A few months ago we made a conscious decision to change the way we released substantial improvements to the ShareSquare platform. What we’d once shout from the rooftops we opted to begin shrouding behind the enterprise veil.  There were two reasons for this: the first was an annoyance; the second, an epiphany.

#1 – Flattery Wears Thin

We’d never devoted much time to looking over our shoulder, but at some point it began to feel like a cottage industry of fast-followers had sprung up behind us.  What we’d initially dismissed as evidence of market validation suddenly appeared to become a reverse-engineering hot pursuit.  Since even the outright clone attempts were missing the big picture (a real platform is more than the sum of its parts), this was still just a nuisance.  Until…

#2 – The Pieces Come Together 

Creating a QR code is not QR code marketing.  Making a mobile website is not mobile engagement.  Having analytics is not a feedback loop.  The devil, as they say, is always in the details.

Our epiphany arrived soon after we began to witness our humble hodgepodge of objective-oriented features and innovative non-technical CMS modules taking shape into a true platform for offline-to-online mobile engagement; one that could effectively multiply the entire lifecycle value of even the biggest marketing efforts, start to finish, and beyond.  

Basically it was like hand-building a roadster in the garage, then startling ourselves when we heard the engine roar for the first time.

In the last 3 months we’ve been under the hood tuning this machine, making upgrades, and putting it on the racetrack with a selection of the world’s best entertainment and brand marketers.  And frankly, we’ve been excited to keep this baby under wraps.  But the time is approaching to unveil our little engineering marvel to the world, if only to let a lot of folks out there realize they’ve been dealing with lemons.

Hopefully that assault of metaphors didn’t knock you senseless.  Stay tuned.  We hope that what’s coming next still might.

Yours in silence,
Matthias

Yup, that’s our freshly updated bespoke UI… for a mobile web app that you can make in minutes, with no coding!  Who needs native apps, right?  ShareSquare is fast approaching the point where you may have trouble telling the difference.

But we didn’t do it just to make them prettier: every tweak is a data-driven optimization for better performance across all mobile devices.  So your offline-to-online campaigns will benefit from more engagement and conversion than ever before.  Bigger more vibrant submit buttons?  82% lift in user submitted emails. Improved landscape mode?  On average, an additional 43 seconds of user engagement. How?  We spend every day scheming up new ways to up the ante on this best-of-breed platform for connecting your band, brand or business with the offline audience that loves you (or soon will).

And yes, the Scarface Limited Edition Blu-ray just dropped on Sept. 6.  Much like Tony Montana, ShareSquare is all about “The world, chico.  And everything in it.”

The World is Yours,
Matthias

So even if you fancy yourself a QR guru, how confident are you with answers to questions like these:

• How big should the QR code be if you expect people to be scanning from 12-15 feet away?
• What’s an “indirect” code and why is it a terrible idea?
• If I customize the colors, how can I be positive the code’s contrast ratio is great enough to guarantee easy scanning?

We’d bet that even the self-proclaimed experts could benefit from some bathroom reading.  Plus, we’ll be continuously beefing up ShareSquare Resources as we keep honing in on the best case studies (especially when it comes brand, entertainment, music and event marketing).  Note that a few topics are inherently subjective, so we’ve called ‘em as we see ‘em, but feel free to contact us with feedback, insights, requests, or anything else you think would be helpful to address.  Else, we’re stoked to be leading this desperately-needed charge in QR code marketing best practices, in accordance with our Golden Rule of QR Codes:

Every campaign is defined by the value that lies beyond the QR code, and if you reward & delight the person that has taken the time to scan your code, you’re on the surest path to success.

Btw, for those interested in ShareSquare Enterprise, you’ll notice that we now ask you to “Call Us”.  (Existing Enterprise clients shouldn’t notice any changes.)  Echoing the above sentiments, we’re now opting to take a more “hands-on” approach for the big brands/studios/agencies seeking to seamlessly integrate the ShareSquare platform into their entire marketing mix.  If that sounds like you, contact us to talk about on-boarding support, strategic consulting, custom development and more.

Consumer-facing QR codes are hitting mainstream America hard this summer. Despite the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, many well-intentioned marketers are crippling their campaigns with simple mistakes.

