Tag: qr codes

QR codes generate hype from Taco Bell product packaging

| February 26, 2013

Taco Bell QR CodesThe ESPN College Football campaign used the barcodes to generate hundreds of thousands of scans.

The outcome of the ESPN College Football mobile marketing campaign have now been released by Taco Bell, which has revealed that the QR codes from their product packages were scanned 225,000 times in less than two months.

This marketing effort was part of the overall Bowl Championship series campaign.

Taco Bell feels that this achievement was a considerable one. This is not the first time that the fast food chain has run mobile marketing campaigns that have used QR codes. This time, it is receiving applause from many in the industry for the way that the barcodes were applied in order to generate the greatest amount of attention and use.

The QR codes were placed on the soda cups and the 12 pack taco boxes throughout the campaign.

Those items could be scanned using a smartphone and any scanner app designed for reading QR codes – of which there are many available for free. When a customer scanned the barcode, he or she was redirected to analyst Mark May’s previews that were presented for the upcoming games in the series. The initial launch of this campaign was on December 20, and it ran right through until February 3.

The QR codes saw periods of higher and lower popularity, coming to a high point as the games were actually taking place. However, after January 7, there was not as much attention seen by the barcodes, simply because the National Championship Game had already been played by that point. This was, however, a matter of context and the company does not at all consider it to be a failure of the campaign.

Behind the management of the QR codes was Snipp Interactive. Its CEO, Atul Sabharwal, pointed out a number of elements that led to the success and high rate of use in the campaign. He also shared that he feels that this is a prime example of the true potential of these smartphone friendly barcodes as a “mobile response mechanism”. He added that “It’s even more impressive when you consider that this wasn’t a contest, sweepstakes or giveaway, which have traditionally always generated high volumes of responses.”

Mobile payments taken a step higher at Walmart

| February 25, 2013

Walmart mobile paymentsThis feature of the self checkout in store locations has been broadened through its app for iPhones.

Walmart has been testing its mobile payments feature through a self checkout process at some of its store locations has now announced that it will be broadening the pilot program to reach 40 stores in the Denver area.

The retail giant uses QR codes generated by an iPhone app, which can be scanned at a checkout terminal.

This allows the iPhone users to scan all of their own products while the cart is being filled, and then indicate when they have picked up all of the items that they intend to buy. At that point, a unique QR code is generated, and this can be scanned by one of the self checkout terminal devices in order to complete the mobile payments transaction.

Walmart has been investigating many ways to use mobile payments and mcommerce to its best advantage.

This effort includes not only looking into ways that customers can use mobile payments, but also simply to speed up the checkout process through its “Scan & Go” iPhone app. As of yet, none of these programs have been rolled out universally to all of its locations, but these mcommerce opportunities are being tested in a number of stores in the Denver area, as well as in Atlanta, Northwest Arkansas, San Jose (California) and Portland (Oregon).

This new app lets the consumer scan the products as they are being placed into the shopping cart or basket, eliminating the need to do so at the checkout counter. Once all of the items are scanned, the iPhone app creates a list of all of the products that have been scanned, and represents them with QR codes that can be used by the readers at the checkout terminals. This allows the various traditional and mobile payment options to be presented to the consumer.

Walmart stores have been focusing heavily on mobile payments and particularly on self checkout since October 2012. It was at that time that the retailer announced that NCR would be the checkout terminal vendor for the tests as well as for the complete American rollout, which is expected by the end of 2013.