Archive for the ‘QR codes’ Category

It is great to see that text message marketing is the most popular activity used by marketers followed closely by QR Codes.

Smartphone use hits 43% in USA

According to new third-quarter 2011 data from Nielsen, 43% of U.S. consumers now own smartphones — up 5 percentage points in the past six months. Within that 43%, according to Nielsen, Android has 43% of the market and the iPhone has 28%, i.e., “exactly where they were three months ago,” Fortune points out.

“In the rapidly growing U.S. smartphone market, Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone seem to have reached a steady state,” Fortune writes. “What is changing is the rate at which different age groups are switching from dumb phones to smart ones.”

Young adults, in particular, are now more likely to own a smartphone. Indeed, 62% of U.S. consumers ages 25-34 who own any kind of mobile phone now own a smartphone, according to Nielsen. Among 18-24 and 35- to 44-year-olds, the smartphone penetration rate is about 54%. Meanwhile, about 40% of teens 12-17 years old, and 40% of 45- to 54-year-olds now report owning a smartphone. Also of note, the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64.

Advanced Telecom Services has been very active in providing custom QR codes for its marketing partners. 

Thanks to TMC Net for their article about our work that we’ve done in the custom QR code market.

Custom QR codes drive usage and brand your product.

One of the many custom QR codes developed by Advanced Telecom Services.

Advanced Telecom Services announces its new ATS QR code service that provides 2D barcodes to businesses and organizations.

With ATS QR Codes, products and organizations can brand their QR codes with easily recognizable logos and graphics.  This gives added emphasis to the QR code and enables it to better represent the brand or product and stand out in the advertisement to secure larger amounts of scans from consumers

“One of the raps against QR codes has been that it is nothing more than a square box of squiggly black and white lines that don’t represent one brand over another,” said Bob Bentz, president of Advanced Telecom Services.  “With ATS QR codes, we create appealing custom design QR codes that enhance the look and feel of the customer interaction.”

According to Bentz, QR codes have been one of the hottest sellers in its portfolio of mobile marketing products in the last few months.  Companies are purchasing them mostly because of the unique design, but also because Advanced Telecom Services can also provide turnkey mobile integration with capabilities to customize a mobile web site.

“We emphasize the importance of looking like your brand from the outside and the inside,” added Frank Mazza, lead designer for Advanced Telecom Services’ QR code division.

QR codes were invented by Denso-Ware, a subsidiary of Toyota, in 1994, to track parts for vehicle manufacturing in Japan.  The bar codes have been popular in Japan and Korea for many years, but are more recently becoming part of marketing efforts in the United States and Canada.

In Canada, QR codes are used on the front page of the Canadian passport application to speed up the processing of new passports.  United Airlines, among other innovative airlines, use QR codes as boarding passes.  And, when you sign up for Google Places, you’ll receive a decal QR code for your front door that links visitors to your web site.

Advanced Telecom Services has developed QR code promotions for companies and organizations such as Radio One, Subway, and St. Joseph’s University.  The Wayne, Pennsylvania company has been in business since 1989 and operates international offices in Toronto, London, Dublin, Prague, and Bratislava.

Advanced Telecom Services is a provider of QR codes to its mobile marketing customers.  The QR code below was used by WPPZ, a Radio One station in Philadelphia.

I’m sure you’ve seen them.  They are those little boxes with the black and white squiggly patterns inside of them.  You see them on packaging, at the airport, and in magazines.

Scan them and, bingo, you get something on your cell phone.  It’s the latest mobile marketing craze and they are called QR codes.

A QR code is a specific matrix barcode that is readable by dedicated barcodes readers that are most commonly contained on smart phones.  They have been popular in Japan and Korea for many years, but are just beginning to have a significant impact in North America.

QR codes are a great way for a consumer to obtain more information about a product on his cell phone.  The content might be a video about the product, more detailed information that is available on the item, or even a shortcut to download an app.

You are right that not everybody in the country has a smartphone. In fact, according to The Nielsen Company, 31% of Americans own a smartphone.  That figure jumps to 45% for Asians and Hispanics whose population is younger than that of Whites and Blacks.

While QR codes are certainly sexy and fun to use, the lack of penetration for them means that a marketer should offer a text message marketing program in addition to the QR codes.  Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on at least 69% of the American market.

One of the criticisms of QR codes that have been made is that they suffer from a lack of branding, whereas text message marketing has the distinct ability to brand with the proper keyword. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

QR codes do have the ability to increase brand recognition by inserting a company logo within the QR code.  Since only 40% of the QR code display is actually utilized to determine the destination of the code, savvy companies are inserting visible branding within the code itself.  That gives the company the coolness factor of the QR code plus the branding value.