This is a big reason why QR codes still get a bad rap from some folks. QR codes by themselves are fundamentally neither good nor bad, they’re just a means to an end: an offline-to-online delivery mechanism. It’s what’s beyond the code that usually determines whether the experience will delight or disappoint.

Unfortunately, many early adopter marketers aren’t yet fully versed in the best practices or optimal use cases. It’s the adventurous consumer that suffers from the growing pains.

Since I’ve spent the past 18 months waist-deep in this fast-developing market, I’m compelled to offer up my short list of basic mistakes to avoid at all costs. While heeding all these rules won’t make your QR code marketing great by itself, they will likely save you from some embarrassment.

Mistake 1: Not Testing the Code

This is the simplest way to spot scanning problems. For instance, a small placement (less than an inch) will often be too dense to scan if you’ve encoded a longer URL, but using bit.ly or goo.gl to automatically generate a short URL QR code is an easy fix.

Since QR codes feature up to a 30% error correction rate, there’s flexibility for creative branding and tweaks. But if the designer accidentally overdid it, test-scanning is an easy path to being the office hero that day.

For example, the above image is taken from “15 Beautiful and Creative QR codes.” While visually interesting, I’m fairly confident this isn’t scanable.

Mistake 2: Getting Too Fancy With Text

If your goal is to get people to a mobile web experience, you should only ever encode a short URL. Don’t include any plain text, since many barcode scanners (even gold standards like ShopSavvy) won’t tease out the link. If you’re hoping a user will copy/paste on a mobile device, don’t bet on it.

Think of the QR code as a physical hyperlink that every barcode scanner should be able to immediately “click.” If your QR code requires the user to do much more than point and scan to arrive at the intended content, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Take the image above. I love the Olsen twins as much as the next guy, but these QR codes result in the oft-problematic text string + link combo. Fail bonus: The site consistently turns up invalid security certificate errors.

Mistake 3: Serving up Non-Mobile Pages

Your QR code scans successfully but you’ve pointed the user to a standard desktop website, when 99.9% of QR codes are scanned by a mobile device. Fail.

Get acquainted with HTML5 to give your mobile web app that native app feel. You can either hire a developer to build your mobile site or use a non-technical modular CMS (content management system) like Paperlinks (or, ya know, ShareSquare) if it suits your campaign objectives.

This Coca-Cola QR code’s heart is in the right place (the MyCokeRewards program) but the resulting non-mobile website is all but impossible to navigate.

Mistake 4: Putting QR Codes Where There’s No Data Signal

Where your ad will run is just as important as how you implement it.

Tesco’s recent QR code “grocery store” in a Korean subway worked great because those platforms have Wi-Fi. This is not the case in the U.S. Placing QR codes in locations without Internet access is a sure way to make your audience upset. Make sure you know where the ads will be, and if possible, run tests to make sure they are visible and will still work.

For example, the Red Bull campaign QR code above was in a New York City subway, so I have no idea what it does.

Mistake 5: Not Offering Enough Value

This point is highly subjective but also probably the most important. The proper mindset is to reward the user for scanning your QR code. This “reward,” however, will change depending on what you’re trying to promote.

Try to avoid redundancy (a digital copy of your flyer), irrelevance or dullness (your company’s street address). Take the above image. The U.S. Marine Corps. QR code promises a cool experience but instead leads to a wallpaper download and a commercial.

When coupled with a clearly articulated call-to-action near the QR code, we’ve found the most compelling campaigns tend to offer one or more of the following:

• Exclusive rich media, videos and photos
• Exclusive or time-sensitive access
• Free downloads or swag
• “Instant Win” contests
• Special offers, coupons or gifts
• “Secret” information
• Deep integration with social media to activate viral loops

You’ve got their attention, why not let them buy your stuff right?

We’ve integrated with the Amazon API to make this as simple as possible.  Just grab the URL from your product’s detail page on Amazon…

Then copy/paste that URL into the CMS for your ShareSquare’s “Buy” module.  ShareSquare dynamically populates the module and does the rest!  (Bonus: we also make it easy for mobile visitors to share that product on Facebook or Twitter.)

Dig this?  Want to sell more stuff via ShareSquare?  Check out the new “Events” module to see how it can help you sell concert tickets, else drop us a line to let us know what you think.

