QR Codes

Quick response (QR) codes have taken information at your fingertips to a whole new level. Smartphones have revolutionised the way we live and function - we can get hold of anything at the touch of a button. Sometimes I wonder what I would do without my blackberry, all be it a broken one and therefore have not had the chance to fully explore these QR Codes. As a concept I think they are fascinating, they seem to be on everything. I saw one on an events calendar, they crop up on walls, labels and the most recent - the job section in Marketing Magazine. A great place to see it used especially as most jobs are applied for online and it stands out from all the other wordy job ads and generates intrigue about the position and leads to potential further traffic on the site.

However now it's not just about what the code leads to but what you can do with the visual of the code to add further impact. As long as you keep certain elements unchanged the code should work, hence the range of designs below. It's pretty fascinating what you can do, I particularly like the Wired and Time QR codes, think they look amazing and very in keeping with their branding.

Tagged.

Everything nowadays has a tag or a label, so basically you can't escape from anything, where your going, who you were with, however sometimes it can work in your favour. Obviously great from a night out when your friend has the camera or you've been to an event, say like the white party... In the O2 arena there was a Smirnoff team milling around, their aim - get anyone with a facebook profile to log in on their tablets and you get a band. This band was scanned and links to you.

So the people who were initially getting you to log into Facebook are at the event for the whole evening, their second aim - taking photos of you at the event. Once photographed they scan the band, Smirnoff uploads the photo's and you are automatically tagged. I thought this was a great marketing ploy, Smirnoff get photographs and peoples profiles are updated without them having to lift a finger. The only downfall was the image quality which is more of a technical spec however disappointing to see a bit of a blurred image the next day. Facebook has become this immense hub of not only social activity but is now a huge online presence for brands. Companies not only have their own pages that you can 'Like' but they use it for competitions and regular updates. Facebook literally has the world eating out of its hands, if you don't have a friends number you can always get them on Facebook in as quick time. The other small detail which was a great novelty was the Smirnoff lights... Guys walked out with huge glowing tubs of these little rings - glowsticks are so last year. Rubber ring loops (one size fits all), on and off switches and a crowd full of people all dressed to the white theme with white lights adorned on their hands. It looked amazing.