Interactive bar codes are increasingly seeing use in magazines, and they’ve even begun getting traction in mainstream publications. Meredith Corp. has used Microsoft tags in publications like Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, and Family Circle, and claims that of people who snap on the ads, 10 percent to 20 percent view or use the ad in some way.
MRI reports that from January to August, five percent of 72,000 ads had QR or snap codes, up from 1.3 percent in the second half of 2010. Five percent of those that saw the ad snapped a picture with their cell phone.
14 percent who saw an ad visited the advertiser’s website and 20 percent of readers who saw an ad with a scent strip tried the strip, to compare to QR code engagement. Those sorts of engagements are more established, however, while QR codes are relatively new and may require the user to download software to access the code.
Pure engagement and benefits of QR codes is difficult to measure, however. 52 percent of readers read or saw an ad with a mobile barcode, which below the 54 percent who saw any ad.
Source: AdWeek