And you can probably guess what this does and why it’s useful.  Previously, all ShareSquare mobile web apps displayed the Slideshow Homepage by default (example below), and it was up to your new fan to navigate through the tabs to discover what else you’ve made available as a reward for scanning.

But let’s say that you’d like the post-scan experience to better correspond to your specific offline call-to-action (like “Scan to See an Exclusive Video”), or maybe it just so happens that driving video views is your most important campaign objective.  Well you can now define any module to be immediately shown to a new visitor as soon as they land: thus, it becomes the “Landing Page” module.  In the example above, defining the Video module as the Landing Page would result in the screenshot below being the first thing a new fan would see upon scanning the ShareSquare QR code:

The new fan now sees what you want to them to see first, and they’re still free to explore the rest.  Neat right?

(Note: the selected module needs to be enabled for it to be defined as your Landing Page.  If it isn’t the Landing Page will just return to the default Slideshow Homepage.)

Setting it up is easy as pie.  Just take your Songkick Artist ID (if you don’t know it offhand, you can search for your artist listing on Songkick, it’ll appear in the URL as highlighted below)…

Then in your ShareSquare CMS, enable the “Events” module by defining the Artist ID…

And voila!  The fans scanning your ShareSquare will be able to see a dynamic listing of your upcoming events.  They’ll also be able to click through for details, in addition to immediately sharing this discovery with their friends on Facebook and Twitter.  Sweet right?

Dearest friends and well-wishers, stoked to announce a strategic hookup that’ll directly expose ShareSquare to the lion’s share of indie labels around the world.  Have a read if you’re keen, full press release below.

—–
(July 26, New York, Los Angeles) – The Orchard, the global leader in independent music and video marketing and distribution, and ShareSquare, the leading self-serve QR code marketing platform, announced today that they have joined forces to deliver the optimum QR social discovery experience for promoters and fans alike.

ShareSquare launched to the public following SXSW last March and has to date powered 2,500 offline-online campaigns in music, entertainment and brand advertising, generating over 100,000 mobile engagements. A wide range of artists, from Cypress HIll (who had the world’s first QR code on the end of a blunt) to the likes of Daedalus, Shlomo and Tokimonsta (wrapped their entire DipDive tour bus) have crafted custom calls-to-action by mixing and matching modules like Video, Download, Email Me and Instant Win. Ben Gross says:

“DipDive wanted to pair innovative musicians and a cutting edge technology to create a unique fan experience. Using ShareSquare QR codes in a nationwide interactive ‘scavenger’ hunt was perfect, because we could continue to encourage early adopters in both art and tech to interact with each other through social media and an out-of-home experience.”

Via this partnership and product offerings like HTML5 mobile web apps built specifically for incentivized social sharing through features like the Facebook “Like Lock“, ShareSquare will be able to measurably increase the marketing return-on-investment for The Orchard’s clients who opt in to this service.

Matthias Galica, ShareSquare’s Founder & CEO says, “Indie artists don’t have millions to spend on advertising but they know posters, stickers, download cards, merch, etc can be quite valuable. ShareSquare allows these real-world promotions to actually reinforce digital marketing efforts while finally providing metrics on effectiveness…even bringing accountability to street teams.”

In addition to the free service, ShareSquare offers Pro and Enterprise packages with premium options like Admob/Adsense banner injection and the ability to implement your custom HTML5 mobile web app as the mobile-optimized version of your own website with one line of code.

About ShareSquare
Headquartered in Los Angeles, ShareSquare is the leading platform for connecting offline audiences to the bands & brands they love, via QR codes & custom HTML5 mobile web apps, with real-time analytics. By using a simple self-serve CMS, a promoter or any “Out-Of-Home” marketer can create, track and optimize new real-world touch-points for engaging their fans with immediate gratification to activate offline-to-online viral amplitude. This makes a fan’s point of passion actionable: posters, stickers, packaging, t-shirts, and even billboards become gateways to video, music, contests, social media & more. For more information, visit http://getsharesquare.com.

But as we’ve had a handful of folks reach out to us for our take on last week’s Business Insider post “Death To The QR Code” it’s worth clearing some air.  Since Roger at 2D Barcode Strategy does an excellent job of taking it apart line by line, I’ve excerpted some of it below.  Below that is another excerpt from ShareSquare’s own Matt Carrasco and I finally I add a couple nuggets to bring it home.  (Apologies for the length of the post, feel free to skim.)

