I had written about . Specifically on the use of QR codes in print advertisements as early as 2010 (by Ford) and as recently as early this month, by ITC. The use-cases haven’t really evolved – they end up showing something that people would have far easily searched for themselves.
Here are 2 instances of QR codes in newspaper inserts! It makes particular sense to have QR codes because with some good thinking, they can ascertain the ROI of the effort, no matter how inexpensive or costly the tactic is.
For instance, Masala Mandi is a new restaurant near my place.
They have a 10% off promo running now and if this offer was exclusive to the recipients of the newspaper inserts alone, then it is easy to calculate the impact of the promo.
It is simply the total number of people who availed the offer vs. the total number of newspapers the ad was inserted in. And the QR code (though called barcode, which it is not) adds a layer of digital sophistication to what is simply people bringing the newspaper insert to the restaurant and showing it to the manager before ordering.
As for Decathlon, there is a QR code in the insert that I scanned takes me to a URL that is appropriately tagged as ‘offline’.
So, once again, the total number of visits to this particular URL vs. the total inserts (number of newspapers). Plus, there’s a booking option too on that page. So that can also help them track conversions.
This is good planning all through, by both the brands. It indicates that someone there has thought through this campaign fairly well and wants to make sure they are able to track the metrics appropriately.