through QR codes located on product displays.

This is a continuation of last year’s “Ask Me” program which empowered retailers to educate consumers.

The Ask Me program was created to provide the sales reps at the retail locations with an improved capability for educating consumers who are interested in the brand or products, or who have questions that need to be answered in order to make a purchasing decision. The success of that program has encouraged the company to extend it with the assistance of consumer smartphones.

This year, German Maestro revealed that it would be using QR codes that lead to videos, as well.

The president of the company, Ray Windsor, explained that German Maestro is hoping that the consumer will be able to experience the brand in an enhanced and interesting way right from the moment that he or she enters the store, even if the sales rep has not yet had the opportunity to reach the point where that individual happens to be standing.

According to that company, the answer they were seeking was in the smartphones that those consumers carried, in combination with QR codes that could be strategically positioned within the stores. This allows the brand to combine the mobile and in-store experience for an improved overall experience for the customer.

The QR codes are positioned on the product displays for German Maestro products within the retail stores. Therefore, regardless of whether or not a representative from the retailer has reached the consumer in order to assist him or her, additional information about the brand and the specific product is available.

When a customer uses a smartphone to scan the QR codes for the products, they will be automatically directed to a 90 second video that will provide general information about the brand as a whole, as well as its partners. Once that is complete, it will bring the customer to the brand’s website, on a page that provides information about the specific product that has captured the attention of the shopper.

According to Windsor, what the company is aiming to achieve through the use of the QR codes is to “try to herd the consumers into the brick and mortar guys, because that’s where the value add comes, we believe, in delivering our brand to market.”