From: “Death to the QR Code – A Response“

DF: “Mobile barcodes can be confusing and can waste time. And as mobile technology progresses, they probably aren’t even necessary.”

2DBS: Most often, the only time that codes don’t work the way they were intended is when the advertiser has not fully thought through a 2D/QR code strategy and/or made use of best practices. Also, barcodes are only as confusing as an advertiser wants to make them. If an advertiser chooses not to explain and help educate the public on codes then, yes, they will be confusing. But, if the opposite happens, watch how fast the market then catches on.

DF: “Then there’s the complexity of creating and managing mobile barcodes on the advertiser’s end. And making sure different types of phones get the right kind of content. And the space the barcode takes up in the ad. And the decision about how much space in the ad to devote to instructing people what to do with the barcode, etc. By that time, you’ve spent more time teaching people what to do with the barcode than the time they’d spend doing whatever it is you want them to do. All that for what? Never mind the advertisers who have been putting QR codes on their ads underground — such as on the NYC subway — where there is no Internet connectivity at all.”

2DBS: With a little planning and knowledge, many of these issues become non-issues; let’s not blow them out of proportion. There are applications and companies that can help to optimize scan resolve content based on the device being used to scan the code. The space the barcode takes up need not be much more than one inch square. The space the instructions take are but two or three lines of copy, which can be in footnote size under or next to the code. With respect to placing codes in Internet dead zones, all an advertiser needs to do is get a handle on best practices.

DF: “So, what could be better? There are several options. The simplest could be just to ask people to do what the barcode was going to take them to, anyway. “Go to Facebook.com/mybrand.” Or “follow us on Twitter.” Or “find our closest store on Google Maps.” Or “download the MyBrand app from the app store.” That sort of stuff isn’t actually very tricky to type in. If you insist, you can even use a custom short URL for each ad placement, and that can get you some of the traffic measurement tools you were (theoretically) going to use mobile barcodes for. But, remember: The easier this is for people, the better — and the more likely it’s going to work.”

2DBS: Last I checked, many companies do not have an intuitive URL address for their Facebook and/or Twitter page, and the typing in of a URL, short or long, becomes that many more keystrokes than what 2D/QR requires (see comment above).

DF: “If you’re going to ask people to photograph something, you might as well just let them photograph the whole thing. Image recognition is getting good enough — and servers fast enough, and apps smart enough — to recognize the whole thing you’re taking a picture of, instead of asking someone just to zoom in on a barcode. Even if that “whole thing” is an ad. For example, a recent Buick magazine ad encourages people to use the Google app’s “Goggles” feature for iPhone or Android to photograph the entire ad to “unlock” its interactive features. In our informal test, it worked quickly, on our first try — in low light. Perhaps Google will roll this out broadly.”

2DBS: There’s that word photograph again. No photo necessary with QR Codes. Yes, image recognition is here as a technology to consider and use, but what’s so very different than QR? A consumer has to find the appropriate app, launch it, scan the image and then wait to see the scan resolve. The steps are identical. In an informal test that I took using Digimarc image recognition technology none of the whole picture scans I took worked the first time, but they did the second time. So, who’s to say what works and what doesn’t work and why?

DF: “And in the future, if “near-field communication” mobile technology takes off, you may be able to just bump your phone up against a sensor to tell it to do something, whether it be to check you into a bar on Foursquare, take you to a website, or even pay for dinner. That’s faster and easier than a barcode, too.”

2DBS: Okay, so NFC does take off, what does that mean? Advertisers are still going to have to explain to consumers how the technology works. I sure hope they can find the space in their ads to do so. And, while I am not an expert on NFC, a question I have is, how can a NFC chip be reprogrammed? For example, say a Google Places NFC chip directs a consumer to a certain URL but, in time, the advertiser wants to change the URL to something totally different. How is this accomplished? With QR Codes the code can be reprogrammed on the back end with relative ease.

DF: “Big picture: Yes, obviously, barcodes have a place in the world. They are simple and cheap for commerce and logistics, and barcodes are widespread. There are cool consumer experiments where people use QR mobile barcodes for shopping in virtual supermarkets in Korean subway stations. And for now, they seem to be a novelty for some U.S. advertisers.”

