Lately you might be seeing small black and white barcode looking images appearing on books, magazines and even name badges. Earlier this year I purchased a book and happened to catch one of these images on the dust jacket and found myself wondering what the deal was.
These little black and white tags, like this one, are called QR (Quick Response) codes. These neat little codes work very similar to bar codes. They contain different types of information, either text, a URL or even vcard information. If you have a smartphone, there are many different types of applications that you can download for free that allow you to aim your phone’s camera at the code and then will interpret the information contained in it.
The code on the dust jacket of the book that I purchased directed my phone to a website with an exclusive preview of the upcoming book in the series.
How neat is that?
After noticing that code and getting my first smartphone (happily running Android) I’ve noticed these neat little codes popping up everywhere! Even Microsoft has started jumping into the craze with their version called “Tags”. These are colorful and customizable as well! Keep an eye out for one of those neat Tags on our new 2011 catalog that we’ll be sending out at the end of the year.
In the meantime I began to wonder how these codes could work with name badges and thanks to an event that I’ll be working this weekend, I hit on an idea.
Convention goers rely on their schedules quite a bit. Those who work conventions need to keep track of where they have to be at specific times to run panels or events. Convention attendees can often be seen with schedules in hand, circling the events and panels they’d like to attend. Woe to both groups of folks if their carefully marked schedules are lost!
The idea that struck me was what if there was a way to be able to always have a copy of the current and up-to-date schedule handy on your phone? What would be easier than trying to always remember the URL of the site where you would be able to look that up? How about a QR code on the convention badges themselves that, when scanned, would download the current PDF schedule to the phone?
After a little bit of discussion and experimentation I found myself holding these rather sharp looking Nashville style badges with a working QR code on the back. Sure enough, when I tested them, the schedule opened without a single problem on my phone. That will come in pretty handy this weekend as I make sure that each event that I’m running gets started on time.
Curious to see one of these neat badges and how the QR code works on it? Drop us a line or email with that sample request! If you’ve used QR codes in your promotions I’d love to hear about it! We’re curious as to what other uses people are finding for these creative codes.
Tags: badge, bar code, code, convention, name badge, nashville, QR Code, scan, tag
[...] in October we posted about QR codes and how we first printed them on convention badges with a link to the current convention sc…. Folks didn’t have to carry around a booklet or piece of paper, they could just scan the code on [...]