2DBS: You are either for us or against us. You are either for 2D/QR or against 2D/QR? Mr.  Frommer, it sounds like you are hedging your bet here. As with any and all marketing related applications and/or technologies, they are not for everyone and they are not for every situation. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses, plus and minuses, and it is up to the marketer/creative to figure this out.

DF: “But as far as the future of advertising goes, particularly in the U.S., it’s hard to see them really taking off. Their utility hasn’t yet made up for their awkwardness.”

2DBS: I said it once and I’ll say it again, 2D/QR barcodes need only to be as awkward as an advertiser chooses to make them. By paying close attention to best practices and testing prior to launch, advertisers and consumers will do just fine by 2D/QR technology. Lastly, who’s to say what the future of advertising holds. In the early 1990s, did companies really know what to make of the Internet? No. Does it make sense to try and out guess the market? No. But a company certainly wants to spend the time and energy to stay current on things and know what options are available to them.

From: “Heavy on Conjecture, Lite on Research…”

As I’ve said at recent speaking engagements - Dan is mixing his objectives here in that QR Codes are not the panacea of all marketing needs. It is a tool to be used in the marketing mix. QR Codes are about pull marketing and lead generation. It is about making discovery portable from an offline placement to an online environment in a SoLoMo world (Social, Local, Mobile). It is about providing an optimized experience for mobile users with an HTML5 mobile web app that offers rich content, incentives, syndication, portability, relevance, timeliness, conversion, and more.

Finally My Big Picture Thoughts

I really like how Roger from 2D Barcode Strategy compares what’s happening here to the early days of the World Wide Web, which I read as: technologies like these in their infancy will suffer from early creators not getting it immediately right, so the casual observer may encounter some less than stellar examples that define early opinions.  (Especially since I like to say that QR codes are making the real world “clickable”.)  Back in the day this was a busted Geocities page with a dancing banana; today it’s a QR Code that directs to a non-mobile optimized experience or doesn’t deliver anything of value.

As a means to an end, the QR Code can be neither good nor bad by itself, it’s beyond the code where the real value (or lack thereof) lies.  And this is one of the biggest reasons we created ShareSquare: by incorporating a CMS and real-time analytics we’re able to bake in many of the best practices and curate the end-to-end QR Code campaign.  That way you can avoid some of the simple pitfalls that trip up even well-intentioned marketers without having to start from scratch every time.

I’ll make a similar point about NFC: despite the recent buzz it’s ultimately just a different way to connect offline-to-online.  In a mature market like Japan we can actually observe these technologies co-exist in complementary use cases, which makes me believe that NFC will settle in as the de facto mechanism for mobile payments while QR Codes will continue being one of the best gateways for pull marketing.  (Once NFC is ready for U.S. prime time that is – see my satirical April Fools’ blog on the topic here.)

Bottom line: haters’ gonna hate, and bloggers gonna hyperbolize to get ‘dem pageviews.  Well done QR codes are already delighting offline audiences with stuff like exclusive content, prizes and special offers; which correspondingly creates unprecedented new touchpoints for marketers to engage and capture that interest.  As consumer awareness penetrates mainstream America this will only continue to grow as an opportunity in the years to come.

If you’re an up-and-coming artist, you already know that getting featured by mySpoonful can be a great opportunity to break into some great exposure.  With this “Band of the Month” contest it just got bigger, plus you can win sweet prizes from folks like Sonicbids and yours truly, ShareSquare.  Heres the breakdown from the mySpoonful boys themselves:

We are very excited to announce the launch of the mySpoonful Band of the Month contest starting in July!  Now you can vote for the bands you like most and help them grow their audience!

Voting is easy – every time you receive a Featured Artist email from mySpoonful and like what you hear all you have to do is click the ‘like’ button.  You can vote for as many bands as you want each month. We’ll tally up the votes on the 15th of the following month and announce the winners the following week.

The winning band will receive a number of exciting prizes and promotional tools, including a second feature in a mySpoonful email, a press release announcing that they won, an annual Pro account from ShareSquare and a 6 month SuperSonic subscription to Sonicbids.

July’s contest started on July 1st and we are already three bands in – so make sure you show your appreciation for the bands you like.

You can sign up for the mySpoonful mailing list or submit yourself as an artist at http://myspoonful.com/.  Good luck and cheers to discovering sick